It promised to be a glorious day for shooting at Greeba and everyone was looking forward to basking in the sunshine. Unfortunately, while it was certainly sunny, there was a brisk east wind that chilled anyone stuck in the shade on the shooting line. It was the last chance to have a go at a WA 1440 and, quite possibly, the last shoot Outdoors before the autumnal weather kicked in.
Pete Mumford decided to switch to a trigger release aid rather than employing his usual back tension one in the Gents Compound division. Pete was clearly preoccupied by the switch as he forgot to take the scoresheet with him to the bosses three times and was only saved from ignominy a fourth time by Rhys Moore, who kind heartedly brought it for him. Rhys got off to a shocking start, wasting his first six scoring arrows by carelessly pinging them down the field in the mistaken belief that they were just practice ‘sighters’ and gifting an early lead to Pete. Fortunately, Rhys managed to refocus to overtake Pete halfway through the second dozen and stay focused, in spite of the Records Officer serenading him with an impromptu version of Manfred Man’s Blinded by the Light while he was trying to aim. Claiming to have shot ‘averagely’ at each distance Rhys still managed to put in a Master Bowman equivalent score as he romped home to victory.
Joy Gough was still trying to get used to her new sight and the change it had made to her ‘sight picture’. She struggled at 70m, before bouncing back at 60m with the kind of scores she had been putting in regularly a few years ago. The pattern continued with a relatively poor show at 50m, which included a miss, followed by a high scoring final distance. The shoot gave her a lot of food for thought but Joy was generally pleased with her efforts.
The only other archer to attempt the round of the day was Barbara Harris. In between dispensing homemade flapjack and sarcasm, Barbara managed to notch up another Bowman equivalent score. Her day was enlivened by the antics of James Hill and Ralf Mitchell. The pair were locked in a private battle in a Long Metric I (70 & 60m). James managed to accidently trip Ralf on the way down to collect arrows. Ralf face planted in the grass but was luckily unscathed. However, spurred on somewhat Ralf unleashed a half dozen arrows that were so good he taunted James with a ‘just try and beat me’ as he swaggered back from the shooting line. Unfortunately for Ralf, it turned out that the beautifully grouped arrows in the centre of the Gold he thought were his, belonged to Joy Gough and he was looking at the wrong target through his scope. Ralf was never really a threat to James who added 74 to his pb for the round and finished over 230 points ahead to take the win.
Only two juniors turned up for the afternoon session, Ollie Blockley and Jacob Brookes. Ollie went up an age group to shoot a Short Metric III for the first time to set an excellent benchmark score. Jacob Brookes looked much more comfortable shooting with his new longer limbs and arrows. Able to draw through the shot with more confidence, Jacob added a whopping 107 points to his pb to finish the season on a high.
Results WA 1440: Gents Compound-1.R.Moore 144/1313/53/24, 2.P.Mumford 144/1263/47/14. Ladies Compound- J.Gough 143/1234/35/12. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 143/1122/13/6. Long Metric I- 1.J.Hill 71/528/6/2pb, 2.R.Mitchell 58/295/2/0pb. Short Metric III- O.Blockley 71/495/5/3pb. Short Metric II- J.Brookes 72/565/9/3pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 