Sunday saw the running of the annual Windsor Trophy shoot. The Windsor is unique in that it is divided by bow type rather than gender with the highest score taking the win in each bow category. The round comprises three dozen arrows shot at each of three distances: 60, 50 and 40 yards. Being an Imperial round scoring is done on the five zone system- 9,7,5,3,1 which means if an archer has a miss it will cost him. For the first time the Warwick Medal was shot alongside the Windsor for the younger members of the Club. The Warwick comprises two dozen arrows at each of two distances, again using five zone scoring. A misty start gave way to sunshine but there was an awkward breeze at times which effected the less powerful bows.
The largest field of the day was provided by the Recurve archers with six entrants: James Hill, Peter Howland, Danny Cowin, Barbara Harris, Alex Allen-Snell and Jacob Brookes. Jacob was shooting the round for the first time having recently gone up an age category. As the only Junior involved, he would automatically take the Junior Windsor Trophy, but it was interesting to see how he would fair against the Seniors.
Barbara Harris was the defending champion but had never really felt comfortable shooting the Windsor. This year she was up against Alex Allen-Snell who had hit an impressive run of form. It was likely that he would pose the greatest challenge, but anything might happen if Danny Cowin got his head out from up his event horizon and shot properly.
Peter Howland started in last place and stayed there. He did at least have the satisfaction of keeping all his arrows on target for once. James Hill, his head full of his future at university, shot solidly all day but slipped from third place after the first distance to finish fifth overall. Danny Cowin struggled with his timing. When he got it right he was centre happy, but a disappointing first distance put the trophy beyond his reach and he was left in a third place scrap with Jacob Brookes. Jacob, immune to the constant heckling of Pete Mumford who was on an adjacent boss, simply shot in his trademark laid back style. A miss at the first distance had put him in fourth place but Jacob bounced back with some impressively consistent shooting to leapfrog James and land in third. Now however, Danny who had been languishing in fifth suddenly found his mojo and began banging them in. The 9 point lead Jacob had over Danny going into the final distance was cut to just 1 point. With just one dozen to go Danny had taken a 5 point lead and third place looked to be his, but Jacob shot just that little bit better and when the dust settled it was the sixteen year old Jacob Brookes who had taken third place but just 1 point. Meanwhile, at the sharp end, Barbara Harris had made a good start to lead the pack after the first dozen but a miss and a 1 in the next end put her 7 points behind Alex. After that she was playing catch up. Barbara managed to cut the deficit to three points going into the second distance. Alex and she then shot identical dozen totals before Alex suddenly began maxing the ends. His 3 point lead became a 17 point one but then it was Harris’s turn to put in maximum scores. She out shot Alex over the final distance, but it was too little too late and Alex took the Windsor Trophy by 13 points. Barbara had the consolation of shooting a personal best score which, in all honesty, was no consolation at all.
The one trophy to have eluded Rhys Moore where Compound was concerned was the Windsor. Rhys had lost out repeatedly to Peter Mumford, but this season Pete had defected to Barebow and was shooting against Stan Gorry and Lesley Sleight in that division instead. With only his father Dave Moore and, an out of practice, Joy Gough for competition, Rhys was convinced he had the trophy in his pocket and that the real challenge would be to shoot a maximum score of 972. He was right about the trophy being his, but two wayward arrows at the first distance meant he fell short of the maximum by 4 points. It was however a personal best score, and there is always next year. Joy Gough, who had been unable to shoot for two weeks due to a back injury, was lying in second place after the first distance, but the lack of practice began to take its toll and Dave Moore came back at her to push Joy down into third.
Lesley Sleight didn’t really find her range until the final distance in the Barebow division but seemed to enjoy herself, nonetheless. Stan Gorry made a terrific start to the shoot, but the greater experience of Pete Mumford began to tell, and Pete had an unassailable lead by the end of the second distance and took the Barebow title by a clear 70 points. It should be noted that this was only the first time Stan had ever shot the round, that he has only taken to outdoor competition this year and that he outscored Pete over the final distance. Next season should be interesting.
Sisters Lucy-may and Ellyn Hill shot against each other for the Warwick Medal. This was a new shoot brought in this season to allow the Juniors a chance to experience the fun of competition without it being too physically draining for them. The girls were unfortunately on a boss that was most effected by the wind, and each had a couple of misses because of it. Ellyn’s slightly stronger bow gave her the advantage, but Lucy-may’s final six arrows should what she was capable of when the wind dropped and both girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves which was the whole point.
Results Windsor Trophy: Recurve- 1.A.Allen-Snell 108/872/66pb, 2.B.Harris 107/859/62pb, 3.J.Brookes 107/793/44pb (Junior Windsor Trophy Winner), 4.D.Cowin 108/792/42, 5.J.Hill 108/766/34, 6.P.Howland 108/746/33pb. Compound- 1.R.Moore 108/968/106pb, 2.D.Moore 108/944/95, 3.J.Gough 108/922/84. Barebow- 1.P.Mumford 106/648/20pb, 2.S.Gorry 104/578/16pb, 3.L.Sleight 101/551/7pb. Warwick Medal- 1.E.Hill 46/274/4pb, 2.L-m.Hill 45/223/5pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 