The IoM Archery Club was back in action after a two week pause caused by the TT. Weather prospects were not good but with the Island Games fast approaching every minute was valuable so the archers turned up ready to cope with every contingency. As it was temperatures were reasonably high, although one of the more elderly archers complained of the cold, but there was a tricky gusting wind blowing across the field which made things interesting. The round of the day was WA720 -  72 arrows shot at a single distance 70m for Recurves/ 50m for Compound.

Dave, Rhys and Ethan Moore together with Billy Lightfoot and Pete Mumford lined up in the Gents Compound division. Dave put in a solid round but Rhys was at near best and recorded a score just 5 points short of his pb to take the win by some distance. Pete Mumford shot a relaxed round to take third place with Ethan just behind him in fourth. Billy Lightfoot never really caught fire and faded over the last dozen arrows to finish fifth.

Joy Gough had a mixed round, too many arrows going out into the blue meant that she failed to break the 600 mark.

In the Gents Recurve Carl Moon shooting with new arrows and a new pressure button got off to a slow start. After a couple of misses in the first six arrows problems with his pressure button were sorted and he finished just a few points off his best. The fight for top spot was between Josh Trafford and Danny Cowin. Danny started well, but a miss in the second dozen cost him and some poor arrows in the second last dozen meant he had to settle for second place.

Lone Lady Recurver Barbara Harris had a better time of things, out scoring the Gents to record the highest Recurve score of the day and a new personal best for the round.

The sun came out during the lunch break and three Junior archers, Toby Young, James Hill and Jacob Brookes showed up to shoot.

Unfortunately the sun did not stick around for long and the rain showers forecast tea-time turned up early, this ended any hope the senior archers who carried on shooting into the afternoon had of improving their morning scores. The juniors sadly had the worst of the weather but this did not prevent some very good shooting. Having recently celebrated his birthday James Hill had to move up a distance and joined Toby Young on the 50m boss. Jacob Brookes remained at 30m. James was not only shooting a new distance but also using new arrows which meant his sight marks were wrong and it took him a while to get settled but he set a decent benchmark score. Toby Young had a good afternoon adding 15 points to his pb to take the win, while Jacob Brookes had an even better afternoon adding a terrific 34 points to his pb for the round in spite of the rain.

Results WA720: Gents Compound – 1. R.Moore 72/676/34/14, 2. D.Moore 72/656/30/11, 3. P.Mumford 71/637/27/10, 4. E.Moore 72/632/18/5, 5. B.Lightfoot 72/620/17/6. Ladies Compound – J.Gough 72/594/11/2. Gents Recurve – 1. J.Trafford 72/525/4/1, 2. D.Cowin 71/511/7/1, 3. C.Moon 70/464/7/1. Ladies Recurve – B.Harris 72/530/4/1pb. 122-50 -1. T.Young 72/559/9/0pb, 2. J.Hill 58/333/2/0pb. 122-30- J.Brookes 35/600/12/4pb.

Double 720 – Gents Compound 1. R.Moore 144/1342/61/21, 2. D.Moore 144/1301/52/16, 3. E.Moore 144/1244/16/5. Ladies Compound – J.Gough 141/1181/21/7. Gents Recurve – D.Cowin 143/994/12/1. Ladies Recurve – B.Harris 142/990/9/3.