The last shoot before Christmas attracted only seven die-hard archers, while the rest used the festive season as an excuse to dodge the dreaded Vegas round. The Vegas is comprised of 60 arrows, shot at a triple face target arranged in a triangular formation which must be shot in a specific order (bottom left, top centre, bottom right) and is the most difficult of all the Indoor rounds. Those shooting traditional or bare bows shot the larger single face WA 18, while junior James Hill shot a three spot Portsmouth.
Pete Mumford found himself unopposed in the Compound division which was just as well as he’d had a convivial evening the night before and was feeling a little tired. A string of 9’s and a few 7’s put a dent in his score, but he remained as cheerful as a lifelong Everton supporter could be.
In the Gents Recurve Ralf Mitchell was having a very bad day at the office with 20 misses to his name. Peter Howland was less than happy with the thirteen misses he notched up, but he took the win by a significant margin.
Lone female archer Barbara Harris, struggling with a lack of sleep, had to concentrate to get through the shoot. Harris ran out of steam at the beginning of the last dozen and was disappointed to have a miss with her third last arrow, but still managed to add 7 points to her pb for the round.
Barebow specialist Chris Crompton had a disastrous start missing with one of his first arrows but shot well for the remainder of the day to get within 6 points of his pb.
James Hill got off to a poor start, registering three misses in the first dozen, but once he had removed a duff arrow from his quiver his accuracy improved but the damage had been done and he was not pleased with his final score.
Colin Moore elected to shoot a Portsmouth in an effort to find the best fit of arrows for his Traditional bow. Moore shot the first two and a half dozen with one set of arrows before switching to a different set after the break. The first set proved to be the more accurate and Colin was pleased with his progress as he added 92 points to his pb.
Results Vegas Scratch: Gents Compound- P.Mumford 60/545/15. Gents Recurve – 1.P.Howland 47/369/3, 2.R.Mitchell 40/292/1. Ladies Recurve-B.Harris 59/530/14pb. WA18 Barebow -C.Crompton 59/444/6. U18’s Portsmouth 3/spot -J.Hill 56/467/14. Trad bow Portsmouth- C.Moore 60/455/5pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 