The final shoot of the 2020 Outdoor Season took place at Greeba on Sunday. The round of the day was the WA 900 (2.5 dozen at each of three distances -60, 50 and 40m) with the Juniors shooting a Club ‘special’ dubbed the Manx 600 which meant they shot the two shorter distances).
The sun shone brightly but a cold wind had the archers adding layers and, in some cases, gloves in an attempt to keep warm. Ralf Mitchell added to the misery by inflicting some of his home baking on his colleagues. The Records Officer’s reaction to Ralf’s hybrid spiced cookie/brownie concoction is unprintable, suffice to say she took one bite, binned the rest and got rid of the taste with a large quantity of very strong coffee. Fortunately for Ralf his shooting proved to be better than his baking and he added 35 points to his pb for the round to come second in the Gents Recurve division. Alex Allen-Snell, shooting the round for the first time, just managed to sneak the win by a mere 147 points. Alex had not shot for several weeks and had no sight marks for 40m, so goodness knows how big the winning margin might have been otherwise.
Lone Lady Recurve Barbara Harris was guilty of losing focus after a physically gruelling week, but she shot well enough to add 27 points to her pb for the round and break the Club Record she set back in 2018.
Joy Gough, sole competitor in the Ladies Compound, similarly broke her own Club Record to finish the season on a high.
Andrew Westmorland joined Pete Mumford and Rhys Moore in the Gents Compound. Westie kept in touch the others at the first distance but gradually fell off the pace set by the more experienced duo. Rhys managed to carve out a 5 point lead by the end of the first distance, but Pete closed it down to a single point by the end of the second. Both men opened with six perfect arrows at the final 40m distance. Rhys then dropped 2 points with the next six but Pete dropped 3 allowing Rhys to inch further ahead. Rhys again maxed the next six arrows, while Pete dropped another point. With two ends left to go Rhys would have to have one of his ‘twitchy’ shots for Pete to snatch victory but it did not happen; both men shot identical scores for the last dozen arrows and Rhys took the win. The tight competition spurred both archers to achieve personal best scores for the round, with Rhys equalling the Club record held by his father Dave Moore. However, the record remained with Dave by virtue of his having scored more golds when shooting his round – this is known as count back. Archery can be a cruel sport, better luck next time Rhys.
It was a straight head to head between Toby Young and Jacob Brookes in the Manx 600. Toby had a miss at 50m but Jacob failed to capitalize on it and Toby went into the final distance with a 3 point lead. Jacob managed to pull a point back with his first six arrows but a poor second six effectively ended his challenge. Solid, consistent shooting from Toby saw him canter home to end the season with a victory.
Results WA 900: Gents Recurve- 1.A. Allen-Snell 90/676/11/4pb, 2.R.Mitchell 86/529/4/2pb. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 90/726/15/2CR. Ladies Compound- J.Gough 90/820/28/10CR. Gents Compound- 1.R.Moore 90/858/52/22pb, 2.P.Mumford 90/855/55/16pb, 3.A.Westmorland 90/827/37/13. Manx 600- 1.T.Young 59/437/8/2pb, 2.J.Brookes 60/421/3/0pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 