Easter Sunday dawned bright and sunny, but appearances can be deceptive. The archers who turned up at Greeba had to contend with intense cold and a biting, gusty wind which had them huddling together in the sunshine between shots. A variety of rounds were attempted over the day. Those with the time and/or dedication to shoot for the whole day tackled the first WA1440 of the season – three dozen arrows at each of four distances: 90/70/50/30m for the Gents and 70/60/50/30m for the Ladies.
Numbers were down a little, so the only direct competition was in the Gents Compound division which was a straight head-to-head between Dave and Rhys Moore. I would like to say it was close for Dave’s sake, but Rhys gave him an absolute drubbing, finishing 182 points ahead of his dad to take the win.
Richard Hainge was the only Recurve to take on the challenge and challenge it was, as the gusting wind played havoc with his arrows over the longer distances of the morning session. Richard had a handful of misses which put a dent into his score and dropped him well short of the 1000 barrier.
Lone Lady Compound Aalin George kept junior Erin Hainge company in her first ever senior WA1440. The youngster put in a good performance in the tricky conditions with only one arrow failing to find its mark. Erin sailed past the 1000 barrier with ease to set an excellent benchmark score of 1072. She is obviously enjoying her jump up to the senior distances. Aalin, her usual placid self, kept all her arrows on target to put in a solid round north of 1300.
The rest of the archers in action in the morning session stuck to a single 50m distance. Tom Rogers had three misses but still managed to put in a decent score in the Gents Recurve. Lula Brown found her bow a bit under-powered in the wind and the number of misses put a huge dent in her score. The only person to suffer more than her was Peter Howland, who’s wooden arrows, launched from his Longbow, were consistently swatted off course. Colin Moore brought all his experience to bear in the Gents Barebow to keep his score sheet clean.
Temperatures improved during the lunchbreak, giving those who turned up for afternoon session the best of things, but the wind continued to be a problem. Pete Mumford, David Craine and Anastacia Schnetler all suffered misses as they took on a Short Metric round (50 & 30m). The Pete’s Compound bow gave him the advantage, but he still recorded five misses, while the inexperience and low poundage of Anastacia’s bow cost her dearly. Let’s hope the weather improves as the season goes on.
Results: WA1440- Gents Compound-1.R.Moore 144/1376/89/39, 2.D.Moore 143/1194/32/10. Gents Recurve- R.Hainge 140/965/12/4. Ladies Compound-A. George 144/1318/70/17. Ladies Recurve- E.Hainge 143/1072/17/4pb. WA50m: Gents Recurve- T.Rodgers 69/525/7/1. Jnr Girls- L.Brown 65/357/2/0. Longbow- P.Howland 19/80/1/1. Barebow- C.Moore 72/508/6/3. Short Metric: Gents Compound- P.Mumford 67/585/10/1. Gents Recurve- D.Craine 63/367/3/2. Jnr Girls- A.Schnetler 54/332/4/2.
Isle of Man Archery Club 