Greeba was blessed with one of the most beautiful days of the year for the Senior Club Championships on Sunday. The gusting breezes added a bit of a challenge to the shooting, but it kept the midges at bay and made the heat bearable. The Championships are based on a full day’s WA 1440 round for the Compounds and Recurve, while, for the first time, the Barebow specialists tackled the single distance WA 50-120.
Rhys Moore, unbeaten this season, was confident in his ability to retain the Trophy for the umpteenth time. Rhys is a tall chap (2m or 1 Covid safe distance to be exact) but there is nothing loud about him except his choice of socks and he quietly took the opposition apart. Taking off at a gallop Rhys had built a 40 point lead by the end of the first distance. This left club stalwart and former Chairman Pete Mumford, and current Club Chairman and father of Rhys Dave Moore to fight it out for position of first loser or second place as it is sometimes known. The two were neck and neck until a rare miss by Pete dropped him into third place. Rhys continued to extend his lead and ran out the winner by 59 points. Dave Moore, with a rather average 90m behind him, found his range at 70m and consolidated his hold on second. Pete Mumford had to be content with a six gold end at 70m and the honour of having taken part.
Joy Gough once again found herself on her own in the Ladies Compound. Lack of competition has never stopped Joy from trying. With no one to shoot against Joy simply tries to beat her own best scores. On Sunday she did just that, producing the best 70m distance score she has ever shot. Backing it up with an excellent 60m Joy could claim a personal best for the Long Metric I which comprises the first half of the WA 1440. Joy then hoped to carry her run of form into the afternoon but her struggles with the 50m which have plagued her this season continued to haunt her. Her arrows started to drift down out of the centre and just when she looked as though she had found her range, a sudden miss put paid to her recovery. Joy bounced back with a decent 30m and retained her title with exactly the same score she shot in last year’s Championship.
In the Gents Recurve Alex Allen-Snell was looking to take the title for the second year running against Danny Cowin and James Hill. Danny looked unusually crumpled and felt under the weather. This, he claimed, was due to ‘a dodgy pork scratching’ he had eaten the night before and nothing at all to do with the multiple pints of beer he had washed it down with. Having only shot the WA 1440 once this season Danny was short on practice at 90m and his slow start opened the door for Alex. Alex’s 90m was by no means spectacular but it gave him enough of a cushion to relax at 70m and effectively write his name on the Trophy. James had a slow start but his 90m distance total was the best he had ever shot and consistent shooting over the remaining distances gave him a personal best score for the round. Danny’s 70m was better than he had shot for a while, and he had the satisfaction of keeping all his arrows on the target at 50m after the nightmare of the week before. Overall it was a season’s best. In the end the result was the same as last year Alex first and Danny second, although both men shot significantly higher scores this year.
Barbara Harris was on her own this year in the Ladies Recurve and seemed to struggle to maintain her focus. A good end would be followed by a poor one so that her distance totals were by and large average. A handful of misses at 50m put a bit of a dent in her score, but a decent 30m meant that Barbara recorded a season’s best score to retain her title.
For the first time in the Club’s history the Barebow Championships were decided using the WA 50-120 format, that is 72 arrows at a single distance (50m) shot on 120cm target face. Taking part were Lesley Sleight (holder of multiple British records in Field Archery but trying her had at Target Archery for a change) and Stan Gorry who was taking part in his first ever Outdoor Championship. The pair encouraged each other throughout the afternoon and while it was Lesley who made the best start, it was Stan who took the honours with the best overall score.
Results: Senior Club Championships- Gents Compound- 1.R.Moore 144/1322/58/20, 2.D.Moore 144/1263/43/17, 3.P.Mumford 143/1219/30/8. Ladies Compound- J.Gough 143/1248/40/8. Gents Recurve- 1.A.Allen-Snell 143/1065/18/9, 2.D.Cowin 140/937/12/3sb, 3.J.Hill 138/866/5/1pb. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 140/1079/21/4sb. Gents Barebow- S.Gorry 67/361/2/2pb. Ladies Barebow- L.Sleight 66/341/1/-.
Isle of Man Archery Club 