In one of the lowest turnouts ever, seven archers gathered on Sunday to contest the annual Windsor
Trophy Shoot. The skies were overcast but the conditions were warm and humid, and the sun did
eventually put in an appearance. The Windsor is shot over three distances: 60/50 & 40 yards, with 3
dozen arrows shot at each distance. It is scored using five zones – 9 down to 1. The Windsor Trophy is
unique at the Club in that it is not divided by gender – the highest score for each bow type wins.
Peter Howland switched back from his Longbow to join Matt Smith, Johnathan Gordon, Emily O’Hara
and Barbara Harris on the line in the Recurve division. Barbara, having not touched a bow since early
April, was out of practice and out of condition. She arrived simply hoping to make it to the end of the
shoot. Sadly, this was not to be, and she had to withdraw with four ends still to go. Matt Smith was
the only archer to keep all of his arrows on target as he put in a personal best score for the round,
but it was not enough in the face of Johnathan’s continued good form. Even with a miss, Johnathan
finished 51 points clear of Matt to take the win and another trophy. I hope he has a big mantlepiece.
Emily put in a good show to take the last spot on the podium. Peter adapted to the change in
shooting style pretty well but had to settle for fourth place.
With Rhys Moore electing to practice a 50m round on the junior range, Westy Westmorland had the
Compound division all to himself. Westy put in an excellent display, dropping just 2 points over the
entire shoot to take the trophy in style.
In the absence of Stan Gorry and Colin Moore, who is yet to put in appearance outdoors, it was left
to Cloe Cabberley to fly the flag for the Barebows and so got the trophy for her efforts.
A notable absence on Sunday was that of the Hainges. This was because Richard was shepherding
Erin at the Junior National Championships at Lilleshall, Archery GB’s headquarters. The
Championships were held over two days, with the metric rounds shot on Saturday and the imperial
rounds shot on Sunday. Erin was competing in the u18’s age group for the first time and she did well
against a large field to finish fifth on the first day. Things did not go so well on the second day,
however. Difficulties at the first distance (60 yards) put Erin into 12 th place. She bounced back at the
start of the 50 yard distance, propelling herself up to 5 th place before a slump at the end of that
distance dropped her back down to 10 th , where she remained. Erin was disappointed with the result
but gained some valuable knowledge of what she needs to improve on.
Results Windsor Trophy: Recurve- 1.J.Gordon 107/907/73, 2.M.Smith 108/856/56, 3.E.O’Hara
105/696/29, 4.P.Howland 105/593/15. Compound- A.Westmorland 108/970/107. Barebow-
C.Cabberly 78/415/9.
Isle of Man Archery Club 