After 78 weeks, air rifle league returns with a series of friendlies
ON the 15th of March last year, the first round of matches in the Hinckley Air Rifle League’s roundrobin cup competitions were held; the week after it was decided to suspend further matches.
At the time the league was hoping to be able to come back after twelve weeks or so, but as it turned out that proved to be incredibly optimistic. Now, seventy-eight weeks after those last matches the league has restarted, albeit tentatively.
Unsure of how the restart would be received by the membership, the league decided to randomly divide the eight teams into two groups of four, and then scheduled three weeks of matches where each team in a group would shoot against every other in the same group, in what would essentially be a series of friendlies.
It was hoped that this approach would allow the league to judge the appetite for shooting amongst the league’s membership and aid in deciding how the rest of the season should proceed.
Many of the participants in the match between the Trojans and the visiting Ashby Road showed the effects of the prolonged layoff. The visitors started well thanks to a 29 from Alison Finney and an excellent first time 25 from debutant Gabrielle Finney, but this wasn’t improved on until the end of their second half when Seamus Moore added a 27 before Peter Finney closed with the 26 that took their total to 182. The response from the Trojans was a step up from this with four of their first half shooters – Richard Sanders, Nigel Jackson, Rob Forman, and Mark Smith - scoring 26s whilst Dave Brown bucked the trend with a 27. Closing the second half for the Trojans, Chris Sills and Leigh Hall could have won the match with 26 apiece but showed why they are both valued members of the league’s representative teams, as they both scored 29s to take their team’s total to 189, giving them victory by seven shots.
The match between the Sporting Lions and the Hounds ended with the home side also winning, but by an even greater margin. The Lions started the match in the strongest possible way with back-to-back 30s from Glen Dainter and Todd Astill, and whilst their remaining shooters couldn’t quite match this Alison Smith’s 29, Bill Bend’s 28, and the 27s of Karl Bunting and Darren Hicks, all helped them to an outstanding 194 total. The visitors had their own individual successes, most notably Paul Huddlestone’s 29 and the 2s of Adam Padamsey and Paul Griffin, but with the next best score being Claire Barnes’ 26, the Hounds as a team managed a slightly disappointing 183.
The restart came a little too soon for Ashby Road ‘B’ who, due to a combination of isolating, illness and holidays, could field a team of just four shooters. However, their home match against a full strength Hinckley Phoenix side still went ahead with both sides exhibiting some highlights. For Ashby Road those came from Jon Storer and Mike Sansome, scoring 28 and 27 respectively, whilst for Phoenix there were 28s from Karen Bown and Ian Ratheram; a 27 from Samantha Haskins; and a 26 from Craig Bown. Inevitably, given the respective team strengths, the match ended in a win for the visitors, the score line finishing at 183 to 101 in their favour, but hopefully Ashby Road ‘B’ will be able to gain strength over their next two friendlies and be ready to participate on an equal footing when the competitive matches starts.
One further match, between Smallshaws and the New plough Inn, was scheduled for the night but at the time of writing no score sheet had been received.