The IoM Archery Club met on Sunday to shoot a York/Hereford round as part of the Club’s Handicap League. The York for the Gents consists of 6 dozen arrows at 100yds, 4 dozen arrows at 80yds and 2 dozen at 60yds. The Ladies Hereford consists of the same arrow distribution but at 80, 60 and 50yds.

Expectations were not high, as TT fortnight had prevented any club night training or Sunday shoots, but weather conditions were excellent, warm with a manageable breeze, and five out of the seven archers shot personal best rounds. Among these was Dave Moore who added 30 points to his pb and won the Compound scratch score battle between himself and Pete Mumford on number of golds scored.

Joy Gough, the only Lady Compound archer in evidence on Sunday, broke her personal best record set in September 2002 by 14 points.

Of the Recurve archers present on Sunday, Danny Cowin shot the round for the first time posting a respectable scratch score of 669. After the handicap allowance was applied his score was good enough for second place. Josh Trafford shot a Bristol II round according to his age group (same number of arrows as the seniors but at 60, 50 and 40yds) for the first time and recorded an impressive score of 983 which after handicapping gave him the win. Karen Lott who had missed even more practice due to work commitments, shot just below her best for the round and came third after the handicap was applied.

Junior Jack Tyrer shot a round in the afternoon and added 12 points to his pb for the Junior National.

Results York/Hereford/National :- 1. Josh Trafford 1490 (143/983/41)pb, 2. Danny Cowin 1472 (117/669/26)pb, 3. Karen Lott 1465 (143/909/29), 4. Jack Tyrer 1156 (72/468/18)pb, 5. Joy Gough 1449 (144/1194/96)pb, 6. Dave Moore 1434 (144/1140/77)pb, 7. Pete Mumford 1412 (144/1140/76)

Sarah Rigby (Ladies Compound) shot at the Lilleshall National Sports Centre in Shropshire in the UK Masters Competition. This event is by invitation only to archers who have attained the level of Master Bowman or Grand Master Bowman, with some 160 archers competing over the weekend in the various divisions.

Despite atrocious weather on Saturday, Sarah shot very well and finished in 6th place with a score of 660 (which is a GB qualifying score) then progressed into the head to head knock out competitions. Being particularly good at this format, Sarah shot her way through to the medal matches, defeating GB Squad members en route. She lost her semi-final face off to Pauline Burfitt which put Sarah into the bronze medal match against Claudine Jennings. Unfortunately Sarah lost to Claudine and finished fourth. This was still a tremendous result for Sarah as the UK Masters is one of the top events on Archery GB outdoor calendar. On Sunday the weather at Lilleshall was much improved and Sarah’s score in the WA 1440 round of 144 hits, 1294 scored with 53 golds and 19 x’s saw her finish in tenth place. A brilliant weekend’s shooting by Sarah.