Fourteen archers met on Sunday to vie for the trophies at the Indoor Championships. The Compound and Recurve archers shot on separate sides of the hall at Onchan. The contestants names had been put into a hat and shooting positions were drawn by lot on the previous Thursday. The Championships consist of 60 arrows shot at a Fita 18 target, with the Compounds shooting on a triple face and the Recurvers on a single one. There was some exciting action, with both the Gent’s Compound and Ladies Recurve contest going down to the wire.
The Gents Compound division was a three-way shoot off between Dave Moore, Pete Mumford and Colin Moore. Dave, who had been celebrating his birthday the previous evening, started badly. As his headache cleared, his scores improved and he went from third place after the first dozen to take a slender lead going into the last dozen. Colin Moore, inspite of having to replace his target face after shooting the centre out of it, found himself off the pace and had to be content with third. Dave Moore put in back to back half dozen scores of 57 to put in a final score of 565 , 4 points ahead of Pete Mumford who had led for most of the contest.
The Ladies Compound Championship had a field of four: Sarah Rigby, Joy Gough and sisters Aalin and Kirsten George. Aalin and Kirsten were tied on 114 points after the first dozen, with Sarah just one point behind. Joy Gough had a very slow start and was never in contention. The second dozen set the tone for the rest of the match as Aalin opened up a five point over Sarah. The gap became larger with each dozen and Aalin ran out the clear winner to take the title. Sarah Rigby was second and Kirsten took the last place on the podium.
The Gents Recurve had the largest field of the day with five archers vying for the title. Adrian Breed and Rob Lott were both short of practice coming into the competition. Rob did well finishing with a score just two points below his personal best but this was only good enough for fourth place. Danny Cowin added 3 points to his pb to take third place. Rhys Moore, perhaps feeling the after effects of a rugby match of the previous day, was somewhat erratic and never really settled. Moore’s score of 480 was good enough for second, but as expected it was Tony Hartley who took the title by the largest margin of the day.
The Ladies Recurve division saw a straight shoot off between Karen Lott and Barbara Harris. Harris had the better start of the two, opening up an 8 point lead after two dozen. Lott brought it back to all square after the third dozen and the scores were still tied going into the last dozen. At this point Barbara winged one into the seven and Karen finishing strongly took the title by three points and recorded the highest recurve score of the day. Harris was happy to walk away with a new pb for the round.
In the afternoon it the juniors turn to compete and this year illness and injury meant that no girls were in the contest.The juniors shoot on the larger Portsmouth target and were subdivided by age group.
Toby Young competing in the Championships for the first time added 6 points to his pb and secured the U12 title. In the U14 division Joseph Reany had a bad day with a cluster of misses having a heavy impact on his score. Jack Tyrer also had a miss and was a little down on his best but took the title by a clear 119 points. The U16’s contest between Josh Trafford and Bradley Layton was an equally one sided affair. The more experienced Bradley Layton was the heavy favourite going into the competition but suffered a nightmare of a shoot. Three misses contributed to a poor score that was almost 100 points below his personal best for the round. In contrast Josh Trafford had a terrific day adding 9 points to his pb to be crowned U16 Champion. Josh with the highest score of the day was also overall Junior Champion. Congratulations to all the winners.
Championship Results – Gents Compound: - 1. D. Moore 60 565 26, 2. P. Mumford 60 561 21, 3.C Moore 60 552 22. Ladies Compound: - 1. A. George 60 571 31, 2. S. Rigby 60 563 23, 3. K. George 60 557 20, 4. J. Gough 60 553 15. Gents Recurve : - 1. T. Hartley 60 514 9, 2. R. Moore 60 480 9, 3. D. Cowin 60 468 12pb, 4. R. Lott 60 426 5, 5. A. Breed 60 425 3. Ladies Recurve 1. K. Lott 60 519 14, 2. B. Harris 60 516 13pb. Junior Boys: - U16-1. J. Trafford 60 517 15pb, 2. B. Layton 57 445 7. U14-1. J. Tyrer 59 432 4, 2. J. Reany 53 313 1. U12- T. Young 58 337 4pb.
