It was a gorgeous day for shooting on Sunday, blue skies, soaring temperatures and a pleasant breeze. It was the last chance for the Island Games Team squad to practice before their kit was put on the mini-bus to begin its long journey to Gotland. The round of the day was a WA1440 (90/70/50/30m for the Gents, 70/60/50/30 for the Ladies).

Dave, Rhys and Ethan Moore line up alongside Pete Mumford in the Gents Compound division. For once Rhys was left standing as Ethan got off to a blistering start, notching up an 11 point lead and recording a pb for the distance. Dave Moore had a poor start at the 90m and although he recovered over the next three distances he had to settle for third. Rhys managed to pull back a handful of points at 70m to lie 6 points off the pace at the half way stage. By the end of the 50m distance Rhys had turned the deficit into a 2 point lead. Ethan went on to record a pb for the round but it was not quite good enough as Rhys extended his lead to take the win by 6 points. Pete Mumford enjoyed the sun.

Billy Lightfoot and Simon Musgrove could only stay for the morning session and so shot a Long Metric (90/70m), with Billy taking the honours.

Joy Gough had a terrific day in the Ladies Compound shooting a season’s best score with plenty more points to be picked up at the 50m mark when she gets to Gotland.

In The Gents Recurve Island Games Squad member Danny Cowin was kept company by Carl Moon, who outshot Danny over the first two distances. Unfortunately Carl could only shoot in the morning session but his score was a pb for the round. Danny put in an excellent 50m score in the afternoon session which made up for a relatively poor 70m total. A decent 30m score put him well over the 1000 barrier but he was still some way below his best.

Barbara Harris had a dreadful day but did at least work out what she was doing wrong with the last dozen arrows of the day so the shoot was productive.

In the afternoon session David Smith and junior archers Jacob Brookes and Nathan Kinrade showed up the shoot a Short Metric round. All three enjoyed the brilliant weather and recorded personal best scores for their respective rounds. David added 56 points to his pb for the Short Metric, while Nathan added 39 points to his pb for the Short Metric IV, but this was not quite good enough as Jacob added 2 points to his pb for the round to take the win.

Results WA1440 – Gents Compound 1.R.Moore 144/1331/68/27, 2.E.Moore 144/1325/65/26pb, 3.D.Moore 144/1297/53/22, 4.P.Mumford 144/1250/39/12. Ladies Compound – J.Gough 144/1275/50/18. Gents Recurve – D.Cowin 142/1022/16/5. Ladies Recurve – B.Harris 132/923/8/2. Long Metric – Gents Compound 1.B.Lightfoot 72/615/11/4, 2.S.Musgrove 72/601/10/3. Gents Recurve – C.Moon 72/438/1/1pb. Short Metric Gents Recurve – D.Smith 43/253/0/0pb. Short Metric IV – 1.J.Brookes 72/605/17/7pb, 2.N.Kinrade 72/592/20/8pb.

Good Luck to the whole IoM Team at the Island Games next week.