The first handicap round of the season took place at Onchan on Sunday. The handicap system, whereby archers have their scratch scores adjusted using a fiendish set of tables, allows users of all bow types to compete on level terms. If an archer shoots to their handicap their score should be corrected to 1440; anything above this means they have shot better than usual – below, and they have some work to do.
The margins are tight and a miss will cost big time. Unfortunately for Pete Mumford (returning from injury), Les Corran and Richard Hainge, a miss a piece blew their challenges out of the water and dropped them down the leader board, finishing fifth, sixth and ninth respectively. Marie Hainge took the family honours to finish fourth.
Peter Howland had a bad day at the office, ending up at the bottom of the table.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom however, Emily O’Hara recorded a pb for her scratch score, which gave her overall victory once the handicap was applied. Mat Smith’s pb earned him a well-deserved third place and history was made by Chris Crompton, whose scratch Barebow score beat the club record which had been held by Alan Munro since the 1980’s. This feat was, however, only good enough for second after handicapping.
Results: Portsmouth Handicap – 1.E.O’Hara 1449(pb), 2.C.Crompton 1442(NCR), 3.M.Smith 1440(pb), 4.M.Hainge 1436, 5.P.Mumford 1431, 6.L.Corran 1423, 7.J.Gordon 1421, 8.D.Craine 1421 (losing out on countback of golds), 9.R.Hainge 1414, 10.P.Howland 1316.
