Gordon Smith Cup triggers set of strong performances

THE second round of matches in the Hinckley Air Rifle League’s roundrobin cup competitions took Bedworth Ex-Servicemen’s Club to the Barwell home of Taylor & Ayre in the hope of maintaining their winning start to the Gordon Smith Cup competition.

Bedworth won the toss and shot first, their first four shooters all scoring variations on a 28, the differences depending on how many of their bull shots touched the plate.

Mick Cryer managed one clean shot; Andrew Cryer got four; Rikki Hammersley did well to hit three clean; whilst Jackie Bend’s shots all made a mark giving her a level 28.

James Bend broke the pattern by ringing the bell with every shot to close the half with a 30.2.

The home side’s reply started with the welcome return of Jim Gibney only for his rifle to fail at the start of his detail.

After borrowing another he went on to score 26.1, a score matched by Giles Headley after which Paul Griffin did slightly better with 26.2 whilst Steve Vincent topped their first half efforts with his 27.

Bedworth’s second half shooters, Bob Wagstaff and Bill Bend, carried on where James had left off, with Bob recording a 30.1 and Bill a magnificent maximum of 30.6 to give the visitors a huge 203.7 total.

T&A’s second half did nearly as well, with Aly Steele scoring 29.4, Alison Smith a calm 30.4 and Darren Hicks a 29.2.

Though better than their season average the home side’s total of 194.4 fell well short of their opponents, giving Bedworth a deserved victory.

The other Smiths Cup match was no closer with Trojans beating their guests from Ashby Road by an even greater margin.

The visitors shot first but couldn’t capitalise on this as they finished on a meagre 187.6 with Pete Finney’s 29.5, Seamus Moore’s 28.3 and Lorraine White’s 27.3 being the only individual highlights.

The home team’s response got off to a good start with back-to-back 27.3s from Nigel Jackson and Dave Brown before Phil Hood added his 30.4, Rob Forman chipped in with his 28.2, Mark Smith and Chris Sills contributed 28.4 and 30.2 respectively, all of which allowed Leigh Hall to close the match with the 27.0 that took his team’s total to 198.8.

The most competitive match in the Paynes Cup came from the encounter between Ashby Road ‘B’ and the visiting Hounds.

Leanne Simpson got the action under way with a 26.2 for the Hounds; Claire Barnes managed a 27.1; Andy Mitchell added a second half 26.1; and Roy Pritchard chipped in with his 29.2.

However as good as all these were they were totally eclipsed by a glorious 30.6 from Paul Huddlestone that put the Hounds on the path to their 189.5 total.

The reaction from the home side started in a relatively low key manner with Neil Price’s 26.1 but subsequent 28.2s from Craig Shuttleworth and Jon Storer plus Alf Shore’s 26.2 and Mike Sansome’s 26.1 gave last man Jeff Goodyer the opportunity to take the victory.

Sadly his 27.1 wasn’t quite good enough, leaving Ashby Road just short on 187.0.

Following their excellent first week win the shooters of the New Plough came back down to earth with a bump, entirely due to the fact that they could muster just five shooters for their visit to the home of Hinckley Phoenix.

Unusually the home side were also lacking in numbers but the seven that did turn up guaranteed them the win, the best scores in their 184.7 being the 28.2s of Barry Wright and Samantha Haskins, Ian Ratheram’s 28.1, Roxy Ratheram’s 27.1, and Tony Overton’s 26.1.

John Bray shot brilliantly for the visitors, clipping just one shot to score 30.5, Nigel added his 29.1 and there was a 26 from Paul Barwell, but they never had any chance of winning, proved by their finishing over fifty short of the target on 132.7.