Archery GB, the sport’s governing body, made sweeping changes to the Outdoor setup ahead of this season. It threw away the old handicap system and the rigid age/distance rules for adults that went with them. It also wiped out every archer’s established handicap, meaning everyone had to start again from scratch. Since the Outdoor season began on a Sunday the morning session was set aside for Club members to get sight marks. Unfortunately, the soggy conditions meant that bosses couldn’t be placed further than the 50m line.
There was an excellent turnout for the morning session but only seven archers completed the afternoon round which comprised of a Short Metric (50 & 30m) for the Recurves and a WA 50 for the Compounds. Junior Erin Hainge elected to shoot the Long Metric for her age group (40 & 30m) as she didn’t think the Short Metric u14 distances of 20 and 10m was much of a challenge. Judging by the whopping score she produced, the Long Metric was not much of a challenge either as she broke the existing Club Record by 112 points.
Lady Compound Joy Gough started the WA 50 alongside David and Rhys Moore but after a heavy morning of sighters she ran out of steam at the halfway stage and called it a day. Conditions may have been cold and dank, but Rhys Moore was on fire dropping just 26 points from the 720 available. This despite having trouble with his release aid which was too stiff at first, then after adjustment went off too easily which led to Rhys punching himself in the face. David put in a solid enough round, but he finished 57 points behind the younger Moore.
Without any female competition Barbara Harris contented herself by going up against the men, namely: Danny Cowin, Peter Howland and Alex Allen-Snell. Both Peter and Alex had a nightmare at 50m. Alex couldn’t get his hand position right, the bow seemed out of tune and 5 misses put him last at the halfway stage. What Peter Howland’s problem was remained a mystery, but the result was four misses. Indoor Champion Danny Cowin hates 50m and it showed with some rather erratic scoring. Still he kept all but one of his arrows on target and was the best of the men at the break. Harris was 13 points ahead of him and looked as though she would take the Recurve honours but Danny came back at her at the final distance to take the win by 15 points. Alex made peace with his bow and came back strongly to take third while Peter fell away to come fourth.
Results: u14 Long Metric IV – E.Hainge 72/576/11/6 CR. WA 50 – 1.R.Moore 72/694/49/17, 2.D.Moore 72/637/19/3. Short Metric – 1.D.Cowin 71/517/3/2, 2.B.Harris 71/502/4/2, 3.A.Allen-Snell 67/477/4/1, 4.P.Howland 67/423/2/0.
Isle of Man Archery Club 