With the Indoor Championships fast approaching, the Records Officer gave everyone a chance to practice on the round they would be shooting then, namely the WA 18 for Seniors and the Portsmouth for the Juniors. There was a good turnout with sixteen archers making the trek to Onchan.
It was a three-horse race in the Gents Compound between Pete Mumford, John Angiolini and Rhys Moore. Rhys’ opening arrows made it look as though he was on track for a pb but it soon became apparent that he was struggling to find both timing and rhythm. After a slew of 10’s Rhys suddenly winged an arrow out into the 6 zone. He bounced back only to lose the centre completely and record a string of 9’s and so it went on. Of-course Rhys on a bad day was still good enough to win and by quite some margin. Shooting on a triple face target both Pete Mumford and John Angiolini committed the cardinal sin of putting two arrows into the same face. This meant they had to discount the highest scoring of the two arrows and record the other as a miss which naturally put a dent in their respective scores. Pete always had the advantage however and he took second spot.
Rose Sandilands was on her own in the Ladies Compound. She started slowly, shot solidly through the middle section but faded in the last dozen.
The Gents Recurve was split in two with Bod Boland on a larger single face, and Ralf Mitchell and Peter Howland on the three-spot version. Peter had a nightmare of a day with four misses in the first dozen. A further six misses left him exasperated and well short of his best. Ralf Mitchell similarly took a scattergun approach to the shoot recording nine misses. Ralf however was delighted with his performance as he managed to break 400 for the first time. It looked as though he had taken the win until Junior archer Nathan Kinrade turned up in the afternoon session. Nathan is entered for both the Junior and Senior Championships this year and opted to practice the Senior round this week. Nathan had the odd miss here and there, but his shooting was just that much tidier, and he claimed victory by a clear 55 points. Bod Boland worked hard on the single face. After a slow start he found some consistency through the middle three dozen before fatigue took its toll and he put a couple of arrows wide of the target in his last dozen. Overall Bod’s form continues to improve.
In the Ladies Recurve Sarah Kennedy won the battle of the single faces over Kristen Joughin. Sarah led from start to finish but while her dozen totals gradually dropped over the course of the shoot, Kristen’s improved so from being 24 points behind after the first two dozen she managed to get within 6 points of Sarah by the end. Meanwhile Barbara Harris was in action on the three-spot version. Barbara was using her new bow for the first time and did not have sight marks for it. An educated guess got her off to a good start but the noise and feel of the Win&Win CX7 was very different from that of the Hoyt GMX she had shot for the last 12 years and she struggled to find her rhythm. A spectacularly stupid miss in the last dozen, when she simply forgot to hold on to the arrow as she came down off a shot, made her everyone, including Barbara, laugh and gave Ralf Mitchell the opportunity to get his own back for some of the cutting remarks he has received. Barbara had the last laugh however as she was the only Recurver to break 500 on the day.
Stan Gorry was back on form in the Gents Barebow taking victory over Colin Moore and Pete Mumford with a personal best score of 400. In spite of a miss late on Colin safely secured second place, pushing Pete down into third.
In the Junior girls Portsmouth round Eloise Kinrade triumphed over debutante Erin Hainge. Erin did not have sight marks and it took her a couple of ends to get dialled in. Once she found the range her shooting became very consistent, and she will be putting in an appearance at the Junior Championships.
Results WA 18 3-spot:Gents Compound-1.R.Moore 60/565/28, 2.P.Mumford 59/533/12, 3.J.Angiolini 59/505/5. Ladies Compound- R.Sandilands 60/542/11. Gents Recurve- 1.N.Kinrade 57/465/2, 2.R.Mitchell 51/411/7pb, 3.P.Howland 50/387/5. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 59/501/12. WA18 (single) Gents Recurve- B.Boland 58/390/3. Ladies Recurve- 1.S.Kennedy 60/409/2, 2.K.Joughin 58/403/4. Gents Barebow- 1.S.Gorry 58/400/7pb, 2.C.Moore 59/389/6, 3.P.Mumford 59/371/3. Portsmouth- 1.E.Kinrade 57/342/5, 2.E.Hainge 57/303/2.
Isle of Man Archery Club 