The Isle of Man Archery Club met on Sunday to shoot a metric round as part of the Club’s Scratch League. The round comprised of seventy-two arrows shot at a single distance depending on bow type (70m for Recurve – 50m for Compound).The weather was excellent on the day but there was the threat of rain in the afternoon and as the hours passed the humidity levels rose.
Once again Sarah Rigby was denied any female competition so lined up against the men in the 50m round. Alongside her were Simon Musgrove, Colin Moore, Billy Lightfoot, Dave Moore and Pete Mumford. Unfortunately Billy was nursing a back injury which meant he had to retire after only two dozen arrows. Sarah led the way with only Pete Mumford keeping close enough to threaten an upset, and indeed the two were level pegging with 12 arrows to go. Mumford put in a solid final dozen which added 45 points to his previous personal best score but Rigby was just that little bit better and clinched the win by 3 points. Third place was easily taken by Colin Moore who was never under pressure from Simon or Dave.
The Recurve round saw three of the juniors stepping up to shoot against the adults. Charlotte Harris joined in against Karen Lott and Barbara Harris, while Bradley Layton and Adam Wright effectively shot against Danny Cowin. All three of the youngsters were shooting the round for the first time.Bradley Layton, making full use of all he learned at the Talent Identification Weekend at Lilleshall last month, put in a terrific round and finished 97 points ahead of Adam Wright who in turn was 179 points ahead of Danny Cowin in third place. Adam carried on in the afternoon to shoot a double 70m round.
The Ladies Recurve round was a closer contest. Charlotte Harris started poorly with three misses in her first dozen arrows but recovered quickly. It is a sign of the teenagers growing maturity that she is no longer distracted by misses and instead concentrates on the arrows to come. Karen Lott began well and had the lead over the first two dozen arrows. However Barbara Harris, who always shoots well when physically compromised, was feeling particularly unwell on Sunday and by the end of the third dozen had overcome the deficit to take a 10 point lead. From there Harris opened up the gap to take the win and add 78 points to her previous best for the distance. Charlotte Harris, gaining confidence with each end, began to make up for her slow start and going into the final dozen arrows had a 1 point lead over Karen. Lott then unaccountably registered a miss, while Charlotte put in her highest six arrow total of the day and secured second place just three points ahead of Karen.
Jack Tyrer and Josh Trafford shot a Short Metric II round in the afternoon for the first time, with Josh taking the honours.
Results: 50m Compound - 1. S.Rigby 72 647 20 9, 2. P.Mumford 72 644 19 5pb, 3. C.Moore 72 622 9 1pb, 4. S.Musgrove 72 613 14 4pb, 5. D.Moore 71 606 17 4. Gents 70m Recurve – 1. B.Layton 70 469 4pb, 2. A.Wright 71 372 1 1pb (Dbl 70m score 142 812 3 1pb), 3. D.Cowin 37 193 2 1. Ladies 70m Recurve - 1. B.Harris 70 485 4 1pb, 2. C.Harris 68 439 4 3pb, 3. K.Lott 71 436 5 2pb. Boys Short Metric II - 1. J.Trafford 56 301 3 2pb, 2. J. Tyrer 58 274 3 1pb.
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