The beautiful weather over the last few weekends of the Indoor season had everyone longing for the Outdoor season to begin. Naturally the second the Club went Outdoors the weather turned arctic and the day became an experiment in how many layers an archer could wear while still being able to shoot. The round of the day was a WA 1440 (90/70/50/30m for the Gents, 70/60/50/30 for the Ladies), though a variety of rounds were shot by those who could only stay for half the day.
The first Outdoor shoot of the season is always a bit of a ‘suck it and see’ exercise, with archers trying to get used to the challenge of shooting distance again. Barbara Harris had the added challenge of not having any sight marks for the bow she had acquired halfway through the Indoor season and lost points at each distance while she tried to zero in. She racked up ten misses but still managed to get within 3 points of a Bowman score.
Danny Cowin, who had given the entire Indoor season a miss, turned up as he said he would and the field was soon ringing to his familiar cry of “oh, what?!” as he put one into the grass. He bitterly regretted having cut his hair the day before as the wind whistled round his ears, and spent the morning hunched on his chair looking like something that had just crawled out of hibernation. Danny stayed long enough to shoot a Long Metric (90/70m) and decamped at lunchtime. Peter Howland attempted a Long Metric 1 (70/60m) and similarly stayed for only half the day.
On the Compound side of things, Rhys Moore continued his winning ways though he was disgusted with the 8 he recorded at 30m which dropped him two points short of the 1300 which had been his aim. After a good start, Dave Moore unaccountably put one of his, very expensive, arrows into backboards. Dave was delighted to retrieve his arrow intact, but then immediately hit wood again in the next half dozen arrows and had to settle for second place. Pete Mumford had been fiddling around with his set-up, swapping out sight rings for sight pins and adjusting his sight block. He broke his first arrow of practice and didn’t really find his range until the third dozen of the morning, by which time he was firmly headed for the ignominy of last place.
In the Ladies Compound Joy Gough was just a little below her usual best but a terrific last half dozen at 60m boosted her confidence and she ended up breaking the 1200 score she had set herself, much to her delight.
Chris Crompton, making a rare appearance Outdoors, easily saw off Stan Gorry in the Gents Barebow 50m round. Stan never really found his range, putting sixteen arrows wide of the target. Laura Forrest had her first taste of Club banter as she attempted a 50/40m Barebow round. She gave as good as she got and Laura’s victory dance when she managed to get six scoring arrows in a single end delighted the onlookers.
Erin Hainge shot a Long Metric 5 (30/20m) for the first time and showed splendid form, putting in a terrific score with her new kit.
Results: WA 1440 -Gents Compound 1.R.Moore 144/1298/54/14, 2.D.Moore 142/1269/47/13, 3.P.Mumford 144/1156/25/13. Ladies Compound-J.Gough 144/1207/25/7. Ladies Recurve-B.Harris 134/1034/15/3. Gents Long Metric-D.Cowin 68/346/1/0. Long Metric 1-P.Howland 59/340/2/1. Gents 50m Barebow- 1.C.Crompton 69/470/5/0, 2.S.Gorry 56/251/1/0. Ladies Barebow- L.Forrest 53/243/2/1. U12 Girls- E.Hainge 72/590/17/5.
Isle of Man Archery Club 