In the absence of the Records Officer, the Club decided to shoot a WA18 round, with everyone on three-spot faces with the exception of Erin Hainge who, as a junior shot the single face version. The Barebow/Tradbow contingent elected to shoot a Portsmouth round, as did the more inexperienced archers.
In the Gents Recurve division Johnathan Gordon was the only man to break the 500 barrier and so continue his winning streak. Richard Having put in a solid round but couldn’t find the Gold often enough to put any pressure on Johnathan. A miss late on did not help his cause and he had to settle for second place. Peter Howland’s scorecard was littered with misses which, naturally put a big dent in his score.
With Andrew Westmorland away enjoying Christmas in the sun, it was left to Rhys Moore, Chris Crompton, Pete Mumford and Dave Moore to go for glory. Unfortunately, an injury Dave sustained to his bow hand meant that he had to pull out of the competition at the halfway stage. Rhys racked up 34 golds on his way to a convincing victory, while Chris could only manage 6 and Pete a measly 4. By rights Chris should have taken second place but a miss before the break handed this to Pete, and Chris had to settle for third. Lone Lady Compound Aalin George had the dubious pleasure of sharing a boss with Ralf Mitchell who did the scoring and listed her as a Recurve on the scoresheet. Aalin was also a little light on Golds but only Rhys outscored her on the day.
Junior archer Erin Hainge got off to a good start before having an uncharacteristic miss. She bounced back immediately but the damage had been done and a lazy arrow in the second half of the shoot put paid to her chances of breaking 500 for the first time. Erin still managed to post a pb for the round which was good going.
In the absence of Bill Callow, Stan Gorry had the Tradbow Portsmouth all to himself. After a wobbly start, Stan got into a bit of a rhythm. He made every arrow count but he was not up to his usual standard.
It was a straight head-to head between Colin Moore and Ralf Mitchell in the Barebow Portsmouth. It could hardly be described as a competition though, as Colin sailed past 500, leaving Ralf languishing in his wake. It was all the more impressive given that Colin was struggling with a shoulder injury he picked up a couple of weeks ago. Ralf could take heart in the fact that he only had a couple of misses.
The afternoon session was largely made up of inexperienced or those returning to archery after a break away from the sport. Among them was Steve Brew, leading light of the Club in bygone days, who showed he had lost none of his Compound skills in the intervening years, coming second to Rhys in the Portsmouth.
Richard Hainge claimed victory in the Gents Recurve Portsmouth, John Loach, who scraped past 500, took second, David Craine came third and newbie Jim Woodall fourth. Carolyn Hirst continued her slow progress back to form as the only senior lady Recurve to shoot on Sunday.
Results: WA18 – Gents Compound- 1.R.Moore 60/574/34, 2.P.Mumford 60/531/4, C.Crompton 59/525/6. Ladies Compound- A.George 60/555/17. Gents Recurve- 1.J.Gordon 60/517/15, 2.R.Hainge 59/485/7, 3.P.Howland 43/345/6. Girls u15’s- E.Hainge 59/495/12pb.
Portsmouth: Gents Compound- 1.R.Moore 60/588/48, 2.S.Brew 60/560/23. Gents Recurve- 1.R.Hainge 60/533/18, 2.J.Loach 60/503/13, 3.D.Craine 60/426/2, 4.J.Woodall 60/357/5pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 