Competitors were a little short on the ground at Greeba on Sunday with only five archers making it to the morning session, with four others turning up in the afternoon. The round of the day was a 720 – 72 arrows shot at a single distance (70m for Recurve, 50m for Compound). The weather was not the “sun-fest” promised but there were sunny spells and there was no wind to deal with.
It was a simple two horse race in the Gents Compound between Pete Mumford who shot in the morning session and Cliff Graves who shot in the afternoon. Pete was experimenting with a smaller sightpin after experiencing aiming problems both Indoors and out. The results were promising. Mr Mumford seemed far more relaxed, and he recorded an easy victory over Cliff Graves who is on the fitness trail after hand surgery.
For the last couple of weeks Joy Gough had suffered out of the blue misses which had put a dent in her score. Sunday saw her determined to have no misses and break the 600 barrier. Everything seemed to be going to plan until five arrows from the end when Joy put an arrow wide of the target. Angry that she ‘still had her demon’ as she put it, Joy at least had the satisfaction of breaking 600.
On the Recurve side of things Barbara Harris shared the shooting line with Danny Cowin and Peter Howland. Danny was shooting for only the third time this season having found his bed rather too comfortable to get out of on Sunday mornings. Peter Howland was hoping to have significantly fewer misses than last time. Barbara Harris arrived at the field with a sore arm having just had her second Covid jab but voiced the opinion that she could give the blokes a head start and still beat them. Harris looked as though she might have to eat her words after two misses in the first dozen put her firmly into last place. Danny, equipped with new arrows and clicker had the lead, with Peter Howland just four points behind. In the second dozen Barbara managed to land all of her arrows on target while it was the Gents turn to register a couple of misses a piece. Peter leapfrogged Danny but Barbara’s start had been so poor that she still found herself 12 points off the pace. All that changed with the third dozen. Having consumed enough coffee and chocolate to feel human again Barbara began to look like she knew what she was doing. Peter shot cleanly but his arrows began to fall into the outer rings and Danny had another miss, so that at the halfway stage Harris had turned the 12 point deficit into a 6 point lead. As a quiet, unassuming person she made very little of the fact. Coming out of the break Harris shifted into another gear and romped to victory and another Bowman score. Cowin likewise began to find the flow in his shooting, he found the centre and went on to record a First Class score which is the highest classification a man can get for the single distance. Unfortunately for Peter Howland, the break had the opposite effect and he notched up five more misses. James Hill, shooting in the afternoon, easily outshot Peter and got within 2 points of Danny who remained the best of the men.
Only two juniors turned up to shoot: Lucy-May and Ellyn Hill. Both girls shot the shot a Short Metric V. Ellyn recorded a pb and gained a handicap as it was her third round of the season.
Results: WA 50m Gents Compound- 1.P.Mumford 72/622/19/4, 2.C.Graves 71/582/11/5. Ladies Compound- J.Gough 71/603/13/7. WA 70m Gents Recurve- 1.D.Cowin 69/455/3/-, 2.J.Hill 70/453/4/-, 3.P.Howland 65/368/3. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 70/497/9/1. U12 Girls- E.Hill 68/451/3/-pb. Also shooting L-M. Hill 67/325/3/-.
Isle of Man Archery Club 