There was another good turnout at Onchan on Sunday as the Club’s archers faced up to a WA18 as part of the Club’s Scratch League. With space at a premium most chose to shoot the three-spot option.
Surprisingly, Danny Cowin graced the hall with his presence, the fact that the Whitestone in Ballasalla is closed for refurbishment had no bearing on the matter, and took to the shooting line in the Gents Recurve alongside Johnathan Gordon, Richard Hainge, Tom Rogers, Radu Lavric and David Craine. Johnathan continued his run of form despite having a miss, but he was pushed hard by Tom towards the middle of the shoot when he shot a perfect 60. Unfortunately for Tom, fatigue began to hit in the later stages, and he had to settle for second place. Danny, who shoots about once every 3 months, had a slow start but his groups improved over the morning and took the last place on the podium. Richard Hainge, shooting a new riser for the first time, struggled to get to grips with it and felt, justifiably, that it still needed a bit of tweaking before he could get his scores to go in the right direction. He slotted into fourth place ahead of newcomer Radu Lavric, which left the ever-genial David Craine at the bottom of the leader board. Johnathan made up for the miss by shooting a second time in the afternoon session to set a new club record.
In the Ladies Recurve Erin Hainge posted a personal best score to take victory over Emily O’Hara. Erin went on into the afternoon session to shoot again, the combined score of the two sessions breaking the old club record, which had stood since 2019, by 15 points. More records are likely to be broken this season by the talented teenager. Caitlin Gelder, who was taking part for the first time, elected to shoot a Portsmouth round and set a decent benchmark score.
Rhys Moore flexed his muscles in the Gents Compound division taking the win in style with a new club record. The fight for the minor places was between Les Corran, Pete Mumford and David Moore. A miss from Mumford scuppered his chances, while a solid performance from David secured second place by a margin of 23 points from Les who had to be content with third. Rhys’ record breaking continued in the afternoon session where he set a new club record for the double round. The Records he beat were, of course, his own.
It was a straight head-to-head between Aalin George and Marie Hainge in the Ladies Compound. Victory went to Aalin, but Marie was only 14 points behind and is improving all the time. It will be an interesting season.
Stan Gorry and Colin Moore went head-to-head in the Tradbow division, with Stan coming away on top. Stan elected to shoot his Longbow in the afternoon session, putting him against Peter Howland, and coming away with a second top score of the day.
Results WA18: Gents Recurve- 1.J.Gordon 59/537/18, 2.T.Rogers 60/523/14, 3.D.Cowin 59/456/3, 4.R.Hainge 53/436/9, 5.R.Lavric 59/419/2, 6.D.Craine 59/394/1. Ladies Recurve- 1.E.Hainge 60/541/19pb, 2.E.O’Hara 60/434/0. Gents Compound- 1.R.Moore 60/581/41NCR, 2.D.Moore 60/569/29, 3.L.Corran 60/546/9, 4.P.Mumford 59/532/10. Ladies Compound- 1.A.George 60/558/21, 2.M.Hainge 60/544/9. Gents Tradbow- 1.S.Gorry 51/297/3, 2.C.Moore 42/215/0. Gents Longbow- 1.S.Gorry 55/328/4, 2.P.Howland 50/259/2.
Double WA18 – J.Gordon 119/1162/82NCR. E.Hainge 120/1079/31NCR. R.Moore 120/1162/82NCR.
Portsmouth- C.Gelder 59/365/4pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 