It was Vegas time again for those brave, or possibly, mad enough to attempt it. Eight of the fourteen archers who turned out on Sunday gave it a go.
Sarah Kennedy and Barbara Harris faced off in the Ladies Recurve where once again Sarah prevailed in spite of having one more miss than her rival. This showed just how much more consistent Sarah was and she is looking good to lift the Trophy at the up-coming Club Championships. Kristen Joughin elected to shoot a WA 18 as she made her way back into the sport after a long gap. Her performance on the least liked Indoor target face was consistent and her form looks solid. It is great to have her back.
The Gents Recurve was also a two-horse race, with David Craine taking on Peter Howland. David has had little experience of the notoriously difficult Vegas and it showed as he notched up 20 misses. Peter has had a lot of experience on them but still managed to miss 15 times. The fewer misses meant victory for Peter however.
There was a field of four in the Gents Compound where Andrew Westmorland and Cliff Graves took to line against David and Rhys Moore. The unstoppable Rhys Moore powered his way to another victory and it was left to the others to fight for the minor places. David had left his elbow support in his Tradbow bag and the pain of shooting without had enough of an impact on his score to drop him to last place. The fight for second was a close one with only 6 points separating Cliff and Andrew. At one point Andrew got withing three points of Cliff but while he rarely strayed outside the 9 ring, Andrew simply couldn’t hit a 10 to save his life and had to settle for third.
The Barebows and TradBows are not required to shoot a Vegas and instead took on the challenge of a WA18, except for Ralf Mitchell who chickened out and shot a Portsmouth. Chris Crompton enjoyed a 50 point win over Colin Moore in the Barebow division, while Stan Gorry, thanks to Ralf’s cowardice, went unopposed in the Gents Barebow.
In the afternoon session Rhys Moore and Barbara Harris held their annual ‘Wooden Spoon’ shoot-off in the Rhubarb. The Rhubarb is a hotly contested round unique to the Isle of Man Archery Club (in other words we made it up). In past years Rhys was so awful at it that Barbara commissioned a portrait of Rhys being chased by an angry stick of Rhubarb which she presented to him at prize giving. However, in recent years it has been Barbara who has inevitably found herself bottom of the table. The pair therefore decided to keep the misery to a minimum by shooting the round against each other just once towards the end of the season. It should be reported that Barbara hit the first 10, but that was her only moment of triumph in an afternoon that saw her try a variety of unorthodox techniques, all to no avail. At one point she switched from shooting left handed to right handed which made her miss in an even more spectacular way. Her score was not as low as the previous year but she was thoroughly outclassed by Rhys who actually pb’d and a fun time was had by all.
Results: Vegas- Ladies Recurve 1.S.Kennedy 55/463/7, 2.B.Harris 56/461/9. Gents Recurve 1.P.Howland 45/325/1, 2.D.Craine 40/294/4. Gents Compound 1.R.Moore 60/570/32, 2.C.Graves 60/548/17, 3.A.Westmorland 60/542/8, 4,D.Moore 60/531/7. WA18- Ladies Recurve K.Joughin 60/434/2. Gents Barebow 1.C.Crompton 60/458/7, 2.C.Moore 60/406/4. Gents Tradbow S.Gorry 55/311/1. Portsmouth- Gents Recurve D.Cowin 60/520/14. Gents Tradbow R.Mitchell 48/270/2.
Isle of Man Archery Club 