The Isle of Man Archery Club met on Sunday at Greeba to shoot a Metric round as part of the Club’s Scratch League. It was a bright sunny day but it soon became apparent that conditions were from ideal. The wind was bitingly cold and by the time the field had been set most archers were adding extra layers of clothing to counter the wind chill factor. The low temperature was not the only problem however as the archers soon found when shooting commenced. The wind, as well as being cold, was circling the field - never constant so that arrows were blown off course at the target face or the shooters themselves were blown off balance as they shot. It was not going to be a day for high scores and club records.
In the Gents Compound division all the men suffered misses over the course of the day. Unusually it the most experienced of the archers, Pete Mumford, who suffered most with one miss at 90m and three misses at 50m. This dropped him into last place. Rhys Moore, who completed his third round on Sunday and can now be given a handicap for the Compound bow, had misses at 70m and 50m but comfortably took second. This left Dave Moore, who only had one miss bizarrely at the shortest distance, to record another win outdoors.
Joy Gough was again the only Lady Compound archer in evidence but did well in spite of the conditions to break 1200 and was the only archer to score with all 144 of her arrows.
Karen Lott and Barbara Harris faced off again in the Ladies Recurve. Harris had four misses at 70m and generally struggled over the whole day. Karen had three misses over the course of the day but shot solidly to break 1000 points with ease.
Juniors Josh Trafford and Charlotte Harris both shot a Metric I round while trying not to succumb to hypothermia. Both did as well as could be expected given the conditions.
Tony Hartley and Colin Moore both turned up for the morning session but sensibly left at lunchtime. Juniors Toby Young, Joseph Reaney and James Hill arrived to shoot a Short Metric II in the afternoon and got the benefit of the worsening weather. The young men with their lighter weighted bows fell victim to the treacherous wind conditions and recorded a number of misses. As the afternoon session got underway the sun disappeared and the temperature plummeted. Threatening clouds gathered and as the shooters began the final distance the rain began to fall. Just as everyone thought things could not get any worse the rain turned to hail. James Hill shooting the Metric II round for the first time was the only person to record a personal best score on the day.
Results 1440 Round – Gents Compound: - 1. Dave Moore 143/1237/45/16, 2. Rhys Moore 142/1212/34/6, 3. Pete Mumford 140/1166/32/9. Ladies Compound – Joy Gough 144/1204/32/9. Gents Recurve Danny Cowin 138/924/12/4. Ladies Recurve – 1. Karen Lott 141/1038/12/3, 2. B. Harris 139/834/3/1. Metric 1- Junior Gents Recurve – Josh Trafford 143/961/13/8. Junior Ladies Recurve – C. Harris 139/934/13/2. Long Metric – Gents Compound – Colin Moore 68/436/4/2. Gents Recurve – Tony Hartley 51/242/0/0. Metric II – 1. Toby Young 64/314/2/1, 2. Joseph Reaney 60/300/0/0, 3. James Hill 49/234/0/0.
