Hinckley shooters on target to seal Triple Town Trophy

IT was the turn of Bedworth to host the first leg of the Triple Town Trophy and so representatives of the Bedworth, Hinckley and Nuneaton air rifle leagues met on Tuesday night at the Bedworth Ex Servicemen’s Club to compete in the annual three way competition.

The format of the competition calls for each team to have a maximum of twelve shooters, six of whom are nominated before the commencement with nomination meaning that the score of those shooters will be counted irrespective of what they are.

The best two of the other scores are also counted, giving a total for each night made up of eight scores.

This means that the skill of the shooters involved isn’t the only factor in determining the outcome of the competition, the team captains needing to make a judgement as to which of their shooters they think to be the most reliable in order to avoid discarding scores from the non-nominated pool that could have improved the night’s total.

On the first night it was only the Nuneaton team that lost out on their nominated shooters but only by a single shot as John Emery’s 27 was force out by Phil Steele’s nominated 26.

Of their other counting shooters Jon Storer and Jeanette Mulkerins did best with 30 apiece; Alyson Steele, Melanie Jenkins and Mike Sansome all scored 28s; and there were 27s for Darren Hicks and Andy Morris, all combing to give them 224.

Hinckley couldn’t match Nuneaton’s high scores but despite having just ten shooters they were far more consistent with 29s from Phil Hood, John Bray, Karl Bunting and Leigh Hall plus 28s from Glen Dainter, Pete Finney, Richard White and Alison Smith taking them to their 228 total.

Nigel Hill’s 27 was the only other score of note as they finished the night in second place, two behind Bedworth who finished the night with a 230 total coming courtesy of the 30s of Andrew Cryer, James Bend and Bill Bend Tom Williams’ 29; the 28s of Linda Metcalfe, Todd Astill and Jackie Bend; and the 27s of Jackie West, Jeff Goodyer and Robert Wagstaff, only one of which counted.

On Thursday evening the competition moved to Hinckley’s Ashby Road Sports Club where a slight variation in rules meant that clean bulls scored 5.1.

On this occasion Nuneaton did much better, improving on the previous night by almost six thanks to Mel Jenkin’s 30.1; Darren Hicks’ 29.5; Jon Storer’s 29.3; Jeanette Mulkeirins’ 29.1; the 28.2s of Neil Price, Phil Steele and Andy Morris; and Mike Sansome’s 28.1.

These gave them a total of 229.9 but as much of an improvement as this was it didn’t allow them to close the gaps to the opposition as it still left them in third place on the night, albeit not by much.

Bedworth outscored Nuneaton by just 0.1, ‘though this would have been more but for one of their nominations.

Bill Bend’s 30.5 was their best individual score but Andrew Cryer and James Bend were only marginally behind with 30.4 and 30.3 respectively. Tom Williams added 29.2; there were 28.2s from Mick Cryer and Jackie Bend; and a 28.1 from Bob West. Jackie West scored 27.1 and Ricki Hammersley managed a 27 but both were discounted in favour of Robert Wagstaff’s nominated 25.1, taking their total to 230.0.

Hinckley did the best on the night with a total of 230.5 but like Bedworth this could have been much better had the nominations gone their way.

They had to count Giles Headley’s 26.2 and Karl Bunting’s 27.1 ahead of Rob Forman’s 28.2 and Alison Smith’s 29.2 but the squad did sufficiently well to absorb this disappointment, their total being completed by the 30.5s of Glen Dainter and Pete Finney, Phil Hood’s 29.4, Chris Sills’ 29.3, Leigh Hall’s 29.2, and John Bray’s 28.3.

All of this meant that at the end of the second night Nuneaton were in third place with a cumulative total of 453.9, Hinckley held second with 485.5, and Bedworth were out in front with 460.0.

If Nuneaton were to overcome this sizeable deficit they needed to take full use of any home target advantage as the competition moved to Coton Conservative Club on the following Monday for the third and final leg.

Unfortunately shooting at their home venue didn’t help sufficiently and they remained in third place with a total on the night of 228.2, made up of Jon Storer’s 30.3, Mel Jenkins’ 29.5, John Emery’s 29.4, Jeanette Mulkeirins’ 29.2, Mike Sansome’s 28.2, and the 27.2s of Tom Bray, Andy Morris and Darren Hicks.

Bedworth’s defence of their lead started excellently with a near faultless 30.5 from James Bend and whilst the remainder of the team couldn’t match this they still managed to regularly ring the bell.

Bill Bend came closest to his son’s achievement with his 30.3, Andrew Cryer missed just one in his 29.4 and Linda Metcalfe improved on previous nights to score 29.

The other counting scores were the 28.3s of Jackie West and Tom Williams, and the 28.2s of Robert Wagstaff and Jackie Bend, all of which gave them 232.2, their best total of the three nights.

This meant that Hinckley would need an outstanding performance if they were to have any hope of retaining the trophy.

An opening 29.3 from Rob Forman set the strong trend that the majority of the Hinckley shooters followed.

Skipper Glen Dainter followed with an excellent 30.4, Phil Hood did very nearly as well to score 29.4 and John Bray matched it with his own 30.4.

A 29.1 from Giles Headley preceded Nigel Hill’s 30.3 and Pete Finney’s 30.2, Paul Huddlestone contributed 28.2, and the scoring finished with a 29.2 from Karl Bunting, Alison Smith’s 29.3, and Chris Sills’ 29.4, all of which gave Hinckley an exceptional 237.5 for this final leg.

This gave Hinckley an overall total of 696.0, comfortably beating Bedworth’s 692.2, who in turn were well ahead of Nuneaton’s 681.9.