The weather forecast for Sunday predicted light wind, sun and high temperatures. The archers got that at precisely 4pm when they were packing up to go home, prior to that they had to endure the coldest, most challenging conditions of the season so far. Several Club members turned up in shorts, wondering if they had brought enough cold drinks with them. They spent the day huddled in fleeces and wind cheaters praying for the torture to end. The round of the day was a WA 1440 (36 arrows at each of four distances 90/70/50/30m for the Gents and 70/60/50/30m for the Ladies).
The archers found themselves contending with a brisk north-westerly wind which blew straight into their faces on the shooting line but swirled around at the target face. With the wind changing direction with each arrow it was impossible to compensate. Only the heavier poundages of the Gents Compound bows could cope with the conditions with any degree of accuracy at 90m, while the Recurve Gents could only watch in dismay as their arrows were swatted off target.
Pete Mumford and Rhys Moore found themselves in a straight head to head fight in the Compound division. Pete got off to the best start but then faded. Rhys struggled to find the middle of the target at 90m but was the more accurate of the two and amassed a 30 point lead by the end of the first distance. By the end of 70m Rhys had almost doubled his lead and victory was a foregone conclusion. Rhys coped well with the conditions but was disappointed to fall just short 1300 for the round but.
Alex Snell and Danny Cowin faced off in the Gents Recurve. At 90m it was more a case of who could miss least rather than who could score most, with Alex taking the honours. Both men posted identical distance totals at 70m which gave Alex an 18 point lead going into the afternoon session. Danny rarely managed to steer his arrows into the centre of the target but got all of the misses out of his system at 90m. Alex hit more 10’s over the course of the day but added to his tally of misses and was generally less accurate. By the end of the 50m Danny had overturned the deficit to lead by 6 points going into the final distance. Danny put in a disappointing 30m score, well below his usual standard but still did enough to take the win by 13 points.
Compounder Joy Gough and Recurver Barbara Harris kept each other company at the 70 and 60m distances. Barbara’s first 6 arrows looked promising, but she suffered an almost total loss of form from then on and posted her worst 70m total for over 5 years. Joy did not fair much better, falling well short of her usual standard. Barbara recovered her form at 60m but lost it again at 50, before recovering again at 30m to post another Bowman score. Joy likewise steadied at 60m before a couple of misses at 50m put a further dent in her score and meant that she could not reach her usual target of 1200. It was a day to be chalked up to experience.
The Juniors put up a better show however, with James Hill adding 5 points to his pb for the Long Metric I (70 & 60m), and Nathan Kinrade adding a magnificent 81 points to his pb for the Short Metric II (40 & 30m) in the afternoon session. It was great to see Jacob Brookes back in action and lovely to welcome newcomer Ollie Blockley to her first proper competition. Ollie’s opening score reflected her natural ability and singlemindedness and bodes well for her future in the sport.
Also shooting were Seniors Colin Moore (Compound) who shot a Long Metric I in the morning session but who could not improve on his score of the previous week and Ralf Mitchell. Ralf was shooting for the first time this season and was slightly handicapped by the fact that he had practiced the wrong distances on Club night and therefore had no proper sight marks. Ralf’s score card was as inaccurate his shooting. It took all of the Records Officer’s skill to decipher it and add the 23 points he had knocked off his score.
Results: WA 1440-Gents Compound- 1.R.Moore 144/1297/44/22, 2.P.Mumford 144/1228/47/16. Gents Recurve- 1.D.Cowin 137/879/5/1, 2.A.Snell 137/866/8/1. Ladies Compound-J.Gough 142/1164/24/9. Ladies Recurve-B.Harris 140/1053/3/3. Long Metric I- J.Hill 71/454/2/2pb. Short Metric II- 1.N.Kinrade 72/585/15/1pb, 2.J.Brookes 71/421/0/0. Short Metric IV- O.Blockley 72/599/16/3pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 