Finally a hot, sunny day found it’s way to Greeba and the archers looked forward to both high temperatures and high scores. The round of the day was a WA 1440 for those shooting all day, a Long Metric for the morning only, or a Short Metric for the afternoon session.
Covered in sunscreen and mainly clad in shorts, eleven members of IoMAC turned up to take advantage of the glorious weather and hopefully post some high scores. Unfortunately, in addition to the sun, there was a tricky north westerly wind in evidence on Sunday which made the longer distances difficult and played havoc with the scores. Rhys and Dave Moore, who had enjoyed incredible success in the rain of a fortnight ago, had poor starts at 90m. Rhys still led from start to finish but he was some 30 points down on his previous score. Dave found himself lying in third place 20 points behind Pete Mumford who trailed Rhys Moore by 15. Dave managed to claw his way back to within 5 points of Pete by the end of the morning and drew level after the first dozen of the afternoon session, before Pete handed second place to him by recording a couple of misses.
Both Joy Gough (Compound) and Barbara Harris (Recurve) found the lack of shooting due to the poor weather of the previous week had broken the momentum they had built up over the season. Neither women could find any rhythm to their shooting and while both enjoyed the warm weather and the banter, the actual archery was something of a grind. Harris was the only archer to improve upon her wet weather score, upping it by 55 points, she was still some 100 points off the scores she posted last season.
James Hill celebrated his 18th birthday by shooting the Gents Long Metric (90 & 70m) for the first time. It took him a little while to find his range at 90m but given how wind affected the much more powerful compound bows were, James did well.
Ralf Mitchell also managed to find his way to the field and had a go at the Long Metric I (70 & 60m). Ralf was indulging in one of his periodic day long fasts, an activity which does not gel with the mental and physical demands of archery. As the heat and sheer physical exertion took their toll the number of Ralf’s misses went up and his scores came down. By virtue of never having shot the round before, he still came away with a personal best score.
The afternoon session saw seniors Peter Howland and Theresa Graves, and juniors Nathan Kinrade, Ollie Blockley and Jacob Brookes take on the Short Metric (50 & 30m). By rights the juniors were entitled to shoot shorter distances but as the trio were more than capable of reaching the full adult ones they were allowed to. Ollie Blockley was a little under the weather and had to take some pain killers, but once they kicked in, she became her usual perky self. Nathan Kinrade won the battle of the boys with a comprehensive victory over Jacob Brookes whose lack of shooting practice showed.
A slow start at the first distance meant that Peter Howland dropped just short of his previous best for the Short Metric. A slight twinge in the shoulder during the sighters did not deter Theresa Graves, not only did she finish the round, she also added 118 points to her previous best at Greeba. Her recovery from her back injury seems to be progressing nicely.
Results: WA 1440 – Gents Compound 1.R.Moore 144/1311/57/17, 2.D.Moore 144/1241/34/12, 3. P.Mumford 142/1208/31/8. Ladies Compound- J.Gough 144/1198/24/9. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 143/1047/8/0. Long Metric- J.Hill 59/292/1/0pb. Long Metric I- R.Mitchell 62/296/0/0pb. Short Metric Gents Recurve- P.Howland 64/426/2/2. Ladies Compound- T.Graves 66/525/3/4. Junior Gents- 1.N.Kinrade 69/471/3/2pb, 2. J.Brookes 67/411/1/0pb. Junior Girls- O.Blockley 67/408/2/0pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 