Fifteen club members turned up on Sunday at Onchan to shoot a Portsmouth as part of the Club’s Scratch League. It was nice to see the return of Barebow exponent Colin More, who has been away enjoying himself when he should be suffering with the rest of us.

With Rhys Moore away on his annual get together with older brother Ethan in London and Billy Lightfoot feeling his age, there were only two archers in the Gents Compound division – Pete Mumford and Dave Moore. Both men put in consistent rounds but Dave Moore was the better of the two having built a lead of 9 points after 3 dozen arrows. The fourth dozen went Pete’s way as he dropped only two of the available points, while Dave suddenly hit a raft of nines which meant that his lead had been cut to just 1 point going into the last dozen. Dave steadied himself, dropping just three points, to take the win.

Pete Mumford carried on into the afternoon to shoot a double round in his trademark relaxed style. In fact he was so relaxed that at one point in the proceedings Danny Cowin had to remind Pete that it was his turn to shoot. The effort was worth it though as Pete added 2 points to his pb for the Double Portsmouth.

Joy Gough was pleased with her efforts of the morning using the back tension release aid she had been practising with for the last few weeks.

The largest field of the day came in the Gents Recurve, with four competitors – old hands Dave Berry and Danny Cowin and newcomers Eric Lutes and James Aldridge. The little ray of Manx sunshine that is Danny Cowin shimmered his way through the round and never looked in any danger of being beaten. He notched up an easy victory over Dave Berry in spite of Berry’s utilization of a performance enhancing doughnut at the break. The battle for the last place on the podium between Eric Lutes and James Aldridge was a close one with the advantage swinging back and forth. Eric was using a clicker properly for the first time which takes a bit of getting used to but seemed to have come to terms with it as he headed into the final dozen with a 2 point lead over James. Eric suddenly seemed to lose a little focus, while James carried on with his consistent scoring to take third place.

In the Ladies Recurve Barbara Harris did a wonderful impression of someone who had never shot a bow in their life and her shoot was punctuated by muffled cries of anglo-saxon invective. She is currently thinking of digging her golf clubs out of storage and selling her archery equipment.

Toby Young was once again in fine form in the Junior Gents division as he added another point to his pb for the round to take the win and record the highest Recurve score of the day. Jacob Brookes added 21 points to his pb to take second place. James Hill was hoping to duplicate his Monday night performance wherein he had broken the 500 barrier for the first time but it was not to be and he had to settle for third place. Toby and Jacob went on to shoot the Double round in the afternoon. Neither boy had done the Double Portsmouth before, therefore both recorded pb’s but Toby also broke the Club record previously held by Josh Trafford.

In the Junior Ladies Tilly Ashton continued her improvement but is really hampered by a bow she has outgrown. Beth Aldridge had a difficult day but seemed to enjoy herself nevertheless.

Colin Moore and Lesley Sleight shot a Barebow round.

Results: Portsmouth – Gents Compound – 1.D.Moore 60/574/34, 2.P.Mumford 60/569/29. Ladies Compound – J.Gough 60/554/15. Gents Recurve – 1.D.Cowin 60/553/23, 2.D.Berry 60/533/15, 3.J.Aldridge 60/439/3, 4.E.Lutes 59/434/6. Ladies Recurve – B.Harris 60/516/13. Junior Gents – 1.T.Young 60/554/26pb, 2.J.Brookes 60/493/5pb, 3.J.Hill 60/488/7. Junior Ladies – 1.T.Ashton 59/475/9, 2.B.Aldridge 42/200/3. Gents Barebow – C.Moore 60/504/12. Ladies Barebow – L.Sleight 60/473/6.