A cloudy start turned into a pleasantly sunny at Greeba on Sunday. The occasional gusts of wind were more of a problem on the shooting line than at the target faces and were consequently easier to deal with. The scheduled round was a WA 1440 (three dozen arrows at each of four distances – 90 & 70m for the Gents, 70 & 60m for the Ladies, with both shooting 50 & 30m to complete the round).
Rhys Moore and Pete Mumford were joined in the Gents Compound by Andrew Westmorland, was attempting the round for the first time. Pete Mumford got off to a poor start, twice putting arrows into the lowest scoring ring on the target. By the end of the first distance he was languishing in the third place. After identifying a problem with his sight and rectifying it, Pete’s fight back began. He was too far behind Rhys Moore to hope for victory but the he was determined to take second place from Andrew Westmorland. By the end of the morning session Pete had clawed back 5 points. The afternoon session saw all four Compounders (Joy Gough joined the men at this stage) shooting on the same boss but on individual targets. Compound targets for the shorter distances only score down to 6, anything outside this is a miss. It changes the sight picture somewhat and the archer needs to be careful that they are aiming at the correct target. Joy Gough, after a splendid morning at the Ladies distances, put her first arrow into the wrong target and registered her first miss of the day. Andrew, shooting in this format for the first time, also had a miss and this, combined with some consistent shooting from Pete Mumford allowed Pete to sneak ahead. At 30m Pete put in a rock- solid performance to cement second place. Fatigue began to take its toll on Andrew, and he had another miss which cost him the chance to break 1200 but he seemed to have enjoyed the experience.
Joy Gough was ecstatic with a pb for the two longer distances, was less happy with the two misses she had at 50m but was pleased with her performance overall.
In the Gents Recurve James Hill joined seniors Alex Snell and Danny Cowin on the shooting line. James was attempting the Gents WA 1440 for the first time. As an u18, 70m is James’s furthest distance but he decided to take advantage of the conditions to dip his toe into the round he will have to shoot next season. A little tension crept into James’s bow hand which resulted in a few misses, but James settled down over the remainder of the shoot to post a creditable benchmark score, which was of course a pb. Both Alex and Danny had previous commitments and so only shot in the morning session leaving the field to James. Alex’s timing seemed a little better but Danny, who was out of sorts, still easily outshot him to take the win in the Long Metric.
Barbara Harris did a passable impression of a woman with no brain as she got off to an abysmal start. A poor 70m was backed up by a lacklustre 60m and things looked rather grim, but a solid 50m and her best 30m of the season saved the situation and she managed to get back to her 1100+ ways.
In the afternoon session Nathan Kinrade and Jacob Brookes continued their head to head battle in the Short Metric II (40 & 30m). Both Nathan and Jacob had had some weight wound onto their bows during Thursdays Club Night and were dealing with the different ‘feel’ this gave. Jacob shot a season’s best score, but Nathan still took the win. Tilly Ashton made her first appearance of the season and outshot both boys in her first attempt at the Metric II. Ollie Blockley shot a Short Metric IV (20 & 10m) and has now completed the three rounds needed to gain her Outdoor Handicap.
Also shooting were Colin Moore, who shot a Long Metric I (70 & 60m) and Ralf Mitchell who attempted a Short Metric (50 & 30m).
Results WA 1440: Gents Compound -1.R.Moore 144/1311/55/12, 2.P.Mumford 144/1227/38/16, 3.A.Westmorland 142/1198/26/10pb. Ladies Compound -J.Gough 142/1251/35/14. Gents Recurve -J.Hill 133/864/13/3pb. Ladies Recurve -B.Harris 143/1120/19/7. Gents Long Metric -1.D.Cowin 67/415/0/0, 2.A Snell 69/377/1/1. Long Metric 1 -C.Moore 72/573/10/1. Short Metric -R.Mitchell 64/309/1/0. Short Metric II: u16 Boys -1.N.Kinrade 70/531/7/3, 2.J.Brookes 69/449/0/0sb. u16 Girls – T.Ashton 72/532/8/5pb. Short Metric IV- O.Blockley 71/540/3/2.
Isle of Man Archery Club 