It looked as though there would be no shooting at all on Sunday as torrential rain saw the cancellation of the morning session. Fortunately, the skies cleared towards lunchtime and a handful of archers gathered for a 1pm start, hoping to conclude a single distance metric round before the next weather front hit.
With Rhys Moore off the island and Pete Mumford electing to shoot Barebow, Dave Moore found himself without any competition in the Gents Compound division. He was kept company at 50m by Joy Gough who also had no direct competition in the Ladies Compound. Shooting on an 80cm target face both had misses, and while Joy had a miss either side of the break, she managed to produce a season’s best score some 48 points better than her last attempt at the 720 round. Dave’s solitary miss came when he accidentally put an arrow into Joy’s target. It was all the more galling for him that the rest of his arrows were Golds, so he scored 50 with a miss! The Records Officer’s less than sympathetic attitude (that he should pour himself a tall glass of ‘get over it’) did not improve his temper.
Also at 50m, but shooting on the larger 122cm target, Pete Mumford went head to head with Colin Moore in the Gents Barebow. Colin got off to a terrific start, while Pete struggled to find his range. By the halfway point Colin had opened up a lead of 56 points and understandably did not really want to stop for the mid-session break. Colin may have had a point as all the misses he had came in the second half of the shoot. Pete on the other hand found the break helpful and shot considerably better in the latter stages. It was however too little, too late and Colin took the win by a clear 29 points.
Meanwhile at 70m, Barbara Harris was keeping Danny Cowin company while he took on Peter Howland in the Gents Recurve. Danny had changed his set-up, switching out his Hoyt Quattro limbs for K3’s and was adjusting to the difference between the two. His sighters had suggested that he might produce a decent score, but a lack of practice took its toll and while Danny easily outshot Peter he was nowhere near his best. Still there were flashes of the old Danny Cowin brilliance; the road back to form and fitness by be shorter than he thinks. It’s up to Danny to make the journey.
As for Harris she again put in a solid if unspectacular round and found herself 73 points up on her last 720 score. Barbara finished just 4 points short of her pb and picked up another Bowman score into the bargain. She needs just one more to qualify for next year’s Island Games in Guernsey.
The star of Sunday’s shoot was however Erin Hainge. An equipment failure which saw her having to use a borrowed long rod in no way put the youngster off. Shooting at 30m (the longest distance for her age group) Erin added a jaw dropping 129 points to her pb for the round and looks set to have a spectacular summer season.
Results WA720: Gents Compound-D.Moore 71/628/22/6. Ladies Compound-J.Gough 70/595/14/4sb. Gents Barebow- 1.C.Moore 68/405/2/1, 2.P.Mumford 65/386/1/-. Gents Recurve- 1.D.Cowin 69/387/2/-, 2.P.Howland 60/310/-/-. Ladies Recurve-B.Harris 71/547/12/-sb. u12 Girls-E.Hainge 72/559/8/4pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 