The last two Sundays of October were quite eventful, so it was a pity the Records Officer was away on holiday and missed it all. The 23rd saw a handful of archers turn up for a Portsmouth. Numbers were so low that the only direct competition came in the Gents Recurve where Ralf Mitchell, Danny Cowin and Peter Howland lined up against each other. Unfortunately for Danny 33 arrows into the round one of the limbs on his bow delaminated as he shot, cutting through the top loop of his string and clattering down the hall. Luckily no one was injured but Danny had to retire leaving Peter Howland to take the win against an under-performing Ralf Mitchell.
Meanwhile Dave Moore put in a below par score in the Gents Compound due to an ongoing elbow injury. Colin Moore brought his Tradbow out for an airing and possibly wished he had stuck to Barebow. Unlike the Recurve Men, both Sarah Kennedy (Ladies Recurve) and Erin Hainge (Junior Ladies Recurve) manage to keep all their arrows on target and Sarah became the only person besides Dave to break 500.
Attendance on the 30th was vastly improved with fourteen archers putting in an appearance over the course of the day. The round this time was a WA 18 and while there was no need for the Recurves to shoot anything other than a single face, both Peter Howland and Ralf Mitchell elected to use the three-spot target. Peter needed the practice as he had been given a last-minute entry to the Indoor Nationals and Ralf thought he would keep him company, a decision he came to bitterly regret. Peter didn’t shoot all that well, but he looked like Robin Hood in comparison with Ralf who racked up 18 misses and said it was the worst round he had ever shot. Sadly, for him, his arithmetic was as poor as his shooting and his score was even worse than he realized. Danny Cowin, using limbs borrowed from Pete Mumford’s vault of archery accoutrements, made all his arrows count on the standard target face.
It was a three-horse race in the Gents Barebow between Pete Mumford, Chris Crompton and Stan Gorry. Stan never really found his range and he finished over 100 points behind eventual winner Chris Crompton, with Pete slotting in between. Colin Moore continued to use his Tradbow and had the field to himself.
Dave Moore lined up against Cliff Graves in the Gents Compound, but the injury that had dogged him the past few weeks proved too much, and Dave was forced to retire. Joy Gough had a miss in the Ladies Compound as she continues to use the back tension release to iron out her problems with form. Sarah Kennedy put in a decent score in the Ladies Recurve. Nathan Kinrade just failed to break 500 in the Junior Gents Recurve and Erin Hainge added 70 points to her pb on her way to victory over Eloise Kinrade in the Junior Ladies division. Brandon Gough made a return to competitive archery with a three-spot Portsmouth in the Junior Gents Compound.
Results: 23rd Oct Portsmouth- Gents Compound D.Moore 60/559/20. Barebow C.Moore 54/311/1. Recurve 1.P.Howland 59/486/11, 2.R.Mitchell 59/451/4. Ladies Recurve S.Kennedy 50/504/10. Junior Ladies E.Hainge 60/476/8.
30th Oct WA18- Gents Recurve D.Cowin 60/474/12. Three-spot 1.P.Howland 47/355/3, 2.R.Mitchell 42/307/3. Barebow- 1.C.Crompton 59/428/3, 2.P.Mumford 59/388/2, 3.S.Gorry 52/319/2. Tradbow C.Moore 49/206/0. Compound C.Graves 59/546/22. Ladies Compound J.Gough 59/518/11. Recurve S.Kennedy 60/457/6. Junior Gents Recurve Nathan Kinrade 60/494/9. Junior Ladies Recurve- 1.E.Hainge 60/478/6pb, 2.E.Kinrade 52/291/4. Portsmouth 3-spot B.Gough 60/498/5.
Isle of Man Archery Club 