The main action took place off island last weekend as Isle of Man Archery Club junior Erin Hainge travelled to Stoneleigh to take part in the National Indoor Archery Championships.

Erin had taken first place for her age group in every UK competition she’d previously, but the indoor national championship was the biggest stage yet.

Shooting in the morning session of the under-14 women’s recurve, Erin posted a score of 60/530/21 for the Portsmouth round the championships are based on.

In no way fazed by the size of the venue or the calibre of the opposition, the youngster found the hardest part was watching the second detail shoot in the afternoon session and waiting to see if her score was overhauled.

A tense couple of hours ended in relief and triumph as Erin added the title of u14 women’s indoor national champion to her list of accomplishments. A tremendous feat given that this time last year she hadn’t even picked up a bow.

Her dedication, cheerfulness and down-to-earth attitude to her sport mark her out as a true champion and an ambassador for both the club and the Isle of Man.

On home soil a dozen archers turned up at Onchan to shoot a Worcester round. This comprised of 60 arrows shot in groups of five on a black and white target which scores from five down to one.

In the gents recurve, Danny Cowin took on Ralf Mitchell, Peter Howland, Nathan Kinrade and newcomer Liam Keary. Having wound a little weight off his bow, Cowin exhibited better control and put in a consistent performance to take the win.

Junior archer Kinrade just held off senior Howland to take second place, while Mitchell slotted into fourth and Keary came fifth. The latter needs only one more round to get his handicap.

A tired and rather out-of-sorts Barbara Harris posted the highest recurve score of the day but was glad when the shoot was over.

Pete Mumford and Colin Moore went head-to-head in the gents barebow. Mumford had a slow start, but Moore hit the ground running and led from start to finish to take the win by a comfortable margin.

Stan Gorry had a nightmare of a shoot in the gents tradbow. A good opening end was undermined by three misses in the next 10 arrows. His luck went from bad to worse as he then damaged the nocks on three of his arrows, rendering them useless and leaving him with only four usable arrows when he needed five.

He shot the next end using a set of borrowed arrows that clearly were not in tune with his bow and missed with three of them.

Gorry then elected to shoot a mixed bag (or quiver) for the rest of the shoot – four of his own and one borrowed – which limited the damage. He shrugged off his dreadful score and hoped for better things on Tuesday night.

Joy Gough and Cliff Graves were the only compounds in action on Sunday. Gough had a good morning dropping 15 points, while Graves did even better, losing only seven points over the course of the afternoon session. A clutch of misses put a dent in Eloise Kinrade’s score but she is working hard on her form.

Results: Worcester, gents recurve 1, D. Cowin 60/250/19; 2, N. Kinrade 60/247/26; 3, P. Howland 60/246/24; 4, R. Mitchell 60/219/13; 5, L. Keary 46/128/3. Women’s recurve - B. Harris 60/259/26. Gents barebow 1, C. Moore 60/224/11; 2, P. Mumford 59/193/10. Gents tradbow - S. Gorry 52/150/6. Women’s compound - J. Gough 60/285/45. Gents compound - C. Graves 60/293/53. Junior women - E. Kinrade 51/138/5.BARBARA HARRIS