It was trophy time again on Sunday at Greeba with the Annual Windsor Shoot. The Windsor is divided purely by bow type with no gender differentiation. Everyone shoots the same distances 60, 50 and 40 yards (three dozen arrows at each distance) and the highest score in each division wins. The weather was reasonably decent with no wind to speak of, until the archers stepped onto the shooting line at which point a brisk westerly breeze sprang up just to keep things interesting.
There was a good turnout, a combination of the shorter distances of the Windsor and a slightly later start time being trialled this season, saw 15 archers going for glory. The Recurve division saw Peter Howland, Ralf Mitchell, Sarah Kennedy, David Craine (in his first competition), James Hill, Danny Cowin and Barbara Harris vying for the Trophy. The Compound division had Joy Gough up against Rhys Moore, Cliff Graves, Andrew Westmorland and David Moore. Pete Mumford was in a league of his own in the Barebow and Erin Hainge was the only entrant in the Junior Windsor.
James Hill was the odd- on favourite to take the Recurve Trophy and so it proved. James had it sewn up by the end of the first distance building a lead of 42 points over his nearest rival. The surprise was who his nearest rival was…namely Ralf Mitchell. Ralf was 20 points clear of Barbara Harris, who in turn was only 1 point ahead of Danny Cowin in fourth place. The fight was therefore going to be for the minor places on the podium. Ralf unfortunately couldn’t maintain his opening pace and had, what he calls “a fit of the heebie jeebies”, which seems to be Scottish for missing the target. By the end of the second distance Ralf had dropped to fourth place, Barbara was still in third, but Danny had moved up to second place and made no effort to disguise his delight in “hammering” the Records Officer. Harris did outshoot Cowin at the shortest distance, but she only reduced the gap by 2 points and had to settle for the third place position she had occupied all day. Ralf was in serious danger of being overhauled by Peter Howland who had put in a solid 50yd distance total. Ralf bounced back with a show of form at the final distance to hang on to fourth place and keep Peter in fifth. Sarah Kennedy put in a solid performance to take sixth and David Craine enjoyed the banter if nothing else down in seventh place. James Hill put in an awesome final distance maxing three out of the six ends to take the Trophy by a clear 105 points.
In the Compound division the competition quickly turned into a fight for first between Rhys Moore and his father David and a fight for third between Cliff Graves and Andrew Westmorland. Joy Gough put herself out of contention early on by punching an arrow out into the 1. Joy struggled for the most part and was unhappy with a performance which saw her finish with a total that was 100 points down on the one from last season. In the battle for third, Andrew established a 14 point lead at 60yds over Cliff. Both men then shot an identical 50yd distance total, leaving Cliff with it all to do at 40yds. Cliff managed to take 4 points out of Andrew’s lead, but it wasn’t enough, and Andrew finished firmly in third. While Rhys led the Trophy challenge from start to finish there was only ever a handful of points in it. Rhys managed to carve out a 4 point lead at 60yds, increased it to an 8 point lead at 50 before Dave managed to pull back a couple of points at 40yds but had to settle for second place this year.
Pete Mumford was so relaxed in the Barebow that at one point he nearly forgot to shoot one of his arrows. Fortunately, Danny was on hand to give him a nudge. A few ends later Peter got so “in the zone” that he shot too many arrows, an occurrence which is so regular that such behaviour is known at the Club as “doing a Mumford”. Shooting the extra arrow meant that Pete had to discount his highest scoring arrow, in this case a 9. Archery can be cruel sometimes.
Erin Hainge put in another dynamite performance in her first ever Windsor. Erin shot a Junior Windsor 40, 30 and 20 yards which was an age group up on the one she is required to shoot and set a new Club record as well as taking the Trophy.
Results Windsor Trophy: Recurve – 1.J.Hill 107/839/60, 2.D.Cowin 108/734/36, 3.B.Harris 105/727/34, 4.R.Mitchell 105/685/30, 5.P.Howland 105/667/20, 6.S.Kennedy 106/612/21pb, 7.D.Craine 72/312/3pb. Compound – 1.R.Moore 108/946/95, 2.D.Moore 108/940/92, 3.A.Westmorland 108/912/76, 4.C.Graves 108/902/76, 5.J.Gough 108/882/70. Barebow – P.Mumford 105/629/24. Junior Windsor – E.Hainge 108/846/60NCR.
Isle of Man Archery Club 