Fifteen members of the IoM Archery Club turned out on Sunday to shoot a York/Hereford round as part of the Club’s Handicap League. The York/Hereford consists of 144 arrows shot on a 6 dozen/4 dozen/2 dozen split at 100/80/60yards for the men and 80/60/50yards for the women. The handicap system allows archers of all ages, genders and bow types to shoot against one another on a level playing field. If an archer shoot exactly to his/her handicap the Tables will adjust the score to 1440. Anything above or below this level will indicate how well or poorly an individual has shot.

With blue skies and plenty of sunshine at Greeba everyone was hopeful of having a good shoot. However the sunshine was deceptive. Temperatures were low, and made worse by a gusting north westerly wind blowing into the archers faces. The wind also played havoc with the arrows and only three archers managed to keep all of theirs on target. Danny Cowin managed to shoot the wind indicator flag from the top his boss but not all of the misses could be blamed on the wind. Lesley Sleight accidently put an arrow into the target to the right of the one she was shooting on. Pete Mumford went one better and put two arrows into the target to the left of the one he was shooting on and Billy Lightfoot miscounted and shot five arrows instead of six on one of the ends.
Rhys Moore, fresh from a third place finish at the NCAS Double WA1440 STAR in Cheshire the previous week, won the private battle of the Compounds finishing 78 points ahead of his nearest rival. Rhys recorded the highest scratch score of the day but finished fifth overall after handicapping, which showed that even the best archer in the club found the conditions difficult.

Two Juniors, Tilly Ashton and James Hill, also shot all day. Their rounds were based on the same 6/4/2 split of arrows but with the distances decided on age group. Tilly Ashton, shooting a Bristol V (30/20/10yds), was suffering from either hayfever or a heavy cold and had to contend with sneezes and a running nose as well as the chilly temperatures. She sat huddled beneath coats and rugs between ends, steadily working her way through a box of tissues. Her score was a little down on previous weeks, as was to be expected, but she showed commendable persistence to see out the day. Tilly finished sixth overall. James Hill shot a Bristol III round for the first time but had trouble with his sight marks and release which had an impact on his overall position.

Denyse Hill, Toby Young and Jacob Brookes turned up for the afternoon session and had to contend with not only the windy conditions but also the cries of anguish from Pete Mumford as he pinged another arrow into the ground about ten yards from his feet. Denyse shooting a National round (60/50yds) for the first time, had only one miss and put in a terrific benchmark score, which after handicapping gave her third place overall. Toby Young and Jacob Brookes shot a Junior National (40/30yds) which saw Jacob add 20 points to his pb for the round. After the handicap was applied Jacob took the overall win by some margin, with Toby in second place.

Results York/Hereford Handicap – 1. J.Brookes 1521 (68/424/16)pb, 2. T.Young 1444 (71/507/32), 3. D.Hill 1443 (71/413/9)pb, 4. C.Moore 1391 (72/498/19), 5. R.Moore 1382 (144/1156/81), 6. T.Ashton 1347 (141/902/46), 7. J.Hill 1331 (116/614/16)pb, 8. D.Moore 1330 (144/1078/61), 9. J.Gough 1322 (143/1067/60), 10. B.Lightfoot 1286 (143/1043/52), 11. P.Mumford 1286 (138/1056/62), 12. D.Cowin 1234 (127/633/19), 13. T.Hartley 1227 126/652/13), 14. B.Harris 1196 (134/759/21), 15. D.Berry 1112 (115/585/13).

Also shooting Hereford Lesley Sleight 123/591/14.