A special shout out must be given to the Compound Team after their magnificent effort at the Island Games in Orkney last week. Shooting over four days in blistering heat, which no one was expecting, and battered by merciless crosswinds, which they were, the Manx archers lifted a total of five medals. Ethan Moore, gradually turning the colour of his shirt under the Orkney sun, not only took two individual bronze medals in the 1440 and the 720 head-to-heads but also partnered Aalin George to a bronze medal in the Mixed Pairs and took another bronze in the Team 720 head-to heads alongside Aalin and his brother Rhys, as well as silver in the team 1440 on the Monday. This meant that Ethan came home with a medal in every competition he was eligible to shoot in. Congratulations to them all!
The Team’s triumphs, accounts of which were regularly posted on the Club’s Facebook page, produced an interesting side-effect, that of rekindling an interest in archery in the heart of Danny Cowin, who had not been seen at the Club for about 18 months. The little ray of Manx sunshine that is Danny, stunned the handful of archers who were available to shoot by not only turning up on Sunday, but also showing clear signs of enjoying himself having done so. By enjoying, I mean he didn’t growl once.
The round of the day was the WA 900 – 30 arrows shot at each of three distances, 60, 50 and 40m. The 900 is supposed to be a three-quarter day round but by not taking breaks between field re-sets was completed with ease in the morning session. Danny joined Richard Hainge and Peter Howland in the Gents division, and despite having no sight marks and realizing that his bow was still set up for Indoor distances, not having taken the thing out of the box since early last year, he applied himself and took second place behind Richard. Richard shot consistently over the three distances to take the win just one point short of equalling the Club record. Not having shot the round before, Richard had the consolation of setting a personal best.
In the Ladies Recurve Erin Hainge did one better by shattering the Ladies Club record held by Barbara Harris since 2018. Erin broke the club record by an amazing 82 points in the face of intermittent rain and difficult wind conditions. Harris herself, after a slow start, put in a solid round to take second place. Emily O’Hara, who had never shot further than 50m before and who had no sight marks, thoroughly enjoyed the challenge on her way to third place and a personal best score.
Les Corrin took advantage of the absence of the Compound Team to take his first ever win and also record a personal best score.
Also shooting were Stan Gorry and Colin Moore who began to shoot a Barebow 50m round. Stan had an appointment with Steam Packet ferry and so had planned to leave early, but Colin’s round was unexpectedly cut sort when his upper limb delaminated at full draw, shearing the string and catapulting the bottom limb down the field. Colin, fortunately, was not hurt by the incident.
Results WA 900: Gents Recurve- 1.R.Hainge 90/754/17/5pb, 2.D.Cowin 90/630/5/2, 3.P.Howland 79/456/4/3. Ladies Recurve-1.E.Hainge 90/759/15/7NCR, 2.B.Harris 88/650/10/6, 3.E.O’Hara 79/427/2/0pb. Gents Compound-L.Corrin 90/778/25/3pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 