Chasing pack use postponement to close gap on air rifle league leaders
THE Trojans and Taylor & Ayre teams took advantage of the postponement of the table topping Sporting Lions match to move level with them at the top of the Hinckley Air Rifle League’s table.
The first of these saw Trojans shooting second against their guests from Hinckley Phoenix.
In fact the visitors had a slightly better first half than their hosts with a couple of 26s backing up the 28 of Samantha Haskins and Karen Bown’s 29 whereas whilst Trojans also scored 28 and 29 courtesy of Darren Houghton and Phil Hood respectively their next best score was a solitary 25.
However, the second halves were very different.
Whilst the Phoenix second half added Geoff Herbert’s 27 and Ian Ratheram’s 28, for Trojans there was a Chris Sills 29 plus 28s from Leigh Hall from Mark Smith.
These were enough to give the home side a 192-189 victory in the regular league match but Phoenix had the compensation of winning in the Bernard Yates Trophy by 13 points to seven, to give them an early lead in that competition.
The match between Ashby Road and the travelling Taylor & Ayre ended with the visitors enjoying comfortable victories in both competitions but the half way stage was reached with T&A having only slight advantages as Alyson Steele’s 27 and Giles Headley’s 30 elicited an Ashby Road response that included Innes Droomer’s 28 and Seamus Moore’s 27.
However the story was very different after the break for whilst T&A improved markedly, thanks to the 27s of Paul Griffin and Phil Steele, Alison Smith’s 28, and Darren Hicks’ closing 30, Ashby Road actually did slightly worse with Pete Finney’s 28 being the sole highlight, all of which left T&A on 195 and 10 points against Ashby Road’s 186 and eight points.
Ashby Road ‘B’ suffered very similar losses in their match at the home of Smallshaws although they at least had the excuse that they were short of shooters.
The home side led the way, setting targets of 188 and 11 points thanks to the 28s of Jackie and Bob West, and the 27s of Rob Wainwright, Tom Williams and Simon Grewcock.
The reply from Ashby Road had its high-spots, notably Martyn Wood’s 27 and the 28s of Mike Sansome and Jon Storer but they lacked the depth to truly compete and they finished on just 185 and six points.
The match at the New Plough Inn ended in mixed fortunes with the home team triumphing in the point Yates Cup whilst the visiting Bedworth Ex Servicemen’s Club came out on top in the regular league match.
The guests shot first with each of their shooters scoring heavily, putting together a 194 total that included 27s from Mick Cryer and Jackie Bend, 28s from James Bend and Robert Wagstaff, Andrew Cryer’s 29, and Bill Bend’s 30.
This proved too much for the home side that, despite the 30s of Nigel Hill and John Bray, and the 28s of Daniel Lakin and Tom Bray, finished five adrift on 185. However they did well enough to win the points competition by 9 points to 6.