Eleven archers turned up on Sunday at Onchan to have a crack at the first Handicap round of the season. The round in question was the dreaded WA 18 – triple face for Compounds, single face for all other bow types. The Scratch scores are transmogrified by the wizardry of the Records Officer so that all ages and bow types can shoot against each other. It also gives the individual archer an indication of how well (or badly) they are shooting. If the archer shoots exactly to their handicap the score will be 1440, anything above or below this shows their current form.
In scratch terms Rhys Moore continued his domination of the Gents Compound with an easy win over his father Dave, Cliff Graves, and Pete Mumford. After handicapping Rhys finished fourth which still put him ahead of them as they finished in fifth, six and seventh place respectively.
With Joy Gough suffering the aftereffects of her booster shot, Theresa Graves was the only female Compound in action. Her efforts secured second place on the leader board after the handicap was applied.
After a gap of several weeks due to ill health, Barbara Harris was back in action. Still weak from the severe lung infection which brought her outdoor season to a premature end, Barbara’s only intention was to get through the shoot. It was therefore something of an embarrassment to her male Recurve counterparts that her scratch score was over 100 points better than best that Peter Howland and Ralf Mitchell could produce in the morning session. The highest male recurve scratch score was provided by Junior archer Jacob Brookes in the afternoon session. Jacob managed to get within 46 points of Barbara and claim third place overall once the handicap was applied.
The contest of the day came between Barebow archers Stan Gorry and Colin Moore. The men were neck and neck through the early stages and went into the mid-session break tied on 191 apiece. The break did Stan no harm at all, but it seemed to upset Colin’s rhythm and he had his first miss of the day. Stan remained rock solid and a further miss by Colin put an end to any chance he had of catching up. Stan added 42 points to his pb for the round and finished 16 points ahead of Colin in scratch terms. Once the handicap had been applied however, Colin found himself at the bottom of the leader board while Stan took first place.
Also shooting was Ellyn Hill who shot a Bray 1. She needs one more round to be given her Indoor handicap and take part in future rounds.
Results WA 18 Handicap- 1.S Gorry 1507 (60/375/2pb), 2.T.Graves 1462 (60/514/5), 3.J.Brookes 1451 (60/464/9), 4.R.Moore 1443 (60/567/31), 5.D.Moore 1438 (60/555/19), 6.C.Graves 1432 (60/526/6), 7.P.Mumford 1418 (60/538/8), 8.B.Harris 1412 (60/510/9), 9.R.Mitchell 1403 (59/378/4), 10.P.Howland 1384 (60/403/4), 11.C.Moore 1368 (58/359/4).
Bray 1 Scratch- E.Hill 26/141/1.
Isle of Man Archery Club 