It was Worcester time in this week at Onchan. The Worcester is an unusual round with arrows shot in groups of five, on a black and white target and scoring from 5 down to 1. The Compound target is even more unusual – a five spot arranged like the face of a die, with only the two inner scoring zones-5 and 4. The maximum score for both types is 300.
The Worcester is Rhys Moore’s least favourite round, not because he is bad at it but because he has in the past maxed it and his struggle is one of concentration on a round that he finds boring. Too often he has strayed into the 4 zone with his first arrow of day and has had to deal with the frustration of the rest of the round. On Sunday he was determined to maintain his focus from the first arrow to the last. To aid him in his endeavours he decided to score the X’s on the 5-spot target – this inner 5 is often used in Record status shoots to determine the winner where there is a likelihood that several archers will max the score and so countback of X’s determines the placings. His task was made slightly more difficult by the Records Officer who was giving happiness a go (a bit late in life but as the French say you should try everything at least once) which Rhys found “disconcerting”. Nevertheless, his first 9 out of 10 arrows hit the X. A slight wobble occurred in the third end when the first three arrows were ‘only’ 5’s. Coming down off a shot to reset Rhys muttered “what am I doing?” to which Barbara Harris cheerfully responded – Archery. The next 26 arrows went in the X. The 40th arrow was a 5. Arrows 41-50 were X’s, as were the next four. Arrow 55 was a 5. In the corner Danny Cowin took time out from tutting and scowling at his own efforts to point out that Rhys only had five more to go. Another 4 X’s followed; the last arrow of the morning was a little wild but it went in the 5 and amid a round of applause Rhys achieved his goal of the maximum 300. Just to show this wasn’t a flash in the plan he went on to max the afternoon session as well.
Dave Moore started his day with a miss but still managed to claim second place in the Gents Compound well ahead of Pete Mumford who struggled with his aim before swapping out his sight at the halfway stage. Aalin George enjoyed an easy victory over Joy Gough in the Ladies Compound, where Joy was suffering from the after-effects of her flu jab. Charlotte George notched up another win over Barbara Harris in the Ladies Recurve. Barbara had some lovely groups, but they were in the wrong place. The biggest upset of the day came in the Gents Recurve where Jonathon Gordon, shooting in his first competition, took the win over Danny Cowin. Peter Howland was third and David Craine was down in fourth. An under the weather Colin Moore utterly eclipsed Ralf Mitchell’s efforts in the Gents Barebow. If Ralf’s level of archery was as high as his level of eccentricity, he would be a world champion- sadly for him, it isn’t.
Once again Erin Hainge was the only junior to show up.
Results Worcester: Gents Compound-1.R.Moore 60/300/60, 2.D.Moore 59/293/57, 3.P.Mumford 60/288/48. Ladies Compound-1.A.George 60/294/54, 2.J.Gough 55/251/31. Ladies Recurve- 1.C.George 60/270/31, 2.B.Harris 60/260/28. Gents Recurve-1.J.Gordon 59/240/20, 2.D.Cowin 60/235/19, 3.P.Howland 59/218/12, 4.D.Craine 56/161/6. Gents Barebow-1.C.Moore 60/222/12, 2.R.Mitchell 49/130/4. U14 Girls- E.Hainge 59/210/8.
Isle of Man Archery Club 