There was a decent turnout at The Hub in Onchan for Sunday’s shoot. The round of the day was a WA18 shot as part of the Club’s Handicap League. The WA18 comprises 60 arrows shot at a triple face target for Compounds and a single face target for Recurves and Juniors.  Recurvers Dave Berry and Barbara Harris both elected to shoot triple face targets. The scratch scores were then adjusted by handicap to give the final scores irrespective of bow type, gender or age. If an archer shoots to his handicap his adjusted score should be 1440, anything above or below this gives an indication of how well an individual is shooting.

Unable to drag himself away from the distractions of Port St Mary, Billy Lightfoot was once more a no show, so it was left to Pete Mumford, Simon Musgrove and Dave and Rhys Moore to contend for the scratch honours in the Gents Compound. Simon Musgrove made the best start but was overtaken by Rhys Moore in the second dozen. A mistake in Musgrove’s addition made it look as though he had pulled level but he had actually dropped back to third place behind Dave Moore. Dave’s challenge then ended as he hit a string of 9’s during the fourth dozen, while Simon put in his best dozen total for the day to draw level with Rhys. As Rhys faded slightly over the final dozen Simon was able to maintain his concentration to take the scratch win by 2 points, adding 20 points to his pb in the process. After the handicap was applied Simon’s overall score was good enough for third place. Rhys did salvage something from the day as he carried on shooting in the afternoon to record a pb for the Double WA18 which also happened to be a New Club Record.

In the Recurve division Dave Berry, Danny Cowin and Barbara Harris spent a happy morning scoring points off each other as well as on the targets. Danny was in good form with just one or two shots marring an otherwise excellent shoot finishing just 10 points short of his pb and recording the highest single face scratch total for the day. Barbara continued the promising start she made to the Indoor season, her serenity in no way ruffled by Danny Cowin’s suggestion that she could use her broomstick to fly to the next competition across as it was just after Hop Tu Naa. Dave Berry was sadly out of practice after a long holiday and could not keep pace with Harris on the triple face target but after handicapping Dave finished one place above her in fourth.

In the afternoon session David Smith was joined by Juniors Nathan Kinrade, Jacob Brookes, Toby Young, Tilly Ashton, Joseph Reaney and James Hill. Toby Young took the scratch honours but his score was some way down on his best. This was reflected in his adjusted total which was only good enough for twelfth place. Both Tilly and Joseph had a bad day at the office but James finished with a much higher total than he thought he had after the records officer checked his score sheet. Jacob Brookes put in a solid round that saw him finish sixth overall. David Smith was shooting the round for the first time and in spite of having a handful of misses put in a very good benchmark score which was good enough for second place overall after handicapping. The day however belonged to Nathan Kinrade who added a healthy 44 points to his pb for the round and took the win by a considerable margin after the handicap was applied.

Colin Moore elected not to shoot the round of the day, employing his Barebow on a Portsmouth target instead. His score of 60/507/12 was a new pb.

Results WA18 Handicap – 1.N.Kinrade 1521 (58/366/2)pb, 2.D.Smith 1467 (54/323/2)pb, 3.S.Musgrove 1460 (60/567/29)pb, 4.D.Berry 1453 (56/456/10), 5.B.Harris 1446 (60/506/8), 6.J.Brookes 1445 (60/394/3), 7.R.Moore 1435 (60/565/28), 8.D.Cowin 1434 (60/524/24), 9.D.Moore 1433 (60/558/21), 10.P.Mumford 1427 (60/555/17), 11.J.Hill 1425 (60/400/4), 12.T.Young 1418 (60/492/12), 13.J.Gough 1412 (60/527/10), 14.J.Reaney 1400 (60/413/3), 15.T.Ashton 1376 (55/367/6).

Double WA18 3/s – Gents Compound 1.R.Moore 120/1132/56 NCR,pb, 2.D.Moore 120/1114/41pb. Ladies Recurve – B.Harris 118/989/10pb.