As the excitement builds towards the NatWest Island Games in Guernsey, training has intensified for the Archery Team from the Club. With the kind permission of the Trustees, the Squad were allowed to use the Greeba range on Saturday as well as Sunday.
Saturday was a 9am start to allow Danny Cowin time to shoot before moving on to support driver duties for Debbie Tyrer’s (successful) Parish Walk. World Class insomniac Barbara Harris arrived even earlier to set up the field. As usual Greeba was wet underfoot; temperatures were high and there was a breeze that was pleasantly refreshing but rather tricky from a shooting point of view. The round of the day was a WA 1440.
The Gents Recurve saw another victory for James Hill, but Dannny Cowin pushed him all the way and he finished with a season’s best score. Barbara Harris likewise put in a season’s best effort, though she still has room for improvement.
The Compound squad were looking in good shape too. Rhys Moore was on fire as he continued his awesome run into the Games by breaking his own Club Record for the round by 11 points to take the win against Dave Moore. Aalin George, who outshot Rhys at the final distance, put in a season’s best score on her way to victory over Joy Gough. Joy was breaking in some new equipment which she found a little distracting. Peter Mumford opted to shoot a Metric 1 and recorded a new personal best.
Sunday dawned…wet. The morning season was abandoned but a handful of Club members were lured out for the afternoon by Dave Moore on the promise that the rain had lessened, and the skies were brightening. This prognosis seemed a touch optimistic as the archers began their sighters in something akin to a monsoon. Fortunately, the weather gods took pity and the rain abruptly disappeared as they started the round proper. Sunday’s round was a WA720. This time James Hill produced a personal best score to beat an exhausted Danny Cowin. Danny in spite of a lack of sleep, or because he was too tired to overthink things, put in another season’s best score and appears to be running into form at just the right time. Barbara Harris put in an erratic shoot, her arrows dipping alarmingly low in the target. It was not until the final end that she realized that her arrow rest was broken, she manged to finish the round, but the score was disappointing.
Rhys more took the honours against boss mate Aalin George with a score that was just 3 points short of his pb.
Results WA 1440: Gents Recurve- 1.J.Hill 138/1043/9/5, 2.D.Cowin 144/1017/9/3sb. Ladies Recurve-B.Harris 144/1063/14/4sb. Gents Compound- 1.R.Moore 144/1374/89/32NCR, 2.D.Moore 144/1248/28/19. Ladies Compound- 1.A.George 144/1351/61/26sb, 2.J.Gough 144/1173/27/5.
Metric 1: Gents Compound- P. Mumford 144 /1298/53/17pb.
WA720: Gents Recurve- 1.J.Hill 71/566/6/2pb, 2.D.Cowin 72/532/5/2sb. Ladies Recurve-B.Harris 72/482/3/2. Gents Compound-R.Moore 72/691/46/16. Ladies Compound-A.George 72/653/24/12. U14 Girls- E.Hainge 71/550/8/3.
Isle of Man Archery Club 