Fourteen archers turned up to shoot over the course of Sunday at Onchan. The round of the day was a WA18 three spot, although juniors and beginners were allowed to shoot on a single full face target. The scratch scores were subjected to handicap according to the fiendish set of tables provided by Archery GB, to produce the final result.

Just four out of six of the usual Compound archers turned up and the scratch honours went to Rhys Moore. He was disappointed to miss out on a pb by just 2 points when he sent an errant arrow in to the 8 ring. Dad Dave gleefully pointed out that he had kept all his arrows in the yellow zone but he still finished 11 points down on Rhys and even finished behind him after the handicap was applied. Rhys then went on to shoot in the afternoon session and set a New Club Record for the Double WA18 3/spot.

Lesley Sleight and Colin Moore both elected to shoot Barebow on a single face target. Both were a little down on their best scores but after the handicap was applied Colin finished in seventh place, while Lesley recorded an emphatic win.

The Recurves provided the largest field of the day with four adults and four Juniors in the mix. Barbara Harris’ day got off to a bad start when she dropped the backpack containing her Thermos flask which promptly shattered. Harris, who uses coffee less like a beverage and more like a life support mechanism, was clearly affected by the incident putting three arrows wide of the target. Her naturally sunny disposition and kind heartedness resurfaced however as she gave Danny Cowin some pointers on his form which allowed him to finish the shoot with the best Recurve scratch score of the day. Eric Lutes, taking part in his first handicap shoot, was a little disappointed to have two misses in his first dozen arrows but recovered well. He put in a solid round which after handicapping was good enough for third place.  David Smith also had a good day, adding 26 points to his pb for the round, which secured him second place overall after the handicap was applied.

Toby Young was the only Junior to break the 500 barrier but was still a little off his best. After handicapping he finished tied on eighth place with Jacob Brookes and Barbara Harris.

The Records Officer would like to re-iterate her plea for greater care on the score sheets as four of them were found to be inaccurate. The lack of basic mathematical ability was not confined to the Junior archers scorecards.

Results WA18 Handicap – 1.L.Sleight 1495 (60/470/11), 2.D.Smith 1481 (58/349/3)pb, 3.E.Lutes 1450 (58/380/3)pb, 4.R.Moore 1441 (60/571/32), 5.D.Moore 1434 (60/559/19), 6.D.Cowin 1432 (60/522/17), 7.C.Moore 1431 (60/437/3), 8.J.Brookes 1427 (57/376/6), =8.B.Harris 1427 (57/487/13), =8.T.Young 1427 (59/501/19), 11.P.Mumford 1425 (60/553/15), 12.J.Gough 1417 (60/532/13), 13.J.Hill 1409 (60/384/4), 14.J.Reaney 60/413/5)