An even dozen archers turned up at Onchan to face the next round of the Indoor season. The round in question was the dreaded WA18, the least favoured of the indoor rounds, unless your Rhys Moore who reserves his hatred for the Worcester because he finds it too easy. The Compounds shot the 3 spot version while everyone else tackled the single face.
Obviously stung by his defeat of the first week, Johnathan Gordon came out of the starting blocks like Usain Bolt and effectively had the win in the bag with three arrows left to shoot in the Gents Recurve. Richard Hainge did his best to keep up with him but after getting to within 6 points of him, Johnathan cantered away. Rich shot a poor fourth dozen and a solid second place was the best he could manage. Peter Howland shot consistently but failed to catch fire and even though the Records Officer corrected his score, adding 3 points he had somehow dropped during his summing up it was still only good enough for third. David Craine, who turned up in the afternoon session was gloomily told by Richard that he shouldn’t have bothered given Johnathan’s form. Archery is not all about the scores however and David thoroughly enjoyed himself as always; his shooting may have been erratic but his good humour remained on target.
Barbara Harris recorded her second victory of the season as she was the only senior lady in evidence on Sunday. Her form is slowly improving but she still has a long way to go.
Marie Hainge had some competition this week in the Ladies Compound against Aalin George. Marie shot solidily but for a miss in the second dozen which put a dent in her score. Aalin did not have sight marks and fiddled with the pressure of her back tension release aid but it made little difference to the outcome and she took the win by some 60 points.
It was the usual three-way showdown between Rhys Moore, Andrew Westmorland and Dave Moore in the Gents Compound. With Rhys’s victory a nailed-on certainty, Dave and Westy contended for the bitter sweetness of second place. They were neck and neck throughout, the advantage switching back and forth until the final dozen when one of Dave’s arrows came off the stops and he shot it wide, handing Westy second spot on the podium.
Bill Callow once again had the Tradbow field all to himself. His rapid release technique serving him well as usual even if his maths let him down a bit.
Erin Hainge had another terrific day Indoors as she posted a personal best score for the round. Her maths wasn’t quite as good as her shooting but the Records Officer picked up the mistake when she checked the scores and added the 2 points Erin had done herself out of onto the score. Staying on into the afternoon Erin shot a Portsmouth round where she also posted a pb, which this time had to be corrected down by a point. An excellent day’s shooting from the youngster.
Results WA18: Gents Recurve- 1.J.Gordon 60/525/15, 2.R.Hainge 60/497/10, 3.P.Howland 60/416/2, 4.D.Craine 50/284/0. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 60/496/14. Ladies Compound- 1.A.George 60/558/20, 2.M.Hainge 59/495/5. Gents Compound- 1.R.Moore 60/578/38, 2.A.Westmorland 60/555/21, 3.D.Moore 59/546/20. Gents Tradbow-B.Callow 60/359/5. Junior Ladies Recurve- E.Hainge 60/492/12.
Isle of Man Archery Club 