About the Isle of Man Archery Club

1985 was also the year in which the IOM formulated and hosted the first” Inter Island Games” a multi sport event for small islands. The first games involved six islands mainly from the British Isles but also Scandinavia . The last games, now the ”NatWest Island Games” were held in Rhodes in 2007 and had 2500 competitors from 24 islands from all over the world taking part in 14 different sports including archery. The archery event is an individual and team event. The format has changed since the first involvement in Guernsey in 1987 when the competition was a double FITA over two very wet days. In Shetland archers shot a single Fita over two wet and windy days followed by a 70m round and individual and team H 2 H rounds over two more wet and windy days! The games are held every two years and the 2009 event is to be held in Aland a Scandinavian Island. Members of the IOMAC have competed in every Games since 1987 with considerable success. Several individual and team medals have been won including 5 individual gold medals.

The IOMAC also organise the archery event for the” Isle of Man Student Festival of Sport” - another offspring of the 1985 Year of Sport. It is a weekend event for UK universities and colleges and offers a full two days of archery. The event last year was on 22nd-23rd March and the students shot a Portsmouth on Saturday morning, a FITA 18 on Saturday afternoon and a Worcester on Sunday morning to decide the individual and team awards. A fun H 2 H competition was held to complete the weekend on Sunday afternoon. 89 archers competed from the universities of Birmingham, Bradford, Loughborough, Sheffield Warwick and Severn Archers as well as an Alumni group.

The Isle of Man Archery Club was founded in1985 in what was the island’s Year of Sport. At the time there were only a few active archers in the island who met to shoot on a social basis. Brian and Sarah Dix two archers from South Wales who were living in the Island at that time approached the Year of Sport Committee with a view to introducing archery to a wider audience and hopefully finding enough interest to form a new club with competitive interest and be willing to promote archery as a sport for all. A week long series of “come and try it” events were held at venues all over the Island, followed by a meeting later in the year, when the club was formed. Politically the Isle of Man is in the British Isles but not in the U.K. However the club is affiliated to GNAS and is regarded as a county within Northern Counties (this is in common with most sports organisations within the island). In the early years the Club had a great deal of support from a coaching standpoint from the North West. Bob Parkinson and Martin Speakman were regular visitors as well as Di and Pete Clarke, and latterly Tony Drabble of CBA and Clive Jeacock have been our inspiration. At present the club boasts a membership of 31 seniors and 27 juniors and the club has two qualified coaches. Shooting takes place all day Sundays and two nights a week all year round. There are scratch and handicap leagues indoors in the winter and outdoors during the summer months. An indoor and outdoor championship is held in each season and also participation in various postal leagues. Competition off-island takes place several times each year usually around the North West area, and club members have enjoyed some success over the years.