A small but select band of archers met at Greeba on Sunday in heavy, still conditions to contest a Metric I round. The Metric I comprised of 36 arrows at each of four distances -70/60/50/30m and once again gave the men and women a chance to face off against each other. The shoot was a very quiet affair; how much this was due to the absence of Club Chairman Dave Moore and how much it was down to the humid, airless, conditions is a matter of debate.
In the Compound division Rhys Moore, who set a New Club Record the last time he shot the Metric I, faced off against Pete Mumford and Joy Gough. At the end of the first dozen arrows Pete had a lead of 4 points over Joy with Rhys, rather surprisingly, down in third place. This may have had something to do with him using a borrowed bow with mismatched sidebars and long rod but the unfamiliar equipment did not put him off for long. By the end of the second dozen he had overhauled Joy and was only two points behind Pete Mumford; at the end of the third dozen Rhys had a two point lead.
The advantage then swapped back and forth between Rhys and Pete over the first two dozen of the second distance with never more than 1 point’s difference, before Rhys finally stamped his authority on the proceedings to open up a 4 point lead at the half way point. It was at Rhys’ favourite 50m stage that the contest was put beyond doubt as he opened up a 22 point lead. Joy Gough had her only miss of the day at 50m but recovered well at 30m. Pete Mumford had to content himself with second place though he did add one point to his pb for the round, while Rhys finished 29 points clear to take the win.
There was an even smaller field in the Recurve section with Danny Cowin finding himself once more up against Barbara Harris. Danny had been absent from the previous Metric I shoot and so came to the field not having shot the round in over four years and without a sight mark for the 60m distance. He need not have worried, as Barbara was clearly lacking her usual sparkle and, at one point, fell asleep while waiting for her turn to shoot. Danny had his mind clearly focused on breaking the Gents Recurve Club Record and Harris was unable to stay with him. Danny established a 37 point lead by the end of the first distance which expanded to a 55 point lead by the end of the 60m, sight mark or no sight mark.
Harris then put in one of her worst 50m distance totals of the season while Danny continued to score consistently well so that going into the final distance he had a lead of 103. It was at this point that Barbara finally woke up enough to notice that her pressure button had worked its way lose, tightening it up allowed her to post her best 30m distance total for over 2 years. Danny suddenly tensed up as the finish line came into sight but, despite some huffing and puffing, managed to maintain his focus and actually broke the old Club Record with nine arrows left to shoot. By the end of the day Danny had added 546 points to his previous pb for the round, a testament to the hard work he has put in over the last few years, and had smashed the Club Record by 98 points.
The afternoon session saw the arrival of junior archers Toby Young and Jacob Brookes who had one last chance to post a score for the Summer Metrics Postal Challenge run by Archery GB. Both boys shot well at their respective distances but neither could improve upon their previous best scores.
Results Metric I: Compound – 1.R.Moore 144/1340/71/32, 2.P.Mumford 144/1311/53/20pb, 3.J.Gough 143/1265/47/12. Recurve – 1.D.Cowin 144/1141/14/2 NCR,pb, 2.B.Harris 143/1032/17/4. Short Metric II – T.Young 72/583/12/1. Short Metric IV – J.Brookes 72/621/20/9.
