It was the Juniors’ turn to go trophy hunting on Sunday at Greeba. The Junior Championships were held in the afternoon using a Short Metric round according to age group. According to the weather forecast the adults shooting a normal Club League round in the morning would get the worst of the weather, while the kids could expect sunshine in the afternoon. Unfortunately for the children it was the other way round. Denyse Hill who had deposited younger children Lucy-may, Ellyn and husband John while she ran an errand accidently went off with all the coats and umbrellas, so her family got rather damp during a sudden shower -the Hills were alive with the sound of moaning.
Of the six Juniors taking part only two had shot in the previous year’s Championships – Jacob Brookes and Nathan Kinrade. Last year the competition had been one sided with Nathan strolling to an easy victory due largely to Jacob’s commitment to his other sporting passion; swimming. With fewer swimming galas to attend due to Covid restrictions Jacob been able to get some archery practice in which resulted in a much closer contest in the u16’s Recurve category. Both boys had a nervy start. A miss by Nathan in the first six arrows handed the advantage to Jacob who capitalized on it to give himself a 16 point lead after the first dozen. Nathan steadied himself pulling back 11 points in the next six arrows. Jacob seemed to lose a little form and Nathan eased past him to lead by 3 points going into the final dozen of the first distance (50m). At this point Jacob had two misses. The first did no damage as he out-scored Nathan with the other five, but the second dropped him 10 points further behind and left Jacob with a lot to do. Going into the second distance (30m) Nathan again had a miss in the first dozen allowing an improving Jacob to claw back 3 points. Another miss in the second dozen by Nathan coincided with Jacob losing the centre of the target so had no impact on the score and Nathan carried a 10 point lead going into the final dozen of the competition. Whether he refocussed or simply relaxed because the end was in sight Jacob suddenly produced his best shooting of the day. Nathan responded by producing his best arrows of the day to retain his title by a margin of 12 points.
After a gap of several years Lucy-may Hill returned to Club Championships in the u16 Girls Recurve category. Lucy-may was shooting a Short Metric III (30 & 20m) and suffered a catastrophic start as nerves and fatigue caused miss after miss. The timely arrival back to the field by mum Denyse, help Lucy-may to refocus and she produced a 20m distance total that was more representative of her ability. The second distance was so good in fact that Lucy-may was able to get within 2 points of the score she had the previous week.
Brandon Gough also made a welcome return to competitive archery in the u14’s Compound division. As the only entrant in the category Brandon might have been forgiven if he had just coasted through the shoot, but he focussed was from first to last. A fine performance at 30m was backed up by an excellent one at 20m which saw him break 600 for the first time.
The final category, the u12’s Recurve (15 & 10m), involved two girls making their Championship debuts Ellyn Hill and Elosie Kinrade. Eloise was shooting for only the second time ever having made her first appearance two weeks ago. Both girls were guilty of shooting too quickly and had several misses to start with, but it was Eloise who settled first to establish a 38 point lead after the first distance. Ellyn made an excellent star to the second distance to pull back 11 points, but Eloise was growing in confidence all the time. Eloise found the middle of the target to produce her two best dozen totals of the day run out the winner by 53 points and join brother Nathan in taking a Championship title.
Results IoMAC Junior Championships: u16 Boys Recurve- 1.N.Kinrade 69/482/4/0, 2.J.Brookes 70/470/9/2. u16 Girls Recurve- L-m.Hill 36/154/1/0. u14 Boys Compound- B.Gough 72/607/16/5pb. u12 Girls Recurve- 1.E.Kinrade 67/473/6/2pb, 2.E.Hill 67/420/3/0.
Thanks to all the adults who helped with setting up/packing away and scoring.
Isle of Man Archery Club 