The skies were overcast at Greeba for most of the day but the promised showers did not materialize and there wasn’t a breath of wind. All in all, perfect shooting conditions. The round of the day was once again a WA1440 for those with the time to shoot all day, with a range of other distances for those didn’t.
In the Compound division Rhys and Dave Moore lined up against Andrew Westmorland in a Gents WA 1440 (90,70,50,30m). Rhys, having found his range at 90m the previous week, made short work of the opposition. He had opened up a 45 point lead by the end of the first distance and steamed his way to the finish line to take the win 91 points clear of his nearest rival, Andrew Westmorland. Westie had an atrocious start at the 90m but bounced back at 70m and was heartened enough to stick it out for the entire day. A habit of leaving one in the quiver, saw Westie scamper back to the line a few times to shoot the final arrow, but the Records Officer promised not to mention it. The least said about Dave Moore’s efforts the better but suffice to say he was not a happy bunny.
Lone lady Compounder Aalin George played boss buddy to Recurver Barbara Harris over the Ladies distances of 70,60,50 and 30m. While never really catching fire, Aalin put in a solid round to effortlessly break the 1300 barrier. She, like Westie, had to tweak her bow set up but she felt the benefit almost immediately and she finished on a high.
Harris on the other hand was hopelessly out classed by fellow Recurve Charlotte George. Charlotte, with a shoulder injury that required pain killing injections, should not really have been shooting at all. However, she was keen to put the new generation Hoyt GMX she had picked up from Wales the week before through its paces. Charlotte was a little disappointed with her showing at 60m until she realised at the end of the day that boss mate Peter Howland had knocked 43 points off her score for that distance. Once the ‘missing’ points had been added to the total Charlotte had a solid Bowman score and a season’s best. Not bad for an injured archer shooting a bow straight out of the box!
Richard Hainge, not yet ready to tackle the full Gents distance, stuck to shooting the Metric 1. He had a difficult start, with his sighters going haywire until he noticed that the bottom limb wasn’t seated correctly. Once this was sorted Richard went on to shoot a solid round.
Erin Hainge shot the age group appropriate, Metric 3. A miss early on and a rather wayward arrow at the final distance saw the youngster fall agonizingly short of 1100. She was joined in the afternoon session by Lula Brown who had fun with a Short Metric 3.
Stan Gorry and Colin Moore, minus their stooge Ralf Mitchell, shot a Short Metric Barebow round at which Colin took the honours.
Results WA 1440: Gents Compound- 1.R.Moore 144/1367/84/38, 2.A.Westmorland 143/1276/49/17, 3.D.Moore 141/1224/37/6. Ladies Compound- A.George 144/1330/61/14. Ladies Recurve- 1.C.George 144/1132/16/2, 2.B.Harris 121/805/3/0. U15 Girls- E.Hainge 143/1097/15/7. Metric 1- R.Hainge 139/858/4/2. Gents Barebow- 1.C.Moore 72/584/11/3, 2.S.Gorry 72/502/4/2. Long Metric 1- P.Howland 72/413/2/2. Short Metric 3- L.Brown 72/504/9/3.
Isle of Man Archery Club 