After the gentle start of a Portsmouth, the Records Officer put the boot at the weekend by scheduling a WA 18 Three Spot for both Compound and Recurve archers. This round is generally acknowledged to be the hardest to shoot – a triple target face, scoring only as far down as the 6 zone, allows little margin for error. The round was shot as part of the Club’s Scratch League.
Alex Allen- Snell made a triumphant return to archery in the Gents Recurve division finishing 74 points clear of the next best archer Danny Cowin. Danny made an unfortunate start missing twice before realising that one of his arrows was ’dodgy’. Once the offending arrow was removed from his quiver, Danny’s dozen totals improved throughout the morning, but he was never anywhere near catching Alex. Indeed, Alex seemed to be the only Recurve archer who was not suffering agonies and wishing the shoot was over. Peter Howland came in third, some way down on his best, having racked up 13 misses. Simon Kenyon had 14 misses, while Ralf Mitchell’s archery journey seemed to have gone into reverse as he recorded 24 misses.
Barbara Harris seemed to be somewhat fatigued. She struggled with her timing throughout the shoot, had a miss in the second dozen and failed to break 500, while Barebow specialist Chris Crompton still seemed to be getting used to the feel of his new bow. His score was good but not quite up to the level of previous seasons. Shooting on the larger single face WA 18 target, Chris did well for the majority of the shoot before fading in the last dozen.
During the Outdoor season, the Gents Compound division turned into a two-horse race between Rhys Moore and Pete Mumford with the major trophies going to one or other of them. Spurred on by the rivalry Rhys has become more focused, with the result that he added 4 points to his pb for the round on his way to victory on Sunday. After a good opening, Pete Mumford struggled to find the centre of the target. He hit 9 after 9 but ironically, only hit the 10 nine times. This not only put paid to any chance he had of beating Rhys, but also made him vulnerable to attack by Andrew Westmorland, who turned up for the afternoon session. Much more at home indoors than out, Andrew added a solid 19 points to his pb for the round to secure second place and push Pete down to third. Cliff Graves, still trying to solve a problem with his release, found himself in fourth place, with Colin Moore coming in last.
Lone Lady Compound Joy Gough shot solidly until the final dozen arrows when she lost the centre of the target and hit a handful of 8’s. This took the gloss of an otherwise encouraging shoot.
The Juniors were entitled to shoot the larger, single face target but the three that turned up for the afternoon session bravely elected to shoot the triple face instead. The results put most of the adults to shame. Toby Young was a little below his best, but Nathan Kinrade added 11 points to his pb and would have come second if he had been shooting in the senior category. Tilly Ashton was unlucky not to outshoot Barbara Harris as she added 36 points to her pb in u18 Ladies.
Results WA 18 Three Spot: Gents Recurve- 1.A.Allen-Snell 60/531/18, 2.D.Cowin 55/457/5, 3.P.Howland 47/382/7, 4.S.Kenyon 46/364/7, 5.R.Mitchell 36/274/3. Ladies recurve- B.Harris 59/497/9. Gents Compound- 1.R.Moore 60/576/36pb, 2.A.Westmorland 60/553/19pb, 3.P.Mumford 60/544/9, 4.C.Graves 59/530/9, 5.C.Moore 60/520/13. Ladies Compound- J.Gough 60/540/11. U18 Gents- T.Young 57/453//3. U18 Ladies- T.Ashton 58/493/14pb. U16 Gents- N.Kinrade 58/480/11pb. Gents Barebow- C.Crompton 60/455/6.
Isle of Man Archery Club 