It was back to a scratch Portsmouth at Onchan on Sunday. Sixty arrows shot on a single target face
for the Recurves and Barebows, a three spot for the Compounds.
The Portsmouth is technically the easiest of the Indoor rounds, but Barbara Harris found it anything
but. No matter how much she adjusted her sights she just couldn’t get the arrows to go in the
middle. Her groupings were excellent, her arrows so close together that at one point she shot a
fletching off and pinned it to the target face – but the groups stayed resolutely to the right of the
centre in the 8 zone. It was not until three arrows from the end, when her arrow rest pinged off her
bow and shot three feet sideways that it occurred to her that the bow was at fault not her form.
Barbara stuck the rest back on only for the same thing to happen, it was fielded by Rhys Moore,
Harris remounted it and finished the round with her last arrow in the 9 and her arrow rest once
more on the floor. Her final score was the worst of the day and possibly the worst one she has ever
produced Indoors.
Someone who found the round very much to his taste was Johnathon Gordon who continued his
unbroken run of victories in the Gents Recurve with a personal best score of 555. Peter Howland fell
just short of the 500 barrier to come second, while Richard Hainge, who passed the beginner’s
course on Thursday night made his debut in third place.
Colin Moore recorded another win over Stan Gorry in the Gents Barebow but it was much closer this
time around. Stan was in fact leading until the halfway break, but after the restart seemed to have
lost his form and Colin accelerated past him to take victory.
The Gents Compound provided the largest field of the day with Rhys Moore once again taking the
top spot. He finished 13 points ahead of his father David, who in turn was 5 points ahead of Andrew
Westmorland who came in third. Pete Mumford put in a solid performance to take fourth place
ahead of Chris Crompton who continues to improve but who had to settle for fifth.Chris has now
completed the three rounds necessary to gain a handicap. Lone lady Compound Joy Gough felt more
comfortable with her shooting but finished a few points down on her season’s best score.
Erin Hainge was not quite at her best on Sunday, allowing a couple of unaccustomed misses to creep
into the morning session. Unfortunately for Erin, she parted company with her horse while out riding
the following evening with the result that she ended up in Nobles with a broken left arm and will be
unable to shoot for three months. This will give her plenty of time to coach/barrack her dad Richard
as he attempts to become as good at archery as she is. The Club wishes Erin well.
Results Portsmouth(Scratch):Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 60/480/4. Gents Recurve-1.J.Gordon
60/555/20pb, 2.P.Howland 60/490/9, 3.R.Hainge 56/291/0. Gents Barebow-1.C.Moore 60/493/10,
2.S.Gorry 59/467/10. Gents Compound-1.R.Moore 60/585/45, 2.D.Moore 60/572/33,
3.A.Westmorland 60/567/28, 4.P.Mumford 60/5656/20, 5.C.Crompton 60/538/7. Ladies Compound-
J.Gough 60/549/13. U14 Girls-E.Hainge 58/484/8.
Isle of Man Archery Club 