The final shoot before Christmas was Portsmouth round, though at first it looked like it might have to be cancelled, like the Vegas of the week before, due to faulty lights. Thankfully, the emergency electricians rode in to save the day, for which the Club were extremely grateful.
Amazingly, Danny Cowin somehow summoned up enough enthusiasm to make it to the hall after a six week absence. It was delightful to hear once again his growls of anguish and muttered swearing whenever he norsed up a shot. Surprisingly, given his lack of practice, Danny emerged the victor in the Gents Recurve division. Alex Snell started and finished strongly bookending his shoot with identical scores of 107 for the dozen, but a miss in the second dozen and a sudden loss of form in the fourth put a dent in his score that cost him dearly. Peter Howland managed to keep all of his arrows on target but had to settle for third place.
Barbara Harris put in a season’s best score in the Ladies Recurve finishing 44 points ahead Danny Cowin. Note to the men: must try harder!
It was a four horse race in the Gents Compound division with Cliff Graves, Rhys Moore, Pete Mumford and Colin Moore all vying for the top spot. Colin was very consistent but unfortunately for him what he was consistent at was hitting 9’s. His inability to convert them into 10’s put him in fourth place. Cliff Graves did enough to secure third but the fight for first was between Pete and Rhys. Pete found himself two points ahead of Rhys after the first dozen and managed to stay ahead until the third dozen when Rhys squared things. It looked as though the younger man would go on to win but the old master took his time and retook the lead. Rhys shot well in the last dozen, but Pete shot just that little bit better and rode out the victor by just 2 points.
Joy Gough, like Colin, hit too many 9’s but was generally pleased her efforts in the Ladies Compound division.
Two other archers turned up on Sunday, but both elected to shoot the Club’s speciality round, The Rhubarb. The round is so named because a Club member once stated that a good archer should be able to shoot a stick of rhubarb (that is use a stick of Rhubarb as a bow). This throw away comment led to the Rhubarb Challenge. Archers use the Club ‘jelly bows’ (basically a stick and a string) to shoot a Portsmouth round. They are allowed two chances and the best score wins custody of the Rhubarb Challenge Trophy – a watercolour painting of a stick of Rhubarb strung like a bow. Dave Moore and James Hill gave it a go. Dave put in a decent benchmark score, but James gave himself work to do if he does not want to remain bottom of the leader board.
Results Portsmouth: Gents Recurve- 1.D.Cowin 60/516/15, 2.A.Snell 59/512/16, 3.P.Howland 60/502/8. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 60/560/27. Gents Compound- 1.P.Mumford 60/569/29, 2.R.Moore 60/567/27, 3.C.Graves 60/558/21, 4.C.Moore 60/551/14. Ladies Compound- J.Gough 60/553/18.
Isle of Man Archery Club 