Norman Illiffe cup first round kicks off for Hinckley shooters

THERE are ten teams in the Hinckley’s air rifle league.

Normally this doesn’t cause a problem as it divides nicely by two, giving five matches a week.

However when it comes to the league’s only knockout competition, the Norman Illiffe Cup, it does throw a spanner in the works as it means that the first round involves just four teams, giving the remaining six teams a week off.

For this season’s competition the ‘lucky’ four were Ashby Road, Hinckley Phoenix, the Hounds, and the Sporting Lions.

Without doubt the outstanding team performance of the night came from the Sporting Lions as they roared right from the start of their match at the home of Hinckley Phoenix.

Glen Dainter gave his team a brilliant start with a 30.3 and when this was immediately followed by identical scores from Todd Astill and Karl Bunting it must have seemed to the home side that the writing was already very much on the wall.

Jeanette Mulkeirins’ first shot failed to ring the bell but that proved to be unique in the half as she recovered to score 29.1 before Lee Johnson closed with his 30.2.

The reply from Phoenix’s own first half was inferior throughout with Barry Wright’s opening 27.2 proving to be their best score of the half as it was fol- lowed by Tony Overton’s 25.2, Samantha Haskins’ 26, Roxy Ratheram’s 27.1, and Karen Bown’s 26.1.

Predictably the Lions’ second half couldn’t match their first but a 28 from Melanie Jenkins, Taryn Cockerill’s 28.1 and Pete Dainter’s 26.2 helped them to an exceptional 206.3 total.

In theory this gave the home team a chance but to take that chance they would have needed their six strong second half to drop just one shot between them.

It can have surprised no-one that this didn’t happen.

Luke Bown opened with 25.2, Craig Bown followed with a 21 and Barry Robinson contribut- ed a 24.

Colin Rusted added his 27.1 and Geoff Herbert scored 25 before team captain Ian Ratheram closed the match with a 28.4 that took his team’s total to 187.1.

There was a much lower key start to the meeting between the Hounds and their Ashby Road guests but the home still put together a decent first half performance with Richard Green’s opening 27.2 being followed by Leanne Simpson’s 23.1 and the 28.2s of Andy Mitchell and Andy Smith, before Brian Allen closed their first half with his 26.2.

The visitors’ response started strongly with Richard White’s 29.1 but slowed immediately as it was followed by Innes Droom- er’s 25, Matt Roche’s 25.1 and Lorraine White’s 26, all before David White got their scoring back on track with his 29.2.

The Hounds’ second half started a little too slowly for their peace of mind, back to back 24.1s from Claire Barnes and Steven Rothwell preceding Roy Pritchard’s 25.2, and whilst Paul Huddlestone’s closing 29.3 upped the pace again the resulting 188.4 total ultimately proved inadequate as Ashby Road had clinched the win after Neil Smith’s 26 and Seamus Moore’s 28.2, Pete Finney’s excellent 30.3 and Chris Rose’s match closing 26.1 extending the winning margin as they took Ashby Road’s total to 194.9. HINCKLEY Ladies Netball Club kicked off their season last weekend.

Hinckley C made an awesome start to the season.

They started with control and dominated the play with the attack commanding both their space and the game with speed and fluidity. Numerous interceptions from the defence turned play over to the teams advantage, which they effectively utilised to continually build their lead over the competitors. With help of player of the match Annis, the C team kicked off the season with a convincing win of 53-16.

Hinckley D were slightly nervous getting back on court for the first match of the season against Synergy C.

After a panicky first few minutes while Hinckley’s new players got used to each other they started to settle into their game and were happy to finish the quarter only slightly behind at 6–9.

Synergy’s attack gave Hinckley a tough couple of quarters, and despite many interceptions and tips by both GD and GK Hinckley could not stop the shooters who were on top form scoring many goals and Synergy increased their lead further.

In the third quarter Hinckley made the most of their goal-scoring opportunities.

With some welcome coaching and support from two of the A team players this helped the D team keep their heads up.

Hinckley lost the match 20 – 44 but have lots to work on prior to their next match and will use the match as a learning exercise.

Player of the match went to Lucy Ibbitson playing GA.

In the first match of the year Hinckley E team played Synergy D.

Hinckley E managed to stay within three points in the first half however Synergy D pulled away in the last two quarters with the final score 31-15 to Synergy D.

The newly formed team played well together and are looking forward to the rest of the season.