Erin Hainge had been putting in some stupendous rounds this season and hopes were high as she travelled to the Junior National Championships at Lilleshall, the headquarters of Archery GB. The two-day event consisted of a WA 900 (50/40/30m) on the first day and a Junior Windsor (50/40/30yds) on the second day. With appalling timing Erin went down with a sore throat on the Friday night which led to broken sleep on the eve of the competition. Still Erin was feeling good ahead of the WA900. The weather was ok, with light cloud and tricky gusting wind and Ering settled into the shoot well, a steady 50m putting her fourth out of field of 18, just 3 points off third place. She started well at 40m, but her symptoms were worsening, a bad headache hit in addition to the sore throat. Erin battled on but the gap between her and the medals grew wider and despite putting in a decent score at the final distance she ended the day in fourth place, 11 points off the bronze medal.
Day 2 dawned with Erin feeling slightly better but still with a sore throat and blocked nose and the prospect of tackling the Junior Windsor in torrential rain. Luckily the rain eased off to intermittent showers throughout the morning backed up by light winds. A good start at 50y had Erin in second mid-way through the distance but she followed up with a couple of low scoring ends that dropped her to sixth place. The top seven archers were so tightly grouped that Erin was still only 2 points off third place. A steady start to 40y with a maximum score in the penultimate end pulled Erin up to fourth place. At the final distance the wind suddenly picked up and blew over Erin’s scope, which was subsequently dumped to one side. The sight mark which worked well on home soil proved to be too high for the Lilleshall range and Erin’s first arrows went into the red resulting in 4 dropped points as the top five archers put in maximum scores on most of the ends. A final score of 902 meant another fourth-place finish (out of 17) 10 points off bronze. Although generally pleased with her shooting Erin was gutted to finish outside the medals for a second time. However, given her illness Erin should be proud of her efforts.
Ethan Moore was also out of luck as he travelled to the David Harrison shoot at Newcastle. The conditions were appalling, with high winds causing the competition to be cancelled at the lunch break. Under the rules of shooting, enough of the event had taken place to record a minimum arrows score and award prizes, with Ethan picking up the silver medal. Unfortunately, the incomplete round meant that no ranking points could be claimed which is really what Ethan was there for.
On home soil it was the last chance for the Compound team to get a whole day’s practice in ahead of the Island Games in Orkney. To “aid” their practice the Club Chairman Dave Moore decided to shoot on the diagonal range to give them some experience of shooting in a crosswind (the prevailing conditions on Orkney) which didn’t go down well with the Records Officer, Barbara Harris. She turned up with the goal of simply getting through all 72 arrows of the morning session (which she achieved) in her fight to regain her stamina after a protracted illness. Understanding Dave’s need for a crosswind she decided to be kind to herself and joined Barebow specialist Colin Moore on a 50m-122. Since this is shot on a full size target the round did not count for Barbara as a Recurver but still gave her the chance to improve her form and fitness. Peter Howland also elected to join in. The friendly competition saw Colin take the win with his Barebow by a single point from Barbara with her full Recurve set-up, a fact from which Colin derived much satisfaction (Google “gloating” – definition).
In the Gents Compound division Rhys Moore notched up another win, despite wining one into the 5. Westy picked up second place with Dave off the pace in third.
Isle of Man Archery Club 