The IoM Archery Club were once more hostages of the weather on Sunday. Rhys Moore’s assertion that conditions would permit a full day’s shoot proved hopelessly optimistic. The persistent drizzle at Greeba was unpleasant and no one wanted to get soaked setting up the field. The proposed WA 1440 was cancelled, and everyone reconvened at 1pm to shoot a WA 720 round – 72 arrows at a single distance, 70m for Recurve, 50m for Compound with the Juniors shooting distances according to age group.
Pete Mumford and Rhys Moore were joined by Colin Moore in the Gents Compound division. Pete got off to a smoking start dropping just 1 point with his first 6 arrows and was keen to bolt down the field to get photographic evidence of his skill. Mr Mumford was thwarted in this by the dozy antics of the Records Officer who was so busy talking she forgot to shoot. The rest of the field kindly allowed her to catch up rather than record six misses and she dispatched her arrows in machine gun style. Unfortunately for Pete his opening salvo proved to be the high spot of his day. A 6 point lead over Rhys Moore after six arrows, became a 2 point deficit by the end of the first dozen. Rhys was never under any pressure from this point and he motored on to victory with a season’s best score. Pete also recorded a season’s best but had to settle for second place. Colin Moore came to the, entirely accurate, conclusion that he needed more practice with his new shooting style.
Lone Lady Compound Joy Gough made a reasonable start but a rain shower at the beginning of the second dozen made it difficult for her to see through her scope and her score dipped alarmingly. In fact everyone was affected by the rain except for Barbara Harris, who found the water refreshing after a couple of nights broken sleep and recorded her first X (inner 10) of the day. The rain lasted just long enough to give everyone and everything a thorough soaking before being replaced by glorious sunshine that dried out the soggy score sheets in no time. Joy dug deep and brought her totals back up so that she too finished with a season’s best score.
Barbara Harris and junior James Hill kept each other company at 70m. James usually shoots well with Barbara as a boss partner and Sunday proved no exception. He added a stunning 142 points to his pb for the round and took a chunk out of his handicap as well.
Barbara was probably the only person who did not appreciate the sun coming out her as it made her sleepy and her dozen totals began to dip as fatigue took its toll. She was not happy with her performance even though she added 5 points to her pb.
Nathan Kinrade and Jacob Brookes went head to head in the u16 Gents; both boys were shooting the 60-122 round for the first time. Jacob had too many misses to pose a challenge to Nathan, but he improved steadily over the afternoon and remained his usual laid back, good humoured self throughout. Nathan continued to improve in technique and confidence to take a deserved win.
It was a day of firsts for Ollie Blockley – shooting for the first time as a 12-year-old, using the new sight she received for her birthday, in a round she had never shot before, in the rain. Ollie took everything in her stride. She set a decent benchmark score for the 40-122 and needs to shoot just one more round to be given a handicap.
Results WA 720: Gents Compound – 1.R.Moore 72/645/23/8sb, 2.P.Mumford 72/630/20/6sb, 3.C.Moore 70/575/15/3sb. Ladies Compound-J.Gough 72/605/14/3sb. Ladies Recurve-B.Harris 72/551/6/2pb. U18 Gents-J.Hill 71/480/1/0pb. U16 Gents- 1.N.Kinrade 69/448/3/2pb, 2.J.Brookes 59/305/1/1pb. U14 Girls- O.Blockley 69/386/0/0pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 