With a cycle race causing a rolling road closure on the TT circuit and keen not to lose yet another Sunday’s shooting, the Records Officer pulled the WA 900 round out of the bag. This is a three-quarter day shoot comprising of 30 arrows shot at each of three distances – 60, 50 and 40m, on a large target face. The start time was pushed back to 11am so that the archers could get onto the field before the road closed and be finished by the time it opened again. The later start time seemed to appeal to the Club members, with 14 of them turning up to have a go at “arrow breaker”.
A brisk wind had been forecast so a lot of the competitors turned up wearing base layers to protect them from the cold. The brisk wind was non-existent. The sun was shining and, by the time the field was set, the base layers had come off and the archers were looking for shade. Rain was forecast for 4pm but the archers expected to be long gone by then.
Amazingly Danny Cowin found his way to the field for the second week running and stepped onto the shooting line against Peter Howland, James Hill and Nathan Kinrade. Given that Danny had no sight marks for either the 60m or 40m distances, not mention his lack of practice, a win was unlikely. The 60m was a little ropey but Danny gradually began to shoot himself into form and he was the model of consistency over the last two distances. Danny’s solid performance saw him finish in third place some 150 points ahead of Peter Howland. The fight for first place was between James Hill and junior archer Nathan Kinrade. James opened up an early lead so that Nathan was always playing catch-up. In the compound division David Moore was just edging Andrew Westmorland. Colin Moore was showing Stan Gorry and Pete Mumford how to shoot Barebow, and Sarah Kennedy was enjoying herself shooting alongside Barbara Harris and Compound archer Joy Gough.
While the general temperature remained high, the skies began to darken, and Sarah foolishly mentioned that it looked like rain. With 18 arrows left to shoot the skies opened and a veritable monsoon was unleashed. One minute archery tournament, next minute wet T-shirt competition. Since it was impossible to get any wetter, and there was no lightning, the shoot continued. Colin romped home to an easy victory, Stan had a return to form to take second and Pete Mumford had to content himself with third place in the archery and victory in the wet T-shirt. Barbara Harris found the rain refreshing and Joy made the comment that it should rain more often as her scores radically improved during the deluge. Andy Westmorland did not share her view and he faded badly over the remaining ends, handing victory to Dave Moore.
Maria Jose Esquivel and junior archer Erin Hainge shot modified versions of the 900 – MJ shooting 50/40/30m and Erin 40/30/20. Erin was not at all bothered by the rain and ended the shoot by putting all of her arrows in the gold.
Results WA900: Gents Recurve- 1.J.Hill 90/724/10/4, 2.N.Kinrade 90/688/11/3, 3.D.Cowin 88/626/9/4, 4.P.Howland 84/476/2/1. Gents Barebow- 1.C.Moore 88/562/2/-, 2.S.Gorry 84/474/5/2, 3.P.Mumford 79/432/2/-. Gents Compound- 1.D.Moore 90/842/46/11, 2.A.Westmorland 90/821/30/5. Ladies Recurve- 1.B.Harris 89/654/13/5, 2.S.Kennedy 89/568/3/1. Ladies Compound- J.Gough 90/795/25/5. Also shooting MJ Esquival 84/478/2/1. E.Hainge 90/707/90/6.
Isle of Man Archery Club 