Conditions were bright but quite chilly at Greeba on Sunday. The usual suspects turned up to shoot a WA 720 round as part of the Club’s Handicap League. The WA 720 consists of 72 arrows shot at a single distance – 70m for Recurve and 50m for Compound. The scratch scores are then adjusted according to the archer’s individual handicap to give the overall result, irrespective of gender or bow type.
Lining up to try and take scratch honours in the Compound were Dave Moore, Rhys Moore, Joy Gough and Pete Mumford. Rhys had of late struggled a little with the 50m but seemed to have found his groove again as he effortlessly cruised to the win. He was a little disappointed with the number of 8’s he hit but no archer is ever really happy with what they have shot unless the archer in question is Pete Mumford. Pete had a gloriously relaxed days shoot, adding a point to his pb for the round to finish in second, some 22 points ahead of Dave Moore. After handicapping ‘groundskeeper’ Mumford placed highest of all the Compound archers coming in fourth. Carrying on into the afternoon Pete’s score for the double round was also a pb. Dave Moore shot consistently but never really caught fire. Joy Gough started well and was, in fact, lying in second place in scratch terms after two dozen arrows when a careless 6 allowed Pete and Dave to overtake her. Two uncharacteristic misses in the second last dozen ruined what would otherwise have been a good score. Joy finished in seventh place overall, just ahead of Dave Moore.
On the Recurve side six archers – Dave and Jane Berry, Danny Cowin, Peter Howland, Barbara Harris and David Smith shot for scratch and handicap glory. Danny Cowin and Dave Berry set up camp in the corner of the field and proceeded to behave like a couple of schoolboys for the day. This tried the patience of the, long suffering, records officer but by the application of carefully worded sarcasm and a hint of physical intimidation she managed to keep them (mostly) in check. Barbara’s display of deeply average archery was good enough for second place in scratch terms to a lacklustre Danny Cowin, but once again she finished bottom of the table after the handicap was applied. Dave Berry had another erratic shoot, seemingly only capable of hitting the centre of the target when the records officer wasn’t looking, but he at least managed to keep all of his arrows on target for once. Dave finished in sixth place overall.
David Smith turned up in the afternoon session and shot a Short Metric round (three dozen arrows at each of two distances 50 7 30m) which since the round was a handicap did not matter. The hard work David has put in over the last few weeks paid off as he added 14 points to his pb for the 50m distance. He was a little below his best at the shorter distance but after handicapping his overall score was good enough for third place. Jane Berry put in another focused performance as she added 84 points to her pb for the WA 720, which put her in second after the handicap was applied. In the afternoon she shot even better and added another 29 points to her pb and established a personal best score of 761 for the double round. The story of the day however, belonged to Peter Howland who came to the field fresh from the overnight ferry. Being sleep deprived did Mr Howland no harm as he added 69 points to his pb for round which gave him an emphatic overall win after handicapping. Peter carried on shooting in the afternoon and added a sensational 207 points to his pb for the double round.
Juniors Jacob Brookes and Nathan Kinrade shot a 122 40m round appropriate to their age group. The win went to Jacob but both boys shot personal best scores for the round. Their scores could not be included in the handicap as no tables exist for the round they shoot.
Also shooting was Eric Lutes who completed the second of the three rounds he needs to be given a handicap.
Results WA Handicap – 1.P.Howland 1526 (56/300/1/1)pb, 2.J.Berry 1484 (68/366/2/0)pb, 3.D.Smith 1460 (53/270/1/0), 4.P.Mumford 1453 (72/645/26/8)pb, 5.R.Moore 1435 (72/663/15/3), 6.D.Berry 1426 (72/463/1/0), 7.J.Gough 1420 (70/592/13/5), 8.D.Moore 1413 (72/623/15/3), 9.D.Cowin 1408 (72/518/5/1), 10.B.Harris 1402 (71/484/4/2).
Junior Boys 122 40m Scratch 1.J.Brookes 72/534/5/2pb, 2.N.Kinrade 70/451/1/0pb.
