The latest round in the IoM Archery Club Calendar was hampered by freezing temperatures and strong north-easterly winds. Only four archers managed to brave the elements for the entire day and of these only Tilly Ashton was pleased with her shooting. Club members shot a variety of Metric rounds as part of the Scratch League.

In the Gents compound Colin Moore shot a Long Metric in the morning session, that is three dozen arrows at each of two distances – 90m and 70m. Colin managed to keep all his arrows on target but still finished some 30 points down on his pb for the round. Dave Moore shot a full WA1440 round over the whole day (three dozen arrows at each of four distances- 90, 70, 50, & 30m). He had one miss early on but finished strongly to record a decent score given the conditions. Pete Mumford, still breaking in his new Compound bow, elected to shoot a Metric 1 round (three dozen arrows at each of four distances – 70, 60, 50 & 30m). Pete suffered only one miss during the afternoon session but his score was well below his best.

In the Gents Recurve division Josh Trafford and Danny Cowin faced off against each other once again. Josh was shooting the Long Metric round for the first time and struggled to cope with the gusting winds over the first distance. He recorded eight misses to Danny’s five, which allowed Cowin to open up a lead of 37 points. However Danny had a nightmare start to the 70m distance, missing with four of his first six arrows. He then went on to miss a further three times, while Josh went wide of the target only once to turn his 37 point deficit into a 44 lead to take the win.

Joy Gough was the only Lady Compound archer in evidence on Sunday. She coped quite well in the morning session but was unhappy with her performance in the afternoon and wished she too had left at lunch.

Barbara Harris turned up for the afternoon session but might as well have stayed at home. Eleven misses at the first distance and distinctly average shooting at the second saw her record a score some 150 points below her best for the round.

Tilly Ashton was the only Junior to shoot for the whole day and recorded a total for the Metric V that was only 9 points short of a Junior Bowman equivalent score. Given the conditions this was an amazing achievement and we look forward to some decent weather to see what Tilly can really do outdoors.

Toby Young also seemed to take the weather in his stride and added 35 points to his pb for the Short Metric III round he shot in the afternoon session. Jacob Brookes shot a Metric IV round. He struggled with the blustery conditions at first but settled down well to record a decent score.

Results: Gents Compound – Long Metric C. Moore 72/514/5/2. WA1440 D. Moore 143/1221/41/15. Metric I P. Mumford 143/1178/22/5. Gents Recurve Long Metric – 1. J. Trafford 63/392/2/1pb, 2. D. Cowin 60/348/4/0. Ladies Compound – WA1440 J. Gough 139/1100/20/4. Ladies Recurve – Short Metric B. Harris 61/415/2/1. Junior Girls - Metric V T. Ashton 139/1038/23/7pb. Junior Boys – Short Metric III T. Young 72/517/3/0pb. Short Metric IV J. Brookes 70/487/9/1.