Air Rifle League: In-form Phoenix closing in on Bernard Yates Trophy

HINCKLEY Phoenix moved within touching distance of the Bernard Yates Trophy with their sixth straight win in that competition, this time against the visiting Taylor & Ayre, but the night wasn’t a total triumph as the visitors took the victory in the regular league match.

Phoenix had the better first with Roxy Ratheram’s 27 and the 28s of Tony Overton and Samantha Haskins being countered for T&A by Glen Foxon’s 27 and Giles Headley’s 29, helping Phoenix to establish a 7-3 lead in the Yates competition but their second half was largely disappointing with only Ian Ratheram ringing the bell more often than not, his 28 helping his team to 188 and 11 points.

The first of these was inadequate as T&A progressed to 191 thanks to Alison Smith’s 28 and Darren Hicks’ 30 but Phoenix gained the more meaningful victory, from their perspective, as T&A finished with 7 points.

There was a surprise result at the New Plough Inn where the Sporting Lions attempted to maintain their position at the top of the league table despite fielding a slightly weakened team.

Shooting first the seven strong Plough team shot well throughout finishing with totals of 192 and 11 points thanks to John Bray’s 30, Nigel Hill’s 29, Tom Bray’s 28, Darren Statham’s 27, and the 26s of Daniel Lakin, Paul Barwell and Steve Reynolds. Both of these proved too much for the visitors who finished on 190 and 7 points despite the 30s of Todd Astill and Melanie Jenkins, Glen Dainter’s 29, Lee Johnson’s 27, and Taryn Cockerill’s 26.

The Trojans took advantage of this slip-up to move back to the top spot with a seven shot win at Smallshaws.

Put in by their guests, the performance from Smallshaws was patchy with Tom Williams and John Stevenson scoring 29s, Bob West adding a 28 and Rob Wainwright contributing a 27 whilst the five remaining shooters all scored 25s.

The resulting 188 was nowhere near enough as the travellers put together a 195 total made up of Chris Sills’ 30, Mark Smith’s 29, Rob Forman’s 28, and the 27s of Dave Brown, Phil Hood, Leigh Hall and Will Chambers, but they did have the consolation of tying the points match, the teams finishing with 11 point apiece.

When the travelling Bedworth Ex Service arrived with only six shooters their Hounds hosts must have thought they were in with a chance but any such hopes would have diminished as a slow start for the visitors was rescued by the 30s of Andrew Cryer and James Bend, plus the supporting 28s of Jackie Bend and Robert Wagstaff.

The Hounds started their first half reply with a superb and first ever possible from Richard Green but sadly it was all downhill from that point with only Roy Pritchard’s 27 being worthy of note.

As the only one second half shooter it was important that Bill Bend shoot well to give his team a chance of winning and he didn’t disappoint as his 29 took them to very creditable 195 and 8 point totals.

Both of these turned out to be beyond the Hounds who finished on 189 and 7 points despite Andrew Mitchell’s 27 and Paul Huddlestone’s 28.

The greater consistency of Ashby Road ‘B’ helped them to easily beat their Ashby Road guests in both competitions.

A trio of 27s from Neil Price, Mike Sansome and Martyn Wood together with Alf Shore’s 29 and Jon Storer’s 30 helped the home side to respectable 192 and 8 point totals whilst the other Ashby Road team struggled to just 183 and 4 point totals despite Pete Finney’s 30 and Seamus Moore’s 27.