After a dreadful start to the Outdoor season, weather wise, the archers of IoMAC finally got a break and enjoyed near perfect shooting weather on Sunday at Greeba. Ground conditions were very soggy but nothing that appropriate footwear couldn’t handle. With the field waterlogged at the far end, shooting distances were restricted to 70m so a variety of shorter rounds were shot throughout the day. The more experienced Recurve and Compound archers shot a 720, that is 72 arrows at a single distance: 70m for Recurve and 50m for Compounds. The Barebows tackled a 50/40m round, Erin Hainge shot an age appropriate 1440 round and the large number of newbies worked their way up through the shorter distances to gain experience.
On the Recurve side of things Charlotte George and Barbara Harris faced off again in the Ladies division. Changes made to Barbara’s poundage during the indoor season meant that her bow lacked the oomph required for 70m and her arrows went consistently low over the morning leaving her with a soul crushing total. Some weight was wound on at the lunchbreak and she did enough in the afternoon session to give her hope in what will be a make-or- break season for the Records Officer. Charlotte on the other hand struggled with her timing and, while she enjoyed an easy victory, she was disappointed with her efforts.
Tilly Ashton, making a return to shooting after a long break shot a Short Metric (50/30m). She struggled a little at the first distance but found her range at 30m and was unlucky not to break 500.
It was also a two-horse race in the Gents Recurve between Peter Howland and Richard Hainge. Richard had only managed to get a little practice in at 70m on the Thursday Club night before rain stopped play and had forgotten to write down his sight mark. His first six arrows were a little disappointing, but he soon found his range and cantered to victory Peter. Peter’s opening arrows were good, but he faded badly after that and as fatigue hit in the second half of the shoot the misses began to mount up.
It was business as usual for Rhys Moore in the Gents Compound as he continued his unbeaten run from last year with victory over Dave Moore and Pete Mumford. Pete was trialling a new clarifier to help overcome sight picture issues and wasn’t entirely happy with the results. A little more tweaking maybe necessary. Aalin George, breaking in a new set of strings and cables, outshot all the male Compounds bar Rhys, proving, once again, that she is in a league of her own.
Colin Moore, Stan Gorry and Ralf Mitchell lined up in the Gents Barebow. Colin continued his dominance in the discipline, while Stan kept him company and Ralf provided some comic relief.
Erin Hainge, still working her way back to form after breaking her arm late last year, put in a solid 1440 round (50/40/30/20m) easily breaking 1100.
Results WA720: Ladies Recurve- 1.C.George 72/487/2/0, 2.B.Harris 61/363/1/1. Gents Recurve- 1.R.Hainge 69/467/5/0, 2.P.Howland 62/346/1/1. Gents Compound- 1.R.Moore 72/682/39/25, 2.D.Moore 68/593/13/3, 3.P.Mumford 69/537/4/0. Ladies Compound- A.George 72/650/23/8. Gents Barebow- 1.C.Moore 71/453/2/2, 2.S.Gorry 65/384/1/0, 3.R.Mitchell 52/231/1/1. 1440- E.Hainge 144/1114/13/4. Short Metric- T.Ashton 69/493/4/0
Isle of Man Archery Club 