Under drizzling skies and amid conflicting weather reports, only six members of IoMAC turned up on Sunday at Greeba. Rain showers were supposed to give way to sunshine by midday and the decision was taken to shoot. The round of the day was a 720, that is 72 arrows at a single distance: 70m for Recurve /50m for Compound, shot as part of the Club’s Scratch League.

The restriction caused by shooting in waterproofs combined with the rains tendency to drive the arrows down produced disappointing scores for most of the archers. In the Gents Compound division Rhys Moore had a miss which saw him finish well below his best for the round, though he still had an easy victory over Simon Musgrove who was the only other competitor. Simon was happy enough with his score however as he had made an adjustment to his draw length and was shooting the new set up for the first time.

Joy Gough, who had made changes to the pin in her sight found it difficult to get a clear sight picture and used the morning as an experiment to find the right sized sight pin with the result that she posted her worst ever score.

In the Gents Recurve Danny Cowin was disappointed with his shooting as too many arrows drifted into the low scoring areas of the target. Danny took the win but finished well down on the personal best score he had posted on Tuesday night. Carl Moon, shooting Outdoors for the first time, posted a decent score for a first attempt but found the conditions energy sapping and his sub-totals dipped in the last half dozen arrows. He needs to shoot two more rounds to be given a Handicap rating.

Barbara Harris, who’s mind seemed to be on other things managed to miss the target a total of eleven times. On one occasion she shot seven arrows which meant she had to discount the value of her highest one, this turned out to be the only x10 she shot all morning. With a bit of coaching and encouragement from Danny Cowin, Barbara put in a decent sub-total with her last dozen arrows but it was too little, too late and she failed even to break 400.

The rain had gradually cleared over the morning and the lunch break passed in glorious sunshine. Everyone brightened at the thought of improving their scores in the afternoon but this was not to be. By the time the afternoon contingent of Dave Berry, Josh Trafford, Tilly Ashton and Jacob Brooks were ready to shoot the drizzle had started up again. By the end of the first dozen arrows it had developed into full on rain which made scoring difficult as the score sheets turned to mush. By the end of the second dozen the rain had turned into a monsoon and the decision was taken to abandon to field. Better luck next week.

Results 720 Round: Gents Compound – 1. R Moore 71/643/27/9, 2. S.Musgrove 72/607/15/8. Ladies Compound – Joy Gough 72/567/12/3. Gents Recurve – 1. D.Cowin 72/528/6/3, 2. C.Moon 67/352/4/0pb. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 61/399/4/0.