After easing into the season with last week’s Portsmouth, the Records Officer hit everyone with the dreaded WA 18 round. Shot on the smallest of the Indoor target faces, it is the round archers find hardest to cope with. Compounds as usual were on the three-spot face, Recurves on a single.
After a good turnout last week numbers were disappointingly low. With Stan Gorry off chasing the sun it was a straight head to head between Pete Mumford and Colin Moore in the Gents Barebow. Injury having forced Pete to go to lighter limbs he was still finding his way and, although his scores improved with each dozen, he could not match the pace set by Colin who took an easy win.
The Gents Recurve was a three-way match between Peter Howland, Danny Cowin and junior archer Nathan Kinrade. The odd poor shot from Nathan put a dent in his score, but he still finished 50 points clear of Peter Howland in second. Danny Cowin had a dreadful afternoon and stated that he felt as though he had picked up someone else’s bow. It was not until late on in the shoot that he discovered his sight block had become disconnected so that although he had been adjusting it throughout, it wasn’t actually moving. A quick fix with an Allen key sorted the problem and Danny’s scores leapt up. It was unfortunately too late to prevent him from coming bottom.
Rhys Moore continued to be streets ahead of the opposition in the Gents Compound winning comfortably against Dave Moore, who didn’t have a sight mark, and Cliff Graves who rarely managed to find the centre of the target.
Joy Gough and Barbara Harris were the only representatives of their respective disciplines. Joy continued to work on her form in the Ladies Compound by employing a back tension release aid. The back tension release aid requires the archer to keep a thumb on the safety button when drawing up. Failure to do so means the arrow launches itself sluggishy from the rest and clatters a few metres down the hall, as happened to Joy in the first dozen. In the Ladies Recurve Barbara was likewise looking to repair the damage done to her form and confidence after a catastrophic Outdoor season. Harris put in another all or nothing performance as she desperately tried to keep her mind focused on archery and away from her chaotic home life. A miss in the third dozen put paid to her chances of breaking 500 but she still managed to record the highest Recurve score of the day.
Erin Hainge was disappointed with her first attempt at a WA 18 but she was shooting a bow that had been tweaked by Pete Mumford on Club night and the extra poundage tired her, as well as knocking out her sight mark. Even so her score was nothing to be ashamed of.
It was nice to see Eloise Kinrade back in action in the Junior Girls. Eloise eased herself back into competition with a Portsmouth round.
Results WA 18: Gents Barebow- 1.C.Moore 58/383/4, 2.P.Mumford 54/323/1. Gents Recurve- 1.N.Kinrade 60/486/12, 2.P.Howland 60/438/10, 3.D.Cowin 60/403/6. Gents Compound- 1.R.Moore 60/568/28, 2.D.Moore 60/541/12, C.Graves 59/521/10. Ladies Compound- J.Gough 59/511/9. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 59/494/13. Junior Girls- E.Hainge 59/399/3pb. Junior Girls Portsmouth- E.Kinrade 56/305/3.
Isle of Man Archery Club 