An even dozen archers turned up for the Worcester shoot at the weekend. The Worcester is unique among Indoor rounds in that it has scoring zones from 5 down to 1 (instead of 10 – 1), and arrows are shot in groups of five rather than the standard three. Compound archers utilize a five- spot target (arranged in an X pattern) which only has the two inner rings on it (5 and 4) and therefore have a much smaller margin of error. The maximum score on a Worcester is 300, and the round was shot as part of the Club’s Scratch League.
Rhys Moore and Pete Mumford found themselves in a straight head to head shoot off in the Gents Compound. Both men have, in past seasons, shot maximum scores but neither of them was destined to repeat the feat on Sunday. Peter dropped 3 points in the opening 10 arrows as he struggled to see the black and white target in the subdued lighting of the sports hall. After that he dropped a couple of points each end bar one and was unhappy with his showing.
Rhys, despite a muscle injury which itself felt at full draw, had a perfect start, his first fifteen arrows finding the centre of each spot. It was a surprise then for him to drop 2 points with the next five arrows. Rhys bounced back with a further ten perfect shots before suddenly dropping another 4 points. He dropped another point with the last arrow of the day, leaving him the winner but disappointed with his efforts.
Joy Gough found the shoot heavy going and a miss in the fourth end did nothing to improve her spirits. She fought her way through the morning to record a season’s best score and then took herself off for a walk during the lunch break.
The largest field of the day was, as usual, the Gents Recurve. Four archers took to the shooting line hoping to capitalize on the absence of Alex Allen-Snell and Danny Cowin, to claim a scratch victory. Chris Addy put in a consistent round but had to settle for last place. Peter Howland never really got going, and found himself third behind Ralf Mitchell, who added 2 points to his pb to secure second place, and Simon Kenyon who won the round at his first attempt.
Lone Lady Recurve Barbara Harris decided to make things interesting for herself by shooting at a Compound five-spot target. The target seemed to be to her liking as she dropped just 1 point in the first ten arrows. Harris dropped the odd point here and there but was scoring heavily until the beginning of the eighth end when she had a miss. On the single face target, it would have been a 3 but she was not on the single face target. Barbara did not allow the momentary lapse to upset her rhythm and she went on to record the highest Recurve score of the day, adding 5 points to her pb for the round in the process.
Junior Recurve’s Toby Young, Nathan Kinrade and James Hill were also in action and pretty much shamed the adult Recurves with their prowess. James Hill and Toby Young outshot all the gents except Simon Kenyon, while, 13 year old, Nathan Kinrade outshot everyone to record the highest Male Recurve score of the day. In the fight amongst themselves Toby had to settle for third place behind James in second, who added 17 points to his pb, and Nathan who added 10 points to his pb on his way to victory.
Colin Moore, man of many bow types, brought his Longbow out of mothballs and shot a pb by virtue of never having used the Longbow on anything other than a Portsmouth.
Results- Worcester: Gents Compound- 1.R.Moore 60/293/53, 2.P.Mumford 60/289/50. Ladies Compound-J.Gough 59/281/45. Gents Recurve- 1.S.Kenyon 59/251/25pb, 2.R.Mitchell 59/220/11pb, 3.P.Howland 60/217/14, 4.C.Addy 60/205/11. Ladies Recurve-B.Harris 59/279/43pb. Junior Gents Recurve- 1.N.Kinrade 58/254/29pb, 2.J.Hill 59/247/25pb, 3.T.Young 60/241/18. Gents Longbow- C.Moore 50/143/6pb.
Apologies to Brandon Gough – his score for last week’s Orrell shoot should have been 471, not 47 as was stated due to idiocy by the Records Officer.
Isle of Man Archery Club 