It was standing room only as nineteen archers turned up to tackle a WA 18, with some archers three to a boss. The Compounds had to shoot the smaller three-spot targets, but all the Recurves elected to follow suit. The Barebows, Longbows, and junior Erin Hainge shot the larger single face.
Having shot largely unopposed on home turf, Joy Gough found herself with not one but two opponents on Sunday. Rose Sandilands and, making a return to shooting, Aalin George. Aalin had been a top-ranking junior archer – part of the GB Squad and had represented the Isle of Man at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010. Real life got in the way and archery was side lined though she maintained her membership and continued to coach on the Club’s Beginner’s Courses. Aalin had dipped her toe in the water the previous week, shooting a Bray I (30 arrows) while everyone else shot the Worcester round (60 arrows). It was going to be tough, and it certainly didn’t look effortless, but Aalin only strayed outside of the 10’s and 9’s once all morning and took the win by a significant margin. Rose had a slow start and while she settled eventually, she struggled to find the centre of the target. Joy also had a tough morning dropping into the outer rings too many times and a miss late on also put a dent in her score and she had to settle for third.
Rhys Moore led from start to finish in the Gents Compound, with an injured Dave Moore next best. Cliff Graves put in a solid performance for third while John Angiolini just couldn’t find a rhythm and finished off the pace in fourth.
With the hall packed David Craine, Peter Howland and Ralf Mitchell found themselves sharing a boss in the Gents Recurve. Ralf gave full vent to his peculiar brand of Scottish whimsy every time they collected arrows, Peter gave as good as he got and David kept his head down. Their antics at the boss was vaguely reminiscent of Last of the Summer Wine and provided an amusing backdrop to the shoot. Ralf’s oneupmanship did nothing to deter the others and he finished last. One boss over the dishevelled form of Danny Cowin huffed and puffed his way to victory. Peter came second and David was a respectable third. Once again junior archer Nathan Kinrade showed the adults how to do it by putting in the highest Recurve score of the day.
Barbara Harris opened her round with a miss which pretty much said it all. Three more misses followed, and her loss of form and confidence were never more evident.
Colin Moore outclassed Pete Mumford in the Gents Barebow division, taking the win by over 100 points. Bill Callow had the Longbow division all to himself this week. A handful of misses did not please him, but he still put in a respectable score.
Erin Hainge shooting on the single face target added 70 points to her pb for the round but won’t be happy until she breaks the 500 barrier. In the afternoon session she switched to a Club ‘jelly’ bow to shoot a Rhubarb alongside Dave Moore. Stan Gorry and Chris Crompton had already made the attempt in the morning session. This is a Club speciality and is hotly contested. Every archer is allowed two attempts and it is hotly contested. The fact that Erin is only 13 did not stop Dave from trying to put her off (in the best spirit of the Rhubarb) but Erin quietly put him back in his box by out-scoring not only him but Stan and Chris as well. The results of the Rhubarb are kept secret until prize giving later in the year.
Results WA 18: Ladies Compound- 1.A.George 60/562/23, 2.R.Sandilands 60/526/8, 3.J.Gough 59/505/9. Gents Compound- 1.R.Moore 60/578/38, 2.D.Moore 60/549/14, 3.C.Graves 60/531/13, 4.J.Angiolini 58/470/4. Gents Recurve- 1.D.Cowin 51/413/11, 2.P.Howland 48/368/4, 3.D.Craine 43/334/5, 4.R.Mitchell 38/283/1. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 56/469/11. Junior Gents- N.Kinrade 55/473/13. Gents Barebow- 1.C.Moore 60/433/8, 2.P.Mumford 54/330/1. Longbow- B.Callow 56/357/4. Junior Ladies- E.Hainge 60/455/7pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 