The Records Officer’s weather app predicted persistent rain for most of Sunday. The Chairman’s weather app predicted light, intermittent showers clearing by mid morning. The Chairman made the call to shoot, but as everyone knows – the Records Officer is always right. Rain caused a twenty minute delay but the Chairman insisted it was just a passing shower and, indeed, that shower did pass. Half an hour into the first WA 1440 of the season, a second shower arrived which lasted for the rest of the morning, through the lunch break and into the afternoon session.
The soggy seven who braved the elements had wildly differing experiences of the day. James Hill got within 11 points of his pb for the Long Metric 1(70 & 60m) he shot in the morning session, while Peter Howland added 26 points to his pb for the Short Metric (50 & 30m) he shot in the, slightly drier, afternoon session. Barbara Harris and Joy Gough were both just trying to get through a whole day of shooting. Harris in particular struggled with fatigue as the day wore on. Used to recording 1100+ scores for the 1440 round, she failed to even break 1000. Misses at the first three distances, one of which was an arrow she simply forgot to shoot, did not help matters. Joy Gough was annoyed that a miss at the 50m cost her a 1200+ score but was delighted to finish the round.
The only direct competition came in the Gents Compound where Dave Moore, Pete Mumford and Rhys Moore once again took to the shooting line. Dave Moore was shooting a full round for the first time since 2019 and he was more than happy with the Bowman equivalent score he posted to take second place. Pete Mumford was less than happy with the weather, his form, and the fact that he was missing the MotoGP on ITV4. He was not amused by the peculiar micro-climate of Greeba which at one point saw clear skies and sunshine everywhere except where the archers were standing. A slow start put Pete in third place and third was where he stayed. Rhys Moore, on the other hand, was in tremendous spirits. The rain did not bother him in the slightest and he took advantage of the windless conditions to post the highest score for the round that he had had in three years. Rhys got to within 8 points of his pb. Joy Gough, who was scoring for him, thought she had made a mistake because the totals were so high.
Results WA 1440: Gents Compound-1.R.Moore 144/1331/64/23, 2.D.Moore 144/1260/40/12, 3.P.Mumford 144/1196/22/7. Ladies Compound- J.Gough 143/1197/28/11. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 140/990/14/4. Long Metric I- J.Hill 71/443/4/1. Short Metric- P.Howland 68/435/6/1pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 