An even dozen archers turned up on Sunday to test their skill against a WA 18 – single face for Recurves, triple face for compounds. It was a day of mixed fortunes, with four archers achieving personal best scores, one or two being happy with their progress and the rest just notching the shoot up to experience and hoping for better days to come.
Pete Mumford and Andrew Westmorland went head to head in the Gents Compound in a close fought contest. Pete appeared to have come to terms with his new aiming style, putting four of his first six arrows into the 10 but this form was short lived as a slew of 9’s followed. Andrew was also 9 happy for most of the shoot and became exasperated as arrow after arrow was millimetres away from being a 10. The halftime break did Pete no favours as he pinged two arrows out into the 7 ring, which allowed Andrew to square things by the end of the third dozen. Dropping only 2 points with his next six arrows Pete retook the lead and gradually pulled away to take the win by 8 points.
Lady Compounder Joy Gough struggled to get the ‘push/pull’ technique right required when using her Evo release aid and had a miss in the first half dozen. She persevered and looked to have settled but again the halftime break interrupted her flow and she never quite got her rhythm back.
On the Recurve side of things Alex Allen-Snell made his return against Ralf Mitchell and Peter Howland. Ralf managed to keep all of his arrows on target for once but had to settle for third place. Peter started slowly but became more consistent as the shoot progressed and ended up adding 23 points to his pb for the round. Alex struggled to find a rhythm having missed several weeks of shooting and was only just feeling comfortable as the shoot came to a close. His efforts, while being far from his best were good enough for victory. The highest Recurve score of the day however went to Junior Club member James Hill who set a new pb by breaking 500 for the round for the first time.
Barbara Harris started well enough and looked to be good form going into the break. Unfortunately, she struggled to refocus and when she suddenly remembered that she had forgotten to by Hoover bags while at full draw she collapsed on the shot and put the arrow a foot below the target face. Barbara never recovered from this and frankly gave up on the shoot as could be seen from her mediocre score.
Barebow maestro Chris Crompton was on good form but like Barbara was affected by the mid point break and he fell just 2 points short of the Club Record.
The afternoon session saw a head to head encounter between Nathan Kinrade and Jacob Brookes in the u16 Gents division. Jacob added 13 points to his pb for the round but had to settle for second place as Nathan added an impressive 51 points to his pb to take the win.
It was also great to see Brandon Gough back in action with his Compound bow in the u14 Gents division. A lack of practice from the back of the hall meant he was a little down on his best but it was nice to have him back.
Results WA 18: Gents Compound- 1.P.Mumford 60/551/19, 2.A.Westmorland 60/543/13. Ladies Compound- J.Gough 59/521/11. Gents Recurve- 1.A.Allen-Snell 60/463/9, 2.P.Howland 60/452/9pb, 3.R.Mitchell 60/382/1. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 59/485/8. Gents Barebow- C.Crompton 60/485/3. U18 Gents- J.Hill 59/501/12pb. u16 Gents- 1.N.Kinrade 60/482/11pb, 2.J.Brookes 60/475/12pb. u14 Gents Compound- B.Gough 39/422/3.
Isle of Man Archery Club 