Isle of Man Archery Club members, father and daughter duo Richard and Erin Hainge, enjoyed a packed few days of competition off-island last week.

They started at the Archery GB Youth Festival before heading to the British Target Championships, producing several strong performances against some of the country's best archers.

Day one of the youth festival saw a constantly changing wind, making conditions difficult, but still Erin produced some excellent groups, although the challenging conditions often left those groups just off centre. She finished 18th out of 31, a solid performance in tricky wind.

The afternoon brought the team head-to-heads, with teams of three battling it out. Erin's team faced a difficult challenge, particularly after one team-mate recorded four misses from six arrows.

Erin remained controlled and confident, consistently finding the gold, but it wasn't enough to prevent a 6–0 defeat.

Day two began with the mixed pairs head-to-heads, with Erin partnered by the inexperienced Oscar. Her encouragement clearly paid off as the pair made an excellent start, taking the first two sets to establish a 4–0 lead.

Their opponents fought back strongly though, levelling and forcing a one-arrow-per-archer shoot-off.

Both boys shot fours, leaving the result in the hands of the final two arrows. The opposing archer placed her arrow dead centre, leaving Erin with very little room for error. Despite a strong attempt, the pair were narrowly defeated.

The afternoon saw Erin return for the under-18 girls individual head-to-heads, with the wind increasing and gusting from different directions.

Erin started strongly, winning her first match 7–1, before facing the second seed in the next round. She immediately showed that she was not going to be overawed, taking the opening set with some excellent shooting.

The second set went to her opponent while the third was tied, leaving the match at 3–3. Erin then produced some particularly strong arrows to win the fourth set and move into a 5–3 lead.

The final set was decided by only a single point in favour of her opponent, sending the match to a one-arrow shoot-off.

Her opponent shot first and found the 10. Erin followed with an excellent arrow of her own but it landed in the nine, ending her Youth Festival campaign just short of the quarter-finals.

British Target Championships

Last weekend's British Target Championships brought an even tougher field, with the country's leading archers, including Olympians, lining up.

The first day consisted of a full WA1440, with Erin shooting at 70, 60, 50 and 30 metres, while the senior competition for Richard included the longer 90-metre distance.

Erin finished the day strongly despite feeling the effects of the week's shooting and produced an excellent finish at the shorter distances. Her final score of 1,176 left her only one point short of a personal best and earned her an impressive 31st place in the senior field.

Having never previously shot at Lilleshall, the gents also provided a new challenge for Richard. Having started well at 90m, there was a dip at 70m before finishing well with 1,087, a new PB and 62nd place.

Attention turned to the final stage of the National Tour: a WA720 at 70m followed by head-to-head competition.

Erin returned to the line for the WA720 qualifying round. Shooting steadily and consistently solid, she finished particularly well, bringing her final score to 542 and securing 37th place, enough to qualify for the head-to-heads.

The afternoon brought another opportunity to test herself against the country's best. Erin shot well in her first head-to-head, but ultimately went down 6–0.

The scoreline did not quite reflect how competitive the match was, with Erin losing the first two ends by only a single point each.

ETHAN MOORE