There was another good turnout at Onchan on Sunday, with fourteen archers in action over the course of the day. The round of the day was a Vegas for the adults and a Portsmouth for the Juniors, shot as part of the Handicap League.
The Vegas is a notoriously difficult round to shoot, in that the target faces are small ( scoring only down to 6) and they are arranged in a triangular pattern which has to shot in a particular order – bottom left, top centre, bottom right. It is all too easy to miss. Bare bow archers Colin Moore and Chris Crompton were given a larger single face WA 18 to shoot at, but after some encouragement from Colin, Chris elected to shoot the Vegas to see if he could break the Club record. The record had been set back in the mists of time by Pete Mumford and stood at 35/275/5.
Crompton opened with a miss but soon settled down and he broke the record with 23 arrows left to shoot. It was now a case of how much more he could add. In the event he added quite a bit, 177 points to be exact. Chris had never attempted the round before, or had any practice on the target face, so his accomplishment was amazing. On top of shooting a pb, shattering the Club Record, and embarrassing the Recurve men (who couldn’t outshoot him even though they had the benefit of sights and stabilizers), Chris also took the overall win once the handicap had been applied. Quite a morning for him. Colin Moore stuck with WA 18 face and secured second place after handicapping.
Elsewhere on the range other archers were achieving personal victories. Simon Kenyon shot the round for the first time. A disastrous last dozen put a dent in a promising score, but his efforts were good enough for third place after handicapping. Ralf Mitchell was delighted to add 64 points to his pb for the round and he finished fifth. Chris Addy shot the round for the first time and discovered just how difficult it is as he ended up bottom even after his score was adjusted by handicap. Peter Howland continued to struggle with his new bow and finished second last after handicapping.
Barbara Harris did her usual trick of posting the highest scratch Recurve score of the day, adding 12 points to her pb in the process but had to settle for fourth place overall.
On the Compound side of things Rhys Moore notched up another scratch win but only just. A poor final dozen from Rhys and a blistering one from Pete Mumford saw Pete get to within three points of the younger man’s score. After the handicap was applied, they tied for seventh place. Dave Moore had a miss in his first dozen but improved steadily over the course of the shoot. This year’s Club Championships look likely to be very interesting.
Joy Gough got within 7 points of her pb and would have been closer but for a lapse in the last dozen when she only managed to hit one 10.
Toby Young posted the best scratch score among the Juniors, with James Hill just 1 point behind him and Nathan Kinrade a further 16 points back. After handicapping James and Nathan tied for tenth place just ahead of Toby.
Results: 1.C.Crompton 1470 (55/452/10)NCR, 2.C.Moore 1469 (59/444/7), 3.S.Kenyon 1466 (51/424/10)pb, 4.B.Harris 1448 (59/542/28)pb, 5.R.Mitchell 1435 (44/356/4)pb, 6.J.Gough 1431 (60/540/12), 7.R.Moore 1429 (60/553/14), =7.P.Mumford 1429 (60/550/20), 9.D.Moore 1426 (59/546/18), 10. J.Hill 1425 (60/511/9), =10.N.Kinrade 1425 (60/495/9), 12.T.Young 1422 (60/512/15), 13.P.Howland 1386 (49/405/9), 14.C.Addy 1385 (28/239/2)pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 