Isle of Man archers competed in the National Indoor Championships held at Stoneleigh near Coventry last weekend.

The two-day event is the biggest in the indoor calendar, with the adults championships taking place on Saturday and the juniors on Sunday.

The adults event comprised of a WA18 three-spot qualifying round followed by head-to head knockouts to decide the winners.

Richard Hainge made his debut at the championships in the 50-plus category, with the top 16 scores going through into the head-to-heads.

After a nervous start, he settled down to produce a score of 525, consistent with what he had been shooting on home soil.

Hainge was shooting in the second of three sessions and so had to wait until the last one was over to see if he had made the cut. He had, qualifying in 15th place which meant he was up against the second-place qualifier in the first round of the knockouts.

The head-to-heads consist of three arrow ends: a win scores two points and a draw one, with the first person to six points progressing to the next round.

The first end was a draw; the second end went to Hainge to go 3-1 up, but his opponent came back to level 3-3. The islander took the fourth end and, at 5-3 up, only needed to hit a nine in the fifth end to progress to round two.

It went into the eight so it was all square and the match to be decided by a one-arrow shoot-off, the arrow nearest the centre taking the win. His opponent hit a 10, which Richard couldn’t match and his campaign was over. Still a good effort for his first attempt.

Fifteen-year-old Erin Hainge made her debut in the women’s recurve, using it as a warm-up for the under-16s tournament the following day. Completely unfazed by the challenge, she put in a score of 539, only three points short of her personal best.

The top 32 scorers progressed into the head-to-heads, with Erin qualifying in 24th place. She made a flying start against the eighth seed, taking the first end to go two points up.

Erin lost the next despite strong shooting, so it was all square. In the next end she hit 10, 10, 9 but her opponent responded with all 10s and went on to win 6-2.

It was still a terrific effort from the young Manxie and she went into Sunday’s junior championships brimming with confidence.

The junior event takes place using a Portsmouth round with a simple format of highest score wins. Erin shot in the first of two sessions, so another lengthy wait was in store to see the final placings.

She put in a consistent round to post a score of 565 and, at the end, was in first place. With another 13 archers lining up in the second session, all Erin could do was wait.

The tension must have been unbearable but after the dust settled and the all the scores were verified, the stress had been worth it – she had taken the title by a clear margin of 21 points to become the British u16s indoor champion.

BARBARA HARRIS