Having given everyone the chance to warm up over the last three weeks, the Records Officer unleased the WA 18 upon them. The WA 18 Target face is the same size as the Worcester but for some reason the archers find it harder. The Recurves, Bare and Tradbows all got the luxury of a full- face target, while Compounds were on the smaller 3 spots.
As it was half-term, numbers were down a little with only 13 archers turning up over the course of the day. Of them only 12 posted a score, Colin Moore electing to use the morning as practice after a disastrous start with his Tradbow. Stan Gorry, sporting a jet-set tan after his latest cruise, put in a solid round as the only entry in the Gents Barebow. Bill Callow was similarly consistent in the Gents Tradbow.
In the Gents Recurve Johnathon Gordon notched up his second successive win, outscoring his nearest rival, Peter Howland, by 110 points. David Craine, shooting with a clicker for the first time had to settle for third place.
It was the usual two horse race in the Ladies Recurve with Charlotte George and Barbara Harris in a straight head-to-head. A slow start did Barbara no favours, but she looked to have it dialled in by the end of the second dozen, only to completely lose focus in the fourth dozen. She finished strongly but it was far too late. Charlotte, still recovering from a recent illness was unhappy with her form but she posted the highest Recurve score of the day to take the win.
Having switched to the ‘dark side’ former Barebow specialist Chris Crompton made his debut in the Gents Compound. It was radically different from what he was used to, but he showed excellent promise and just needs more time on the bow. That Chris came last was not a surprise, nor was it surprising that Rhys Moore took the win. The real battle of the day was between Pete Mumford and Dave Moore for second place. Dave was 9 points ahead of Pete going into the last dozen when he suddenly pinged one wide of the target. This allowed Pete back into the game and when the dust settled the two were tied on score, however Dave had 17 golds to Pete’s 11 and so took second place on countback. Lone Lady Compound Joy Gough was very consistent across the morning but just couldn’t find the centre often enough to post a high score.
In the afternoon session the Moores, Pete Mumford and Barbara Harris had a go at the Club’s specialty round The Rhubarb. At least the Gents had a go while Barbara provided comic relief as her arrows hit everything but her target. She shot the first half in her customary lefthanded way and then switched to righthanded after the break in an attempt to short circuit her brain. It worked eventually – sort of. Out of 60 arrows she managed to hit the target a pitiful 17 times. The wooden spoon appears to be heading her way yet again.
Results WA 18: Gents Barebow- S.Gorry 58/390/3. Gents Tradbow- B.Callow 59/383/1. Gents Recurve-1.J.Gordon 60/511/13pb, 2.P.Howland 60/401/1, 3.D.Craine 51/267/4. Ladies Recurve-1.C.George 60/517/14, 2.B.Harris 59/494/12. Gents Compound-1.R.Moore 60/576/36, 2.D.Moore 59/539/17, 3.P.Mumford 60/539/11, 4.C.Crompton 57/480/6. Ladies Compound-J.Gough 60/515/5.
Isle of Man Archery Club 