The last two Sundays have seen the Onchan Hub host the Indoor Club Championships. The Junior
Championships takes the form of a Portsmouth round, while the Seniors had to tackle the
trickier 3 Spot WA 18, with the Bare and Tradbow taking on the larger single face.
Only three juniors entered their Championships on the 25 th February this year: Erin Hainge,
Eloise Kinrade and newcomer Lula Brown. Lula was shooting in the Champs in what was
only her third ever competition. Erin Hainge was odds on favourite to retain her title in spite
of still recovering from snapping her left humerus in half a few months ago. She isn’t back to
full strength and ever the perfectionist Erin was not happy with her performance, but she still
beat her nearest rival Eloise Kinrade by 100 points to lift the trophy. Lula, inexperienced and
using Club equipment showed tremendous promise, her scores building with every dozen
she shot. Her efforts garnered her the Novice Trophy. By this time next year, she should be
in the running for the overall title.
The Senior Champs took place on the 3 rd March, with twenty archers going for glory. It was a
case of the ‘Moores the merrier’ in the Gents Compound category with Dave Moore and his
sons Rhys and Ethan taking to the shooting line against Andrew Westmorland and Pete
Mumford. It was really a fight for second place as Rhys has remained unbeaten in, what
seems like, forever. Rhys, while not being on top form, still managed to lead from start to
finish. Ethan nudged out Westie to take second, Dave came fourth and Pete fifth, that is until
the records officer remembered that Dave and Pete had opted to shoot in the 50+ (coffin
dodgers) division which meant that Dave Moore picked up a trophy after all. Aalin George
lifted the Ladies Compound Trophy unopposed, but her score was equal to Ethan Moore’s,
so she also outshot most of the Gents.
An awesomely dishevelled Danny Cowin graced the hall with his presence long enough to lift
the 50+ Gents Recurve title during the afternoon session. The Senior (u50’s) title going to
Johnathan Gordon in what proved to be a low scoring outing against Adrien Beale, in his first
Club Championships, Richard Hainge, in his first Club Champs, and Peter Howland, who
either came fourth in the Seniors or second in the 50+ depending on how he wants to take it.
Richard came a solid second and had the consolation of lifting the Senior Novice Trophy for
his trouble, while Adrien beat Peter by one point to take the last podium spot.
The Ladies Recurve pitted Barbara Harris, Charlotte George, newcomer Catherine Irving-
Potter and Junior Champion Erin Hainge against one another. Charlotte was handicapped by
the fact that she was suffering from kidney stones and frequently had to dash out of the hall
between ends for toilet breaks. At one point the dash to the bathroom was so she could
throw up, the pain having hit her so hard. In spite of this she recorded the highest recurve
score of the day to reclaim the trophy she last held 10 years ago. Harris struggled to string
six decent arrows together and recorded one of her worst scores ever to come second.
Catherine took third spot, while Erin, who had a poor start, had to settle for fourth.
In the Gents Barebow, a storming finish by Colin Moore saw him overcome a two-point
deficit to steal the trophy from Chris Crompton, who is in the process of switching to
Compound. Bill Callow effortlessly retained his Tradbow title against Colin, who shot again in
the afternoon session. Colin would love to have done the double, but he was simply
outclassed. Peter Howland broke out his Longbow for the afternoon and had the consolation
of taking that title unopposed.
Results: Junior Club Champs-1.E. Hainge 59/488/13, 2.E.Kinrade 58/388/1, 3.L.Brown
56/323/4. Senior Club Champs: Gents Compound-1.R.Moore 60/577/37, 2.E.Moore
60/556/21, 3.A.Westmorland 60/550/13. 50+ -1.D.Moore 59/543/15, 2.P.Mumford 60/521/7.
Ladies Compound-A.George 60/556/20. Gents Recurve-1.J.Gordon 59/502/9, 2.R.Hainge
55/454/9, 3.A.Beale 43/335/5, 4.P.Howland 42/334/8. 50+-D.Cowin 53/430/10. Ladies
Recurve-1.C.George 60/507/10, 2.B.Harris 51/420/6, 3.C.Irving-Potter 57/370/4, 4.E.Hainge
48/357/3. Gents Barebow-1.C.Moore 60/442/5, 2.C.Crompton 59/439/3. Gents Tradbow-
1.B.Callow 58/340/4, 2.C.Moore 55/289/1. Gents Longbow-P.Howland 37/85/0.
Isle of Man Archery Club 