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The archers assembled at Greeba to compete in the Senior Championships. The round of the day was a WA 1440 round, three dozen arrows shot at each of four distances (Gents 90, 70, 50 & 30m – Ladies 70, 60, 50 & 30m). The Championship is an Open competition so guest archer Thomas Bott was eligible to shoot. It was wet underfoot courtesy of the overnight rain but shooting conditions were nigh on perfect and competition was fierce.
The Gents Compound division was a three way tie between Colin Moore, Pete Mumford and Dave Moore. Colin took the lead after the first dozen with Pete Mumford uncharacteristically in third place. A couple of wayward shots by Colin saw Dave Moore leapfrog him to take the lead by two points at the end of the first distance. At the 70m distance Colin began to slip off the pace. From being 20 points ahead of Pete Mumford at the beginning of the second distance Colin fell fifty points behind. Dave Moore carried on shooting tidily to consolidate first place and the positions remained the same until the end of the shoot.
The Ladies Compound competition had a field of four, Aalin and Kirsten George, fresh from success in Russia, Joy Gough and Sarah Rigby. Sarah was breaking in her new bow and finding the change over a little troublesome. The contest soon developed into the fight for first place between Aalin and Kirsten and the fight for third place between Sarah and Joy. As it was, Aalin lead from start to finish, Sarah failed to break 1300 but it was good enough for third place and Kirsten was sandwiched in the middle.
The Gents Recurve match also had a field of four, Tony Hartley, Rhys Moore, Thomas Bott and Danny Cowin. Danny had been unable to reach the 90m distance last season but had shot well this year and was hopeful of victory. Tony Hartley was the favourite but lacked practice, as did Rhys Moore whose shoulder injury had kept from the shooting field most of the season. The first distance proved problematical for all four men, Danny racked up 7 misses, Thomas 3, and Tony Hartley 4 misses. But it was Rhys Moore who suffered the most, managing to hit the target only fourteen times out of thirty-six. After the first distance Tony held a two point lead over Thomas with Danny well ahead of Rhys but out of contention for the trophy. Tony was still ahead after the second distance but Thomas fought back at 50m to take a three point lead going into the final distance. He extended his lead to take the win by 17 points and become Island Champion.
The Ladies Recurve match was a straight head to head between Karen Lott and Barbara Harris. It was a close run thing with lead switching backward and forward. Harris had the better start and took a ten point lead over the first distance. Lott came back at the 60m to make the score all square. Harris then recorded her first miss of the day at beginning of the 50m and thought her chances had gone but Lott then also missed so that going into the final distance Harris had a 9 point lead. This was the mirror image of the previous year’s championship when Karen had had the lead only for Barbara to shoot up a storm at 30m and take the title. This time it was Karen’s turn to shoot brilliantly and her final six gold end saw her run out the champion by 11 points. As it was both women shot new personal best scores with Harris adding 5 to her pb and Lott an incredible 118 to hers.
Results IoM Championships – Gents Compound: 1. Dave Moore 143/1256 /40/ 17, 2. Pete Mumford 144/ 1212/ 37 /12, 3. Colin Moore 140/1119/28/8. Ladies Compound: 1. Aalin George 144/1360/79/30, 2. Kirsten George 144/1326/65/24, 3. Sarah Rigby 143/1297/60/10, 4. Joy Gough 143/1247/33/8. Gents Recurve: 1. Thomas Bott 140/967/11/6, 2. Tony Hartley 140/950/6/1, 3. Danny Cowin 136/896/4/1, 4. Rhys Moore 112/727/3/1. Ladies Recurve: 1. Karen Lott 142/1060/17/5pb, 2. Barbara Harris 143/1049/10/1pb.
Junior Metric IV:- 1. Toby Young 72/584/18/9pb, 2. James Hill 71/511/8/1
