There was lots more action both on and off the island for the Clubs archers at the weekend and beyond. Erin Hainge made her debut at the Youth Festival across the water at Lilleshall, while the rest tackled a WA1440 at Greeba.
The 5 day Youth festival, held at Archery GB’s headquarters, represented the biggest challenge both mentally and physically that Erin Hainge had ever faced. The Festival was divided by age, with Erin competing in the u15’s category. The morning of Day 1 was given over to the ranking round, 72 arrows shot at 50m to determine the seeding for the rest of the competitions: individual head-to-heads, pairs and mixed teams. The weather was glorious, and at the halfway stage Erin was lying in second place. Usually shooting takes place in two details with the archers alternating turns on the shooting line, but with the number of archers involved at the Festival the organisers had employed a single detail to keep things moving and, without the benefit of the couple of minutes breathing space between ends, fatigue began to take its toll on the young Manx archer and she ended the morning in fifth place. After lunch it was onto the Mixed Team round robins: 3 to a team (teams selected by seeding in qualification) 2 arrows each, 20 seconds per archer, stepping on and off the line in rotation. Seven teams – 6 matches. Erin’s team won 3 and lost 3, with one of the losses decided by a 1 arrow (per team member) shoot off. Erin had the satisfaction of putting her arrow in the X but a teammate could only manage a 3 so they lost that match 25 to 23. The team advanced to the next day’s semi finals in fourth place after what Erin described as ‘the best day ever’.
Day 2 saw Erin partnered with Grace Perret from Jersey in the Pairs event, a straight head to had knockout format. They had a comfortable 6-0 victory in the first round, a tense second round that went all the way to a one arrow shoot-out at which Grace secured victory with a masterful dead centre X. The semis pitted them against a very strong pair, and while all the sets were tight, the opposition took the match 6-0 which meant Grace and Erin went into the bronze medal shoot-off. Here the pair won the first two sets, lost the third but took the fourth to claim the bronze medal. The team event of the afternoon saw Erin’s squad go 4-0 up only to have the opposition rally to take it to a 1 arrow shoot off which Erin’s team unfortunately lost.
Day 3, individual head-to-heads. Erin seeded fifth out of 15. She had a comfortable first round win 6-2 which put her into the quarter finals against a girl who had recently competed for the Youth squad in Romania. Erin lost the first set, won the second and shared the points in the third, lost the fourth and finally went out in the fifth. Erin had two more matches but the disappointment of missing the finals and only the prospect of being a spectator for the last two days hit home, and she finished in 8th place.
At Greeba, near perfect conditions gave the archers a chance to flex their muscles in a 1440 round. Buoyed up by his performance in Penrith the week before, Rhys Moore shot up a storm in the Gents in the Gents Compound but unfortunately had no one to beat but himself as the turnout was low.
The Ladies Recurve saw the usual pairing of Charlotte George and Barbara Harris going to-to-toe. Barbara’s day did not get off to a good start. Charlotte had set the Club Record as an 18 year old with a score of 1200. Returning to archery last season after a gap of 10 years, she was determined to break that record. A slow start at 70m did her no favours, but an excellent 60 and the best 50m she had ever shot, put Charlotte in a good position going into the final distance. Here however, a local decided to cut his grass and trim some hedges, producing so much noise that Charlotte couldn’t hear her clicker going off for the first 6 arrows. This saw her put one out into the 6. Luckily she had enough points in hand, and once the noise died down, she finished in style to a new Club Record of 1213. She now has her sights set on 1300. Barbara did not have such a day as the wrist on her draw arm decided to disjoint as she pulled up the third arrow of sighters and she spent the rest of the day shooting in some discomfort.
Aalin George enjoyed a comfortable win over Marie Hainge in the ladies Compound division. While Colin Moore was forced to retire from the Gents Barebow after a nock broke during the sixth dozen, effectively causing him to ‘dry fire’ the bow- the string hitting his arm and the return shock injuring his shoulder. This left Stan Gorry to step in and take the win. Pete Mumford and Peter Howland shot their respective disciplines unopposed.
Isle of Man Archery Club 