With shooting brought to a temporary halt by the Manx GP, which was itself derailed by the weather, all the action happened off island at the weekend. A group of intrepid archers braved the high seas, and the vagaries of the Steam Packet, to travel across to Greenlane Archery Club near Ashington on Tyneside to take part in a two-day WA 1440 event. Dave and Rhys Moore stopped off in Penrith to pick up Ethan Moore, while Barbara Harris, on holiday in England zig-zagged her way across the country to meet up with Charlotte George and Andrew Westmorland in Lancaster before they all rendezvoused at an hotel conveniently close to the venue.
It was Westy’s first taste of ‘international’ competition, and he gained some valuable experience, not the least of which was being careful to dial in the correct sight mark for 30m, something he failed to do on the second day to his cost. He also objected to Ethan taking a picture of him shooting for the Club’s Facebook page. Using the wonders of AI, Ethan simply cut Westy’s body out of the picture giving the impression the bow was shooting by itself. Westy was dubbed ‘the invisible man’ for the rest of shoot.
With the exception of Ethan Moore, who had adjusted his draw length by half an inch and was happily finding the middle at 90m, the home archers got off to a slow start. A buoyant Ethan found himself up on Rhys for the first time in years, not that he mentioned it…much. Dave never really got into his stride and the elder Moore was a tad grumpy by the close of play. Rhys fought back in the afternoon session and managed to equal his brother’s score. To Ethan’s disgust Rhys managed to take the family honours on countback of X’s, not that he mentioned that much either!
Charlotte George put her back out shortly before arriving at the field and had to let Barbara string her bow for her. Charlotte spent the day counting down the hours until she could take the next round of painkillers but somehow managed to shoot. The 70m was average by her standards, as was her performance at 60 and 50. The 30m was better though and left her in a strong position going into day two. Barbara Harris found the sight marks she used at Greeba simply didn’t translate to Greenlane and she haemorrhaged points at all the distances as she tried to bring her arrows down towards the centre. At least the weather was good but that was change overnight.
Day two dawned windy, cold and with the threat of rain. The judges seriously considered cancelling, much to the bemusement of the Manx archers as conditions were pretty much what they experienced weekly at Greeba. Thankfully, the shooting went ahead. Rhys, stung by his performance of the previous day, buckled down and made sure Ethan got nowhere near him. He had left himself too much to do to catch up with Tyneside based Scotsman Kevin Duncanson, but he did finish the day in second place and picked up a nice silver medal for his trouble. Ethan put in another solid score to come third. Dave had a much better day and went on to pick up a handsome trophy for most improved Compound archer from day 1 to day 2, which finally put a smile on his face.
Charlotte, still in difficulties with her back, put in one or two wild arrows, but claimed victory in the event, picking up a beautifully engraved glass and the gold medal. Barbara, having not shot for three weeks before the competition, began to feel the effects of both fatigue and lack of practice. Her efforts, particularly over the shorter distances, gave her second place and yet another silver medal to add to the biscuit tin she keeps the rest of them in.
Westy was the only one of the pack to come away with nothing… except a hunger to do more, and do it better. All in all, a productive weekend; Greenlane has not seen the last of the Manx invasion.
Isle of Man Archery Club 