Interleague competition renews old rivalries in air rifle league

THE Hinckley Air Rifle League’s regular programme this week took a back seat as representative teams from the Hinckley and Bedworth leagues met at the Hinckley Working Men’s Club for the first leg of the Interleague Competition.

The format calls for the teams’ shooters to shoot against their opponent with two points going to the shooter with the highest score or a point each if the shooters finish level. With eight shooters per side shooting twice each this gives a total number of points available of thirty two, meaning each team aims for the victory score of 17.

Hinckley started well as John Bray beat Todd Astill by 28 to 27 but the following pair, Hinckley’s new captain, Glen Dainter, and Jon Storer, finished level with 28 each. James Bend gained Bedworth’s first victory by beating Pete Finney by 29-27 but Giles Head- ley re-established Hinckley’s lead with a 28-24 defeat of an out-of-sorts Tom Williams. Jeanette Mulkeirins’ 27-26 victory over Jackie Bend extended that lead but a 29-27 defeat of Paul Huddlestone by Bedworth’s captain, Andrew Cryer, reduced it again before Bill Bend’s 30-25 demolition of Leigh Hall brought the teams level again, where it stayed as the final pair, Chris Sills for Hinckley and Bob West for Bedworth, closed the first half with 28 apiece.

Jon Storer’s 29-28 defeat of Glen Dainter and James Bend’s win over Pete Finney by the same score took Bedworth to a four point lead at the start of the second half but this was once again pegged back by Hinckley following a 29-28 win for Giles Headley over Tom Williams and Jeanette Mulkeirins’ 27-26 defeat of Jackie Bend. Bedworth regained the lead as Todd Astill turned the tables on John Bray to win by 29 to 28 and Andrew Cryer’s 29-29 tie with Paul Huddlestone left Bedworth needing just one more point from the final two pairings to guarantee at least a tie.

Having discovered that his rifle had been low on air pressure during the first half, Leigh Hall made the decision to borrow team mate’s Chris Sills’ weapon, a decision that was fully justified as shot after shot rang the bell, eventually leading to Hinckley’s only 30 of the night. However his opponent, Bill Bend, matched him for the first five shots, leaving him needing to ring the bell with his last to gain the one point needed. Sadly his final shot went that little bit too wide and so Hinckley gained the two points that drew the two teams level on fifteen each. This left Hinckley’s Chris Sills and Bedworth’s Bob West in the unenviable position of having the outcome of the match settled firmly on their shoulders.

Of the two it was Chris that seemed to react best as he rang the bell with his first four shots whilst Bob missed two but a fifth shot four from Chris meant that Bob’s five made the draw a possibility once again. However this effectively ended when Bob missed his last, Chris responded with a five, and so Chris’s 29-27 win took the final match score to 17-15 in Hinckley’s favour.

There was no other shooting scheduled for the night but two teams, Hinckley Phoenix and the New Plough, brought forward their November 30 match as neither home venue would be available. As this was the first match in the second half of the season there was the normal change in format, with two competitions being shot simultaneously, the regular league and the Bernard Yates Trophy in which the individual shooters try to beat a target score based on their league average and gain points for their team by doing so.

Hinckley Phoenix started with a strong advantage just by virtue of their numbers, eleven shooters to the Plough’s six, and whilst this isn’t always a determining factor on this occasion it certainly seemed to be. The Phoenix team didn’t shoot particularly well, Samantha Haskins’ 28 and the 27s of Roxy Ratheram, Michael Robinson, Geoff Herbert and Ian Ratheram being their best individual scores, but the resulting 188 and 12 points were more than enough to give them victory in both competitions against a New Plough team that had to count a 21 alongside the 27s of Nigel Hill, Tom Bray and a very busy John Bray, and so finished well behind with 177 and 4 points.