At the start of the day, it looked as though the planned shoots might have to be cancelled due to the
weather but luckily, the heavy rain that swept through Greeba kept on going, leaving conditions
breezy but dry. Sunday was a double Championships day, with both The Long Haul and The Roger
Brown Memorial Trophy up for grabs.
The Long Haul, which took place in the morning session, is a barebow round (bows stripped of any
shooting aids, stabilizers, long rods, sights etc), shot over two distances (60 & 40 yards) but using
metric scoring. It is unique to the club having been devised by former member Nev Mason. The
Trophy is a hand-made miniature longbow and quiver, complete with tiny arrows. The highest score
wins irrespective of age or gender. It is a “fun shoot” that the competitors take surprisingly seriously
under all the laughs and calculated barbs.
The barebow specialists naturally expect to have the advantage, and it looked as though things
might go Stan Gorry’s way, but Jonathan Gordon had other ideas. On the back of a superb season,
Jonathan’s excellent form saw him keep all but three of his arrows on target to take the win and lift
the Trophy. Stan pushed him all the way but had to settle for second place, while Erin Hainge took
the family honours beating out her dad Richard for third. Rhys Moore came in fourth, Marie Hainge
fifth and Peter Howland sixth, which left Emily O’Hara holding the wooden spoon.
The Roger Brown Memorial Trophy held in the afternoon session is, again, shot over two distances,
50 & 30m, but using the Club’s beginner bows, which, being of very low draw weight, makes
reaching the first distance something of a challenge, as Emily O’Hara and Joy Gough soon
discovered. Emily, keen to avoid the ignominy of another wooden spoon, dug deep and managed to
offload last position to the unfortunate Joy. Neither woman managed to make it to triple figures.
Peter Howland came in eighth, while Pete Mumford managed to break the 200 barrier to take
seventh place. Stan Gorry, unable to match his form of the morning, slotted into sixth, with Marie
Hainge in fifth. David Craine edged out Erin Hainge to take a well deserved third place. Richard
Hainge found the beginner bows easier to control than his stripped-down normal bow, putting in a
decent score to finish second. This left Jonathan Gordon stamping his authority to take the win by a
clear 37 point margin and lift his second trophy of the day. The trophy in question, specially
commissioned from a local blacksmith, commemorates Roger’s twin passions of archery and flying
model planes.
Results: The Long Haul – 1.J.Gordon 69/426/4/1, 2.S.Gorry 64/415/2/0, 3.E.Hainge 63/409/4/0,
4.R.Hainge 54/369/2/2, 5.R.Moore 59/328/1/0, 6.M.Hainge 47/247/3/0, 7.P.Howland 49/236/0/0,
8.E.O’Hara 50/222/2/1.
The Roger Brown Memorial Trophy – 1.J.Gordon 63/369/5/1, 2.R.Hainge 60/332/4/0, 3.D.Craine
50/271/3/1, 4.E.Hainge 46/259/0/0, 5.M.Hainge 47/241/2/1, 6.S.Gorry 49/235/1/1, 7.P.Mumford
42/218/2/0, 8.P.Howland 40/187/1/0, 9.E.O’Hara 18/68/1/0, 10.J.Gough 9/34/0/0.
Isle of Man Archery Club 