The sun turned up at Greeba on Sunday and amazingly so did Danny Cowin. Having somehow escaped the gravitational pull of the Whitestone, Danny’s arrival confounded the Records Officer plans to use his chair in his absence, but everyone else seemed happy to see him. The round of the day was scheduled to be a WA1440, but a range of rounds were shot to allow for those attending only half a day. The rounds were then handicapped to give the archers some idea of where they stand at this early stage of the season. The handicap tables essentially allow different age groups/bow types to shoot against one another on a level playing field. The allowance given depends upon an individual’s handicap and if they shoot exactly to this the score will be brought back to 1440. Anything above this means the archer is doing well, anything below this indicates that improvement is required.
The sun might have been out, but a tricky breeze was also in evidence which veered from side to side and played havoc with those shooting longer distances. Rhys Moore, who would go on to take scratch honours in the Gents Compound, managed only three 10’s at 90m. Amazingly, Danny Cowin was one of only two Gents to record an X at 90m (an Inner 10) the other being Dave Moore. Danny also recorded a number of misses which was less surprising given his lack of practice. However, Danny’s efforts (not to mention his huffing and puffing, growls, and cries of ‘oh what!!!’) were not wasted as he managed to come fourth overall after the handicap was applied.
Meanwhile the wind was also causing problems at 70m where Joy Gough and Barbara Harris were beginning their latest attempt at a WA 1440, and Peter Howland was having a go at a Long Metric 1(70/60m). Joy simply couldn’t settle into a sight mark as her arrows were blown left then right or forced up and down by the wind. Peter recorded four misses and found his arrows forced into the low scoring periphery of the target. The least effected of the three was Barbara in spite of the low poundage of her Recurve bow. She put one arrow wide of the target but managed to keep the rest fairly central to out-score Joy at the first distance. Harris considered her performance to be rather average. She was unhappy with a couple of misses she had at 50m, made a slow start at 30 and was therefore stunned to find she had broken 1100 by the end. The season’s best score was good enough to give Harris overall victory after handicapping. Peter Howland found the 60m much more to his liking and recovered well enough to take third place after the handicap was applied.
Ralf Mitchell also put in an appearance on Sunday. Ralf was not his usual ‘bouncy Tigger’ self, having recently recovered from mumps (can’t just covid like normal people). He sat quietly on the periphery enjoying the sunshine and occasionally hitting the target with his arrows at the shortest distances he could get away with. Ralf came last after handicapping.
Pete Mumford like Danny took on a Long Metric (90/70) in the morning session. Pete had been struggling with 90m even without the breezy conditions. He did manage to keep all his arrows on target, but he was less than happy with the 2’s, 3’s and 4’s that peppered his scoresheet. Pete came eighth overall.
Erin Hainge won the scratch battle against Eloise Kinrade in the Long Metric V, but Eloise had the last laugh as she came second after handicapping while Erin came sixth. Eloise also won the battle of the Kinrades as brother Nathan could only manage tenth.
Stan Gorry had a bad day in the Barebow division, Colin Moore continued to enjoy himself with his Tradbow. Neither man was included in the handicapping as the Records Officer does not have tables to cover their rounds.
Results: Metric Handicap- 1.B.Harris 1485 (141/1101/15/5sb, 2.E.Kinrade 1480 (71/519/10/3sb, 3.P.Howland 1465 (67/385/2/-), 4.D.Cowin 1454 (62/358/1/1)sb, 5.D.Moore 1448 (143/1267/45/17), 6.E.Hainge 1421 (72/540/5/1), 7.R.Moore 1408 (144/1294/48/16, 8.P.Mumford 1406 (72/555/10/1), 9.J.Gough 1388 (144/1179/30/13), 10.N.Kinrade 1373 (70/430/1/-), 11.R.Mitchell 1360 (59/322/3/-).
Isle of Man Archery Club 