With the action settled Indoors for the winter, the Club tackled their least favourite round the WA18. This is 60 arrows, shot in groups of three. The Compounds had to take on the smaller three face option but most of the Recurves elected to do so as well.
With Rhys Moore absent the Gents Compound was wide open. Pete Mumford, Colin Moore, Les Corrin, Andrew (Westy) Westmorland and Dave Moore were all keen to make the most of Rhys’ absence. A miss early on put Les, who was trying a back tension release aid, out of contention, and while Colin kept a clean sheet, he just couldn’t find the centre. Colin adjusted the placement of his target face several times, possibly in the hope that he could put it under the place where his arrows were actually landing, but it didn’t help, and he finished bottom of the leader board. Pete Mumford shot solidly in the afternoon session to secure third place but fight for supremacy fell to Dave and Westy. There was only a couple of points in it over the first dozen but then Dave dialled in his sights and began to motor away from Westy who, after a good start, dropped out of the centre, and it was Dave Moore who took the win.
The Ladies Compound was a straight head-to-head between Catherine Irving-Potter and Marie Hainge, with Marie recording an easy victory over the latest Compound convert. Joy Gough started the round but called it quits at halfway, which gave her a score for a Bray 1.
The Gents Recurve was the usual two-horse race between Richard Hainge and Jonathan Gordon. Neither man was exactly on fire, the indoor lighting, takes some getting used to, but while the scores were low by their standards it was business as usual with Jonathan taking the win.
Erin Hainge, who elected to shoot the three-spot target, obliterated Barbara Harris in the Ladies Recurve division. Barbara did herself no favours by not bothering to wear her glasses to put her sight mark on and by the time she realised that she had set it to 28 and not 18, where it should have been, it was far to late. Barbara finished strongly but the day belonged to Erin.
The Gents Barebow was a one-sided affair with Stan Gorry never under any pressure from voluble Scotsman Ralf Mitchell. Ralf spent the morning telling his boss mate Barbara Harris that he was ‘pleased with that’ which shows a poor mindset – the dedicated archer is never happy with what they have shot. At the end of the session Ralf forgot to take his arrows with him when he left. Says it all really.
Peter Howland won the Longbow division unopposed.
Results WA18: Gents Compound- 1.D.Moore 60/563/28, 2.A.Westmorland 60/545/13, 3.P.Mumford 60/533/10, L.Corrin 59/516/8, C.Moore 60/513/4. Ladies Compound- 1.M.Hainge 59/505/6, 2.C.Irving-Potter 55/443/2. Gents Recurve- 1.J.Gordon 59/512/11, 2.R.Hainge 59/506/13. Ladies Recurve- 1.E.Hainge 58/480/11, 2.B.Harris 59/418/5. Barebow- 1.S.Gorry 58/337/4, 2.R.Mitchell 56/286/1. Longbow- P.Howland 41/189/1. Bray 1- J.Gough 29/240/2.
Isle of Man Archery Club 