A few of the usual faces were missing on Sunday but sixteen archers turned up to pit their wits against the triple face targets that challenged them at Onchan. The Seniors were confronted with the Vegas – three faces scoring from 10 down to 6 arranged in a triangle, while the Juniors took on a Three spot Portsmouth – same scoring zones but on a larger target face and arranged vertically. Chris Crompton as a Barebow archer was entitled to shoot a single face WA 18. The rounds were shot as part of the Club’s Handicap League. The days scratch scores were adjusted according to the individual archer’s handicap using Archery GB’s mystical tables to produce the overall result. If a competitor shoots exactly to handicap the adjusted score will be 1440 – anything above or below this gives an indication of how well or badly an individual has performed.
With Billy Lightfoot struck down with a stomach bug and consequently welded into a bathroom in Port St Mary, only four compound gents were present to go for scratch honours. Father and son pairing Dave and Rhys Moore fought for supremacy on boss 1, Colin Moore quietly got down to business on boss 3 and Pete Mumford (minus hearing aids to avoid distraction) took things steadily on boss 5. Dave Moore’s gamesmanship against his youngest offspring had little effect other than to amuse the Records Officer shooting on Boss 2. In the event, only 2 points separated the four men. Colin Moore shot a personal best but had to settle for second behind the ‘Old Master’ Pete Mumford. Rhys and Dave ended up tied on the same score, but Rhys took third by virtue of a higher number of 10’s hit. After the handicap was applied though Dave finished higher up the table than Rhys, with Colin the best placed of the Compounds.
Joy Gough hit too many 8’s to be happy with her performance and was disgusted with a 6 she recorded in the final dozen.
Danny was, as usual, unhappy with his shooting and sounded like a stricken steam engine for most of the morning. In spite of all the huffing and puffing Danny equalled his pb for the round and recorded the highest Recurve scratch score of the day. Greg Altham shot exactly to handicap in the afternoon session, but Matt Elliott found the round heavy going. Barbara Harris, shooting alongside Cowin, actually had something to be unhappy about as the improved form of the previous week deserted her and she notched up 5 misses. Kristen Joughin who was attempting the round for the first time also had a few misses but gamely kept going and was rewarded with fifth place after the handicap was applied.
The Juniors seemed to enjoy the challenge of the Triple face Portsmouth though some faired better than other. Toby Young felt the effects of a break in shooting due to exam commitments and finished well down the table. James Hill had done slightly better than he thought with two fewer misses and 11 more points than his additions showed. The Records Officer would like to remind everyone to check their scoresheets more carefully, inaccuracies will be penalized in Record Status Competitions and may lose the archer a podium finish/win or even result in disqualification. On a lighter note, a two week break had done Tilly Ashton no harm as she added 39 points to her pb to break the 500 barrier, record the highest Junior score of the day and finish in fourth place overall. Nathan Kinrade added a terrific 85 points to his pb to secure third place after handicapping, while Junior Compound Brandon Gough added 22 points to his pb to claim second place after the handicap was applied. The children were prevented from making a clean sweep of the podium by Barebow archer Chris Crompton who added an impressive 68 points to his pb to take overall victory.
Vegas/Portsmouth Handicap Results – 1.C.Crompton 1511 (60/441/6)pb, 2.B.Gough 1487 (52/431/5)pb, 3.N.Kinrade 1483 (58/478/4)pb, 4.T.Ashton 1464 (58/525/19)pb, 5.K.Joughin 1450 (34/264/3)pb, 6.G.Altham 1440 (58/479/10), 7.C.Moore 1439 (60/556/17)pb, 8.D.Moore 1430 (60/555/17), 9.P.Mumford 1429 (60/557/22), 10.R.Moore 1424 (60/555/19), 11.J.Gough 1423 (60/538/9), 12.J.Hill 1421 (57/498/12), 13.D.Cowin 1418 (60/508/15), 14.M.Elliott 1415 (53/428/7), 15.B.Harris 1381 (55/462/10), 16.T.Young 1369 (57/483/11).
