The weather was again unkind at the weekend with the morning session called off in advance and an assembly time of 1:30pm called instead. Conditions were soggy underfoot and but shooting got underway at 2:00 with the small number of attendees all shooting a Short Metric (50/30m) round.
The Gents Recurve division provided the only direct competition of the day with five archers taking to the line: James Hill, Richard Hainge, David Craine, Les Corran and Anthony Bagnall. It was Anthony’s first taste of Sunday competition, and he celebrated by discovering just how wet the ground was after tripping over a rope. He put in a decent debut score however, which gave him third place. For James Hill, Sunday was the last shoot on island before heading back to university. A couple of wayward shots meant that James fell just short of the 600 barrier, but he took the win 88 points ahead of his nearest rival Richard Hainge. Richard only had one miss, but he could not match James’ accuracy the rest of the time and had to settle for second place. Les Corran was using a new bow and did not have a sight mark for the 50m distance. This obviously put a dent in his score as he struggled to find his range and he was well beaten into fifth place by David Craine who shot solidly for fourth.
Though not in direct competition, Erin Hainge took the Junior honours over, the less experienced, Ethan Corran. The low number of X’s was indicative of how tricky the wind at the field was.
Johnathan Gordon found himself alone on the shooting line in the Gents Barebow division, but he was the only archer on the day to keep all his arrows on target, finishing just three points short of 500.
Pete Mumford had the Gents Compound all to himself as Rhys and David Moore were not available and Westy was a no show. In spite of putting a perfect X into the wrong target, Pete coped with conditions reasonably well and had the satisfaction of posting the highest score of the day.
If the weather is kind this weekend (fingers crossed!) the final Trophy of the outdoor calendar – The Long Haul will take place. Pride and a unique trophy are at stake and if the Records Officer has recovered from her recent illness she will be there to come last as usual.
Results Short Metric: Gents Recurve- 1.J.Hill 69/598/17/6, 2.R.Hainge 71/511/5/2, 3.Anthony Bagnall 70/475/5/2pb, 4.D.Craine 67/436/7/1, 5. L.Corran 54/257/1/0. Junior Ladies-E.Hainge 69/489/3/0. Junior Gents-E.Corran 48/303/3/1. Gents Barebow-J.Gordon 72/497/10/4. Gents Compound-P.Mumford 70/616/15/4.
Isle of Man Archery Club 