Only eight archers turned up to shoot on Sunday as a raft of other commitments took precedent. For the first Sunday in living memory there was no direct competition in any category or age group. The round of the day was a WA 1440 but only half of those attending took up that challenge, while the rest shot a range of shorter metric rounds. The weather was pleasant but a tricky south-easterly wind caused some problems at the longer distances.
Pete Mumford, who made careful note of how many arrows he had in his quiver this week after thinking he had lost one last week which turned out to be still in his arrow box in the car, was joined initially by Rhys Moore in the Gents Compound. Rhys posted a season’s best score in the Long Metric (90 & 70m) in the morning session, before the lure of a rugby tournament in Douglas proved too attractive to ignore. Without the spur of competition Pete made a poor start to the afternoon with an uncharacteristic miss at 50m but bounced back at the final distance to finish within 19 points of his pb.
Both Joy Gough (Compound) and Barbara Harris (Recurve) had an appalling start to the day as the they found their arrows going high in spite of their best efforts. Joy found herself well short of the scores that had given her pb the previous week. Barbara circled the centre of the target without hitting it and had to wait until her 55th arrow before she got her first 10 of the day. Both women approached the afternoon session with some trepidation only to find everything fine. Barbara even managed to post a personal best score for the 50m distance that brought he totals back up and saw her finish with another 1100+ score. Joy likewise found herself posting scores in the afternoon session that elevated her totals to Bowman levels.
Danny Cowin’s 90m was the stuff of nightmares and the 70m was poor by his standards. Having virtually given up at 50m when he had yet another miss, a casual remark by a fellow club member that Danny’s feet were out of position when he shot, caused him to adjust his stance. The result was a six arrow total of 58 out of 60 and the realisation that he needed to start from the ground up to recover his form. It was too late in the day to salvage his score, but things looked promising for the future.
With Jacob Brookes busy at swim camp, Nathan Kinrade found himself alone in u16 boys. Nathan shot solidly but was still getting used to the feel of the heavier weight of his bow which was reflected in his score. Ollie Blockley attempted the Long Metric IV (40 & 30m) for the first time. Ollie did not have sight marks for these distances but, with Pete Mumford’s help, she rose to the challenge and knocked a couple of points off her handicap.
Also shooting was Ralf Mitchell whose inconsistent style somehow managed to produce a pb for the Short Metric.
Results WA 1440: Gents Compound- P.Mumford 143/1273/50/20. Ladies Compound- J.Gough 144/1233/38/10. Gents Recurve- D.Cowin 134/887/13/4. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 144/1126/14/4. Gents Long Metric- R.Moore 72/649/22/2. Short Metric- R.Mitchell 67//391/4/1pb. Short Metric II- N.Kinrade 72/510/8/1. Long Metric IV- O.Blockley 69/467/3/1pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 