The IoM Archery Club met at Onchan on Sunday to shoot a Portsmouth Round as part of the Club’s Scratch League. It was the last chance for some of the archers to practice the round ahead of the Northern Counties Championship in Wakefield on the 17th. If Sunday’s results are anything to go by, some silverware should be coming to the island next week. Three New Club Records were set during the shoot and five archers achieved personal best scores for the round.
In the Gents Compound Division, Rhys Moore was once again the star of the show. His score for the morning round was a new pb and was only 3 points short of the Club Record. Rhys carried on shooting into the afternoon and his overall score for the Double Portsmouth broke the old Club Record by 4 points. Colin Moore showed excellent consistency by equalling his pb for the second week running and taking second place. Billy Lightfoot just missed out on third place after suffering a miss and had to settle for fourth behind Pete Mumford. Dave Moore also had a miss and was well below his best, finishing in last place.
Joy Gough was once again the only competitor in the Ladies Compound Division. She put in a solid round in spite of suffering a miss in her first six arrows.
Long Bow specialist Lesley Sleight shot up a storm in the morning session, recovering from an early miss to set a New Club Record of 473.
The Ladies Recurve Division featured two archers, Denyse Hill and Barbara Harris. Denyse returning after a back injury added an impressive 72 points to her pb but had to settle for second place behind the more experienced Barbara Harris.
The Gents Recurve was once again dominated by Josh Trafford. The 16 year old finished 27 points clear of his nearest rival with a score that was not only a pb for him but also broke the old Junior Gents Club Record by 2 points. Tony Hartley took second place and Danny Cowin third.
Tilly Ashton continued her excellent run of form by adding 30 points to her pb for the round.
In the Junior Boys Recurve Toby Young added 4 points to his pb to take the win. James Hill and Joseph Reaney had a ding dong battle for second place. Joseph took an early lead but was overhauled by James at the end of the second dozen. James then opened up a twenty point gap by the end on the third dozen, which had dwindled to a one point lead by the end of the fourth. With six arrows left Joseph had retaken the lead but James finished with his best 6 arrow score of the day to take second place.
