The Indoor season got underway at Onchan on Sunday with a modest turnout of archers. After being rained off for the last two weeks of the Outdoor season, it was inevitable that it would be a gloriously sunny day. The round was the customary Portsmouth – three-spot for Compound/single face for Recurve, Barebow and Tradbow.
Aalin George, complete with tan from a cruise around the Med., but minus her arrows had to borrow some from Dave Moore. This didn’t seem to affect her much as she managed to outshoot the donor, but she wasn’t quite good enough to beat Rhys Moore who posted the highest Compound score of the day. Pete Mumford couldn’t seem to get out of first gear and was glad when the shoot was over. Joy Gough had a tough day at the office and struggled to find the centre. Her tally of 10’s was one of the lowest on record and she spent the afternoon outside in the sunshine getting some steps in.
On the Recurve side of things Barbara Harris and Charlotte George elected to shoot the three-spot target to minimize arrow damage. Danny Cowin probably wished he had done the same after close grouping on the single face resulted in a wrecked nock and pin and meant his arrow had to be sent to Pete Mumford’s for a little TLC. Charlotte George got into a bit of a funk during the morning session and so just used it as practice. Barbara Harris, in spite of not having a sight mark for the distance, managed to dial it in with her 6 sighters and got off to the best start she has had in years. The switch back to her beloved Hoyt after a disastrous dalliance with a Win & Win riser looks to be paying off. Having settled down, Charlotte scored a round in the afternoon session.
Peter Howland put in a decent opening round, but he just couldn’t beat Danny who turned up bright eyed and bushy tailed for once. After an iffy start Danny’s few remaining brain cells kicked in and he remembered to put his hand in the correct position. From then on he rarely strayed out of the gold and his old machine gun style was back in evidence. He was 30 arrows in before he asked when Outdoor season started again, which annoyed the Records Officer as she had had a bet with herself that he would mention it in the first two minutes.
Colin Moore was in cracking form in the Barebow division where he swept aside his opponent Stan Gorry. Colin is clearly looking to make a clean sweep of the Indoor Barebow trophies just as he did in the Outdoor season. Bill Callow quietly got down to work with his Tradbow, a field in which he was the only contestant.
Erin Hainge was the only Junior to put in an appearance and recorded a solid score of 500 even though she had a miss after her arrow came up off the button.
Results Portsmouth: Gents Compound 1.R.Moore 60/585/45, 2.D.Moore 59/554/23, 3.P.Mumford 60/551/17. Ladies Compound 1.A.George 59/560/30, 2.J.Gough 60/532/5. Ladies Recurve 1.C.George 60/546/20, 2.B.Harris 60/541/14. Gents Recurve 1.D.Cowin 60/534/17, 2.P.Howland 60/487/8. Gents Barebow 1.C.Moore 60/485/9, 2.S.Gorry 60/451/4. Tradbow B.Callow 60/381/2. U14 Girls E.Hainge 59/500/11.
Isle of Man Archery Club 