There was action on and off the island at the weekend, with the Hainge family travelling across to take part in the Northern Counties Indoor Championships, while those on home soil tackled the Vegas as part of the Handicap League.
It Marie Hainge’s first major competition and she made things a little difficult for herself by switching to a completely different type of release aid just a week before the tournament. However, she did herself proud and, after all the nerves in the build up to going, enjoyed herself very much once there. Richard Hainge, after a slow start, got up to speed and began to put in consistent dozen totals to finish ninth out of a field of 25. The family were relying on Erin, as they put it, to ‘bring home the bling’ and she didn’t disappoint. Recent illness had sapped her energy, and she felt as though she did not shoot well until the second half of the morning. Erin was unhappy with her score of 538 but it was good enough to not only win the u15 Girl’s Recurve but also to take the overall Junior Girl’s Recurve title as well! A trophy and two medals made their way back to the island. Penrith based Ethan Moore joined the Hainge’s to finish sixth in the Gents Compound division.
At Onchan the Records Officer continued to work her way through the handicap rounds. This week it was the mind-bending Vegas. Colin Moore having dodged the bullet of the scratch Barebow Vegas, gave into peer pressure to shoot the handicap version and was glad he did. While there was a lot of muttering coming from his corner, he was 200 points better than his rivals Stan Gorry and Ralf Mitchell and after the handicap was applied Colin took the top spot overall. Stan and Ralf both claimed to be shooting in the Tradbow division, but the Records Officer begged to differ as both men were using takedown bows and metal arrows. Tradbows are (generally) single sticks utilizing wooden arrows. No doubt there will be some arguments over this which the RO will take very seriously and then completely ignore.
Rhys Moore took the scratch honours over Andrew Westmorland and Pete Mumford in the Gents Compound but had to settle for seventh place after handicapping. The highest placed Compound archer in the League Table was Aalin George who took sixth place just 1 point ahead of Rhys. Westy and Pete ended up eighth and ninth respectively. Pete was so burdened with responsibilities (scoring for three people, pulling arrows and generally running the afternoon session) that at one point he had to halt proceedings when he discovered, on the shooting line, that he had an empty quiver – his arrows were still in the boss from the previous end!
On the Recurve side of things Johnathan Gordon posted a personal best score to take the scratch win with ease over Peter Howland and David Craine. David struggled with the round and even the generous handicap allowance could not save him from coming last overall. Peter Howland had the last laugh though as he knocked Johnathan off the podium to finish third after handicapping. Barbara Harris had another bad day. Feeling weak after being hit by the norovirus a few days earlier neither her mind or her body were up to the task, and she joined Stan and David at the bottom of table after handicapping.
Ethan Corran and Lula Brown also tackled the Vegas on Sunday although there is no requirement for juniors to do so. Ethan was disappointed with his performance, but he shouldn’t have been as he finished fifth overall. Lula shot the round well, with just a few misses to mar her scorecard and after the handicap was applied was rewarded with second place.
Results Vegas Handicap: 1.C.Moore 1478 (53/419/6), 2.L.Brown 1448 (57/445/4pb), 3.P.Howland 1448 (51/385/1), 4.J.Gordon 1427 (59/531/23pb), 5.E.Corran 1421 (42/325/6pb), 6.A.George 1420 (60/553/17), 7.R.Moore 1419 (60/578/38), 8.A.Westmorland 1412 (60/561/22), 9.P.Mumford 1411 (60/541/13), 10.R.Mitchell 1409 (29/214/1pb), 11.B.Harris 1355 (53/432/8), 12.S.Gorry 1350 (33/254/0), 13.D.Craine 1305 (26/197/0)
Isle of Man Archery Club 