Big cats come out on top as top quality Sporting Lions see off the Hounds

THIS should have been a quiet week for the Hinckley Air Rifle League with a free night scheduled to coincide with the school half term holidays.

However it didn’t quite turn out like that as four teams took the opportunity, afforded by the absence of any other fixtures, to stage a couple of matches that had been postponed from earlier in the season.

The first of these saw the Sporting Lions playing host to the Hounds in a contest that should have taken place back in December.

The home side won the toss and elected to shoot first, a decision justified by the quality of their first half performance.

Glen Dainter’s opening 30 was followed by the 29s of Todd Astill and Karl Bunting, Jeanette Mulkeirins’ 30, and Melanie Jenkins’ 28.

The reply from the Hounds started well thanks to Richard Greens’ 29.

But it tailed off quite quickly after this with the remainder of the first half consisting of the 25s of Leanne Simpson and Roy Pritchard, Chris Allen’s 27, and Brian Allen’s 26.

The Lions struggled in the second half with the only scores being the 25s of Taryn Cockerill, Peter Dainter and Mollie Harris.

But the resulting 196 and 10 points were enough for victory in both competitions as the Hounds completed their 187 and nine point totals with Richard Allen’s 26 and Paul Huddlestone’s 29.

The meeting between Bedworth Ex Servicemen’s Club and the travelling Ashby Road ‘B’ was even more delayed, having been originally scheduled back on November 30 of last year.

James Bend got Bedworth off to a strong start with his opening 28 but there was an immediate dip due to Mick Cryer’s 24.

However they were soon back on track as Andrew Cryer’s 30, Jackie Bend’s 28, and Robert Wagstaff’s 27 closed a good first half. The reply from Ashby Road was much more muted, back to back 25s from Neil Price and Kim Baker being followed by Martyn Wood’s 27, Jon Storer’s 29, and Alf Shore’s 22, all of which left the visitors in serious arrears at the break.

The home side were once again short of shooters but Bill Bend’s 30 and the 25 afforded by rule M24 allowed them to set reasonable targets of 192 and six points.

The first of these proved to be beyond Ashby Road as Mike Sansome’s 28 and Jeff Goodyer’s 29 took them to 185 but they did just enough to win the points match, finishing one ahead on seven points.