Shooting conditions were nearly perfect for the Senior Club Championships at Greeba on Sunday. Temperatures were high but there was a tricky breeze that blew for most of the morning. The turnout was the lowest in recent times with only ten archers competing in the WA1440 (90/70/50/30m for the gents, 70/60/50/30m for the ladies) round that decided the trophies. Of the ten archers, only seven were correctly dressed for the occasion in club shirts and black trousers. The other three were in various states of mufti and Simon Musgrove’s insistence that the colour of the shorts he was wearing was taupe and not beige cut very little ice with the records officer but she was prevailed upon by the Club Chairman to be lenient and accept their scorecards.
Once again Joy Gough and Barbara Harris found themselves to be the only competitors in their respective divisions, so short of shooting themselves in the foot the trophies would be theirs for a second year running. Joy Gough (Compound) made a bit of a slow start at the first distance but recovered well to post a decent score. Barbara Harris (Recurve), who had fallen just short of the elusive 1100 mark the week before, allowed herself to be distracted by number chasing into shooting poorly. Her final score was over a hundred points down on the previous week and she was very disappointed with herself.
The Gents Recurve division had a field of two; Tony Hartley’s absence was not surprising but that of recent Island Games participant and reigning Club Champion Josh Trafford was, and it was disappointing that he did not show up to defend his title. It was left to Carl Moon and Danny Cowin to contest the trophy. Carl Moon had done well enough the week before to have a lead going into the afternoon session but fortune did not favour him at the Championships. In spite of having two fewer misses at 90m than Danny Cowin, Danny still managed to out shoot Carl and the 7 point difference between the two men was the closest Carl got to Danny all day. The victory margin was almost 100 points but Cowin was obviously frustrated with his lacklustre performance and seemed to take little pleasure in the win.
The largest field of the day and the most excitement came with the Gents Compound division. Billy Lightfoot, Simon Musgrove, Colin Moore, Pete Mumford and Rhys and Dave Moore lined against one another. Pete Mumford and Simon Musgrove were a bit off the pace over the first distance but only 12 points separated the other four. Rhys had the early lead, 9 points clear of Billy with Dave 1 point behind him and Colin only 1 point further back. From this point on it became clear that Rhys would retain his title and the fight for second was between Billy Lightfoot and Dave Moore. By the end of the second distance Rhys had stretched his lead to 17 points and Billy Lightfoot was holding on to second place, 1 point ahead of Dave. At 50m Billy put an arrow out into the 5 ring which opened the door for Dave. Billy’s 1 point advantage turned into a 3 point deficit and everything hung on the final distance.
Rhys motored to victory as the only man to break 1300 on the day and when Billy missed with the third arrow of the second dozen it looked as though Dave would secure second place. However Dave then missed with the ninth arrow of the second dozen and his lead was cut to single point. Dave put in a total of 117 for the final dozen arrows, while Billy put in a score of 119 which meant he had taken second place by one point or so it seemed. On closer inspection the Records Officer found an error on Lightfoot’s scoresheet and both he and Dave had actually recorded the same total. In the event of a tie the number of golds scored by each archer is taken into account. Dave Moore had 51 golds - Billy Lightfoot had 56 and so took second place on countback. Of the others, Pete Mumford, beautifully accessorized, put in a blinding 30m to record a season’s best score to finish fourth, Simon Musgrove shot a pb to finish fifth and Colin Moore added 21 points to his pb, in spite of putting an arrow into the wrong target, to come in sixth.
Two juniors, Tilly Ashton and Jacob Brookes turned up in the afternoon to shoot on the junior range under the auspices of Dave Berry who was still not fit enough to compete following a recent illness. Tilly took the win but Jacob added 2 points to his pb for the round.
Results Senior Club Championships – Ladies Compound - J.Gough 144/1243/33/14. Ladies Recurve – B.Harris 139/990/10/0. Gents Recurve – 1. D.Cowin 138/933/14/4, 2. C.Moon 140/836/5/3. Gents Compound – 1. R.Moore 144/1319/59/21, 2. B.Lightfoot 143/1284/56/26, 3. D.Moore 143/1284/51/17, 4. P.Mumford 144/1272/53/20sb, 5. S.Musgrove 143/1217/33/8pb, 6. C.Moore 142/1215/36/12pb. Short Metric IV – 1. T.Ashton 72/651/28/13, 2. J.Brookes 72/623/26/13pb.
