The IoM Archery Club Junior Championships took place on Sunday afternoon with three of the youngsters competing for the first time. With Aalin George at a competition in Wales and younger sister Kirsten on GB Squad duty in Europe, there were no junior compound archers available to shoot this year.
The six recurve archers who assembled under sunny skies, shot a National round comprising 72 arrows with the distances determined by age group. Trophies are given for each age group, with the overall Junior Club Champion being the one with the highest score since the differing age group distances effectively level the playing field.
Standards were high with most of the youngsters recording personal best scores. Adam Wright shot steadily in the U18 category (60 & 50yds). A slight loss of concentration in the final dozen arrows at the further of his two distances cost him valuable points but he still added 23 points to his pb.
The U16 category (50 & 40yds) had three archers, the experienced Bradley Layton, Charlotte Harris and newcomer Josh Trafford. Josh started badly recording three misses in his first dozen arrows but quickly refocused to shoot consistently with his final score 82 points higher than his previous best. Bradley Layton, short of practice due to exams and work commitments, soon found his form and held a 10 point lead by the end of the first distance. He started well at the second distance but then began to throw in the odd miss putting a dent in his score but he still added 46 to his personal best. Charlotte, benefiting from her experiences at the UK Nationals, shot well from the beginning. Her attention waivered slightly in the last half dozen arrows of the longer distance but she did not let this affect her and she bounced back after the break to record the highest score of the day.
Jack Tyrer , U14 category (40 & 30yds), amused the adult scorers by grumbling throughout about how badly he was doing, only to amass a total that was 77 points up on his previous best.
Joseph Reaney, U12 category (30 & 20yds) decided to experiment with his reference points and recorded a host of misses at the longer distance. Once he settled back into his normal set up at the shorter distance his form returned. This was only Joseph’s second ever competition.
Since adult muscle was required to set up and dismantle the shooting field, several seniors turned up to shoot a 720 round. That is 72 arrows at a single distance, 70m for recurve and 50m for compound. Dave Moore, Billy Lightfoot and Colin Moore shot in the compound division with both Dave and Billy brandishing new bows. Billy started brilliantly only to suffer trouble with his release aid after 18 arrows. Dave kindly loaned him one that worked and it appeared that Lightfoot was able to close the gap on Dave Moore to 2 points. However after the scores were officially checked by the records officer it transpired that Billy had actually beaten Dave into second place and had added 116 to his pb in the process. Dave Moore by way of consolation added 70 points to his pb.
Recurve archers Karen Lott and Rhys Moore also improved their personal best scores: Karen by 83 and Rhys by 37. Danny Cowin attempted the round for the first time. Rob Lott returning from illness was a little below his best.
Results: Junior Championships – U18 A.Wright 72 520 22pb. U16 - 1. C.Harris 72 542 34pb, 2. B.Layton 69 527 32pb, 3. J.Trafford 68 366 11pb. U14 J.Tyrer 44 216 4pb. U12 J.Reaney 59 300 6.
Seniors 720 – Compound Gents 1. B.Lightfoot 71 620 16 3pb, 2. D.Moore 72 612 10 3pb, 3. C.Moore 72 606 5 0. Recurve Gents - 1. R.Moore 69 402 4 2pb, 2. R.Lott 62 340 1, 3. D.Cowin 43 195 0 0pb. Ladies Recurve - K.Lott 67 407 4 2pb.
Congratulations to new Junior Club Champion Charlotte Harris.
