Air Rifle League: Hinckley teams face Bedworth in interleague showdown

THE first leg of the annual Interleague competition between representative teams of the Hinckley and Bedworth air rifle leagues went all the way to the wire.

Hinckley finally came out on top by the smallest possible margin, 17-15.

The second leg, held at the Bedworth Ex Servicemen’s Club on Tuesday night, was very different in character.

The match started well for Hinckley as their captain, Glen Dainter, beat Bedworth’s Bob West by 30 to 26, and this strong start continued through the next three pairings with Phil Hood (29), John Bray (29) and Giles Headley (27) beating Andrew Cryer (29), Jackie Bend (26) and Jim Wilson (26) respectively.

The home side gained their first point of the night thanks to a 28-28 draw between Bedworth’s James Bend and Hinckley’s Paul Huddlestone, and Bill Bend got another point for the home side as he drew 29-29 with Pete Finney, but these were the only home successes of the first half as Leigh Hall beat Jeff Goodyer 27-26 and Chris Sills outscored Tom Williams by 30-29 to take the points score at the half way stage to 14-2 in Hinckley’s favour.

If Bedworth had been hoping that the change of target would begin to favour them they were soon disabused of this idea as Glen again beat Bob, this time by 29-26.

Andrew bucked the trend to beat Phil by 30-29 but this proved to be Bedworth’s only success of the second half as this was followed by John’s 28-26 defeat of Jackie; the 29-28 victories of Giles and Paul over Jim and James respectively; Pete’s 30-29 win over Bill; Leigh’s 30-27 trouncing of Jeff; and Chris’ 28-27 win over Tom.

All this left the night’s score at 28-4 in Hinckley’s favour and gave them an unassailable lead in the competition as a whole.

Some of Bedworth’s shooters gained a measure of revenge against the Hinckley captain’s club side, the Sporting Lions, just two nights later in their scheduled league match, again at Bedworth Ex Servicemen’s Club.

The Lions shot first but their normally dominant first half struggled a little with disappointing 28s from Glen Dainter and Karl Bunting, a Melanie Jenkins’ 27 only topped by a 30 from Jeanette Mulkeirins.

The response from the Bedworth first half was slightly better with a James Bend 28 accompanied by the 30s of Andrew Cryer and Jackie Bend, but the match was lost for the Lions in the second half as all three of their remaining shooters managed just 23, leaving them on just 184 and two points.

Bedworth’s second half might have been numerically weaker, consisting as it did of just one shooter, but that one,

Bill Bend, scored a 29 to take his side to 194 and six points.

Trojans maintained their position at the top of the table thanks to an easy win at the home of Ashby Road.

The Trojans’ victory was never really in doubt, especially when it became clear that the home side would only have six shooters, but their 199 and 13 point totals, coming courtesy of Phil Hood’s 30; the 29s of Rob Forman, Leigh Hall and Will Chambers; Dave Brown’s 28; and the 27s of Nigel Jackson, Mark Smith and Chris Sills, would have probably have been sufficient even against a full strength Ashby Road.

The home side had some individual scores worthy of note, Richard White’s opening 27 being followed by the 29s of Pete Finney and Seamus Moore but the rest of the scores weren’t even good enough to make it worthwhile their invoking rule M24 and so they finished miles behind on 159 and five points.

Taylor & Ayre welcomed Smallshaws to The Barn, where both teams fielded full squads for their final scheduled league matches.

T&A had a mixed first half with just Aly Steele’s 28 and Giles Headley’s 29 counting towards the match score, whereas the visitors were much steadier with had four shooters counting, all scoring above their target value; Chris Slimm scored 26, Bobby Wainwright hit a 27, Jamie Slimm shot 28 and Rob Wainwright closed with an excellent 29.

After the supper break the home side’s Steve Vincent scored 27, Matt Hall took dad Norman’s place (Norman didn’t take much persuading) and shot 29, Phil Steele hit a 28 before Alison Smith and Darren Hicks each recorded a 30 maximum.

All five scored two points for the Yates Trophy giving the home side totals of 201 and 12 points.

In Smallshaws’ second half Tom Williams matched his target, scoring 28. Simon Grewcock’s 26 meant he did the same and Bob West recovered from missing his first shot to score 29 and two points. The visitors finished with 193 and 12 points.

Hinckley Phoenix finished their Yates Trophy campaign not only as champions but with a one hundred percent record, their ninth and final victory coming against the travelling Ashby Road ‘B’.

The visitors shot first but a string of fairly average scores - the 28s of Jon Storer and Mike Sansome, and the 27s of Neil Price and Craig Shuttleworth being the best they had to offer – left them setting modest targets of 188 and six points. The response from the home side was more assured with Barry Wright’s 29, the 28s of Karen Bown and Ian Ratheram, and the 27s of Luke Haskins and Geoff Herbert taking them to wins in both competitions with totals of 190 and 14 points.

The Hounds hosted the New Plough this week in a match where the home side held the upper hand right from the start due to fielding a full eleven shooters against their guests’ seven.

Despite this shortfall the visitors elected to shoot first, starting strongly thanks to an excellent 28 from Daniel Lakin. Paul Barwell followed but didn’t get off to the best of starts with a first shot three but he recovered brilliantly with 5s from all his remaining shots to get a hard-won 28. Another couple of first half 28s from Tom Bray and Nigel Hill put the Ploughmen into a strong position at the half-way stage as the Hounds responded with a first half that had Roy Pritchard’s 29 and Richard Green’s 28 as its highlights but the best the Plough’s second half had to offer was a closing 27 from John Bray that took them to 187 and eight points.The Hounds’ second half started well enough thanks to Chris Allen’s 27 but the next four shooters disappointed leaving last man,

Paul Huddlestone, needing a 27 for victory. Paul, by his own admission not on top form this season, exceeded this, closing the match with a 29 to assure victory in both competitions, the Hounds finishing on 190 and 10 points.