A total of eighteen archers turned up at the Onchan Hub over the course of Sunday. The round of the day was a WA18 three spot for the Seniors, with a WA18 full face for the Juniors.

In the Gents Compound division Rhys Moore, Billy Lightfoot and Pete Mumford duked it out in the morning session, with Dave Moore putting in an appearance in the afternoon. Rhys continued his run of excellent form and was all set to record a new pb for the round when a lapse in concentration saw him drop an arrow in the 8. His final score exactly equalled his current pb and he took the win by 7 points from his nearest rival who turned out to be his Dad Dave. Dave put in a solid round in spite of residual pain from an old elbow injury. Billy Lightfoot got stuck in a rut of scoring 29 points with every three arrows, but strayed into the 8 too many times to have any impact on Rhys or Dave. Billy finished just 2 points ahead of Pete Mumford to take third place.

Joy Gough put in another solid performance but was somewhat hampered by the arctic conditions in the hall and spent the day trying to keep out the cold.

There were also four archers in the Gents Recurve: Eric Lutes, Danny Cowin, Dave Berry and David Smith. Eric, who was shooting the round for the first time, had a bit of a nightmare as he struggled with the very small triple target face. David Smith set himself the goal of scoring 300 points for the round and, although he was visibly tiring by the end, succeeded. David added a terrific 76 points to his pb to secure third place. The fight for first was between an under-performing Danny Cowin and a resurgent Dave Berry. Danny appeared to hand the win to Dave as he missed with one of his first three arrows, then followed it up with another miss in the second dozen. From then on it looked as though Berry had it sewn up but at the break he made the fatal mistake of refusing a doughnut offered him by the Records Officer. He got through the next half dozen arrows without incident but then ‘doughnut deprivation’ hit home and he recorded a miss. Going into the last dozen Dave Berry still had a ten point lead but a miss from his final arrow, coupled with a solid last dozen from Danny saw Cowin snatch victory by 2 points.

None of the Gents scores were as good as the one posted by Barbara Harris in the morning session. Although Harris was not pleased with her performance, a miss just before the break causing her some anguish, she was happy to have recorded the highest Recurve score of the day for the three spot.
Barebow archer Lesley Sleight also put in an appearance, shooting a WA18 full face. She put in a solid round but was some way down on her best.
Juniors Toby Young and Jacob Brookes who shot for the whole day were joined by James Hill, Nathan Kinrade and Tilly Ashton in the afternoon session. Toby took the win in the Junior Gents division adding 5 points to his pb in the process. Jacob executed a bizarre banana shot worthy of Robin Hood – Prince of Thieves which went round the back of the boss and shot the ladder used for hanging the safety curtain but nevertheless added 8 points to his pb to secure second place. Nathan Kinrade, in spite of a handful of misses came in well ahead of James Hill to take third. Toby and Jacob went on to shoot in the afternoon with the result that Jacob got a pb for the Double round, while Toby smashed the old Club Record for the Double by 34 points.

Tilly Ashton had an average day at the office for her, but she is beginning to show a welcome return to form.

Beth and James Aldridge shot a Portsmouth round on Sunday and have now completed the three rounds needed to be issued with a handicap.

Results WA18 3 spot – Gents Compound – 1.R.Moore 60/572/33=pb, 2.D.Moore 60/565/26, 3.B.Lightfoot 60/555/19, 4.P.Mumford 60/553/15. Ladies Compound – J.Gough 60/543/11. Gents Recurve – 1.D.Cowin 58/500/16, 2.D.Berry 58/498/9, 3.D.Smith 42/312/3pb, 4.E.Lutes 36/253/1. Ladies Recurve – B.Harris 59/503/15. WA18 - Ladies Barebow – L.Sleight 59/397/1. Junior Gents 1.T.Young 60/529/22pb, 2.J.Brookes 58/420/8pb, 3.N.Kinrade 55/360/8, 4.J.Hill 56/341/5. Junior Ladies – T. Ashton 57/396/3. Portsmouth – J.Aldridge 59/426/5. B.Aldridge 50/209/1. Double WA18 – 1.T.Young 120/1050/41pb,NCR, 2.J.Brookes 116/836/12pb.