There was action both on and off the island at the weekend, with Erin Hainge travelling across to the Cheshire Junior Championships, while the Club held the Roger Brown Memorial Trophy shoot on home soil.
Erin did not enjoy good weather in Cheshire, but a little rain in the afternoon was not enough to put her off. Indeed, she celebrated what was her birthday in emphatic style. Powered by plenty of Jaffa cakes, her snack off choice, Erin recorded a personal best score of 1188 in the Metric 3 competition for age group. This impressive total won her gold in the u15’s Recurve Visitor category and, for the third year running, the gold for the overall Girls Recurve Highest Visitor (all ages) category. The youngster also picked up white and black Wheatsheaf badges to go with the Cheshire cat ones she was awarded two years ago at the same event. A brilliant result, well worth getting a little soggy for. Happy Birthday Erin!
Greeba was cold and dank on Sunday; soggy underfoot but the rain held off thankfully and the Roger Brown Memorial Trophy went ahead in exuberant fashion. The Roger Brown is a Club special, held in memory of a much-missed Club member. The trophy itself, the largest and handsomest the Club owns, was dreamt up by Dave Moore and executed by a local blacksmith from a design by Katherine Harris, one of the Club Juniors. The event is now in its third year. The round is shot using the Club’s ‘jelly bows’ – essentially a stick and a string- over distances of 50 and 30m (36 arrows at each distance). At least those are the distances it is supposed to be shot over but, thanks to a senior moment by the Records Officer during set up, it actually took place over 40 and 20m this year. The mistake made no difference to the outcome, however. Fourteen archers took part enjoying both the shooting and the banter which is an integral part of the process. Defending Champion Colin Moore was sadly unavailable due to a prior commitment and Dave Moore saw his chance to recover the trophy he won in its inaugural year. The favourites were Dave Moore, Pete Mumford and barebow specialists Stan Gorry and Johnathon Gordon. Some like Charlotte George and James Hill don’t usually enjoy that kind of thing but were keen to take part and Barbara Harris put in an appearance because someone has to come last. In any event everyone was on for a pb as the distances had never been shot before. The sighters gave a fair indication of how things would pan out. Charlotte George overestimated the angle required by an 18lb jelly bow and watched her first arrow sail over the boss to land at 90m. Re-evaluating matters she soon found her range, hitting the first X of the day and eventually finishing in nineth place. Barbara Harris who had only manged 12 scoring arrows the last time she competed in the event, switched to shooting right-handed for the morning and hit the target 48 times. Her score was much less embarrassing, but she still came dead last. She also managed to ‘lose’ an arrow, which after several minutes of searching by the entire group, was found hanging down the back of her boss tangled up in the flag. Newcomers to the event David Craine, Adrian Beale and Ethan Corrin were surprised at how enjoyable the experience was and were keen to do more. Pete Mumford and Stan Gorry surprisingly struggled over the morning, unable to zone in on the 40m. They recovered at the second distance, but the damage had been done and it quickly became clear that it was a three-horse race between Dave Moore, Jonathon Gordon and, rather unexpectedly, Rhys Moore. Rhys also switched to shooting with the opposite hand for the occasion, and he finished third. Jonathan Gordon was one of only two archers to keep all their arrows on target, the other being Dave Moore, he put in a terrific effort to break the 500 barrier but he was no match for the inspired shooting of Dave who took the win by a margin of 55 points. The Roger Brown will once again grace his trophy cabinet.
Results: 1.D Moore 567, 2.J.Gordon 512, 3.R Moore 441, 4.J Hill 396, 5.D Craine 394, 6.A George 366 7.P Mumford 365, 8.R Mitchell 360, 9.C George 345, 10.S Gorry 339, 11.P Howland 328, 12.A Beale 322, 13.E Corrin 309, 14.B Harris 258.
Isle of Man Archery Club 