Isle of Man archers were in action both on and off the island at the weekend with Rhys and David Moore travelling to Penrith and Charlotte George competing at Barnsley in round 2 of the National Tour. At home, Greeba played host to the annual York/Hereford/National Trophy shoot.
Meeting up with son/brother Ethan, who is based in Penrith, the Moore’s’ enjoyed splendid conditions over the two days (give of take the odd spot of rain) and they took full advantage of it. Day 1 comprised of a Double 720 round (72 arrows at 50m, twice) in which Rhys took the title, Ethan placed second and Dave Moore finished just off the podium in fourth. Very much a case of the Moore’s were merrier. Day 2 was again a 720 round, but this time is consisted of a 720 ranking round in the morning followed by head to head knockouts, again over 50m, in the afternoon. Dave Moore went out at the 1/8th stage, but Rhys and Ethan made it to the medal stages where Ethan lost the bronze medal match in a heartbreaking 1 arrow shoot off. Rhys’ form held however, as he lifted another gold medal and trophy giving him back-to-back wins. It has been a golden year for Rhys both on and off the shooting range.
At Barnsley, Charlotte George was also tackling 720 rounds, this time over 70m. It was Charlotte’s first National tour round for 12 years and she admitted to being jittery on the first day. Up against the top ranked archers in the country (those not in Paris for the Olympics) she had every right to be. The conditions at Barnsley were not as favourable as Penrith, with a stiff wind creating problems for everyone. An equipment failure, her finger tab fell apart, didn’t help Charlotte’s cause. She managed to cobble it together by sacrificing a hair bobble and carried on to finish 26th after the morning’s ranking round. This put her up against the 7th seed in the afternoon head-to-heads where she pushed her opponent into a four-set match having taken the second in glorious style. It was not to be however, and she went out, finishing in 17th place. Day 2 was a straight double 720 where Charlotte came in 20th. Given her injury problems in the build-up to the tournament, the weather and the Steam Packet’s unhelpful attitude to archers, it was a pretty good return to top tier archery.
Meanwhile, at downtown Greeba, the remaining archers were enjoying the fantastic fun of the York/Hereford Trophy. The Hereford is now simply designated as a Bristol 1 by Archery GB, but the Records Officer refuses to call it that if women are shooting the round. The round consists of three distances 100/80/60 yards for the men (York) and 80/60/50 yards for everyone else (Hereford/Bristol 1) with 6 dozen arrows shot at the first distance, 4 at the second and 2 at the third. For those only able to shoot for half a day the National Trophy was also up for grabs (60/50 yards) with a 4/2 split.
Richard Hainge was the only Gents available to shoot the York and lifted the Trophy unopposed. He shot the best 100y distance of his life and looked all set to post a thumping personal best score, but he couldn’t carry his form over into the shorter distances. Rich found 80 yards particularly difficult and voiced the wish to go back to the 100y distance.
Barbara Harris made her return to archery after a gap of several weeks due to injury and illness and was really in no condition to tackle the Hereford. After 2 dozen arrows she was shaking. By the end of 4 dozen she was pretty much all in. It was at this point that the unworthy thought occurred to her that if she stopped, and just shot a single arrow at each of the last two distances, she would still have technically finished the round, and could lift the Trophy (she too was unopposed) without exerting herself. This was idea was met with gasps and general derision, so she somehow managed to find the stamina to finish the round properly. There was no direct competition in the Bristol 1 either, which saw Pete Mumford and Peter Howland lift the trophies for the Gents Compound and Gents Recurve, respectively. David Craine was bullied into shooting an Albion by the Records Officer (3 dozen arrows at each of 80/60/50 yards) and thereby became the first ever winner of the Albion Trophy!
The only actual competition was afforded by the Gents National Barebow. Here Johnathan Gordon, Stan Gorry and Colin Moore duked it out for the coveted Trophy. Johnathan was sadly off the pace but Stan and Colin pushed each other to the wire, with Stan finally claiming victory by just two points.
Marie Hainge pb’d to take the Ladies Compound National title. Brandon Gough overcame his teenage inertia to lift the Junior Gents Compound National and Lula Brown went home with the Junior Ladies Recurve title.
Erin Hainge practiced a Metric round ahead of the 5 day Junior Festival she will be attending in England at Lilleshall.
Isle of Man Archery Club 