Sporting Lions take victory over visiting New Plough Inn in the cup

THE second round of the Hinckley Air Rifle League’s Norman Illiffe Cup saw a mixed bag of results with winning margins ranging from more than twenty to less than one.

The largest margin came as a result of the visit of the New Plough Inn to the Hinckley Working Men’s Club, home to the Sporting Lions. Put in by their guests, the Lions’ first half did their utmost to make the visitors regret that decision with Lee Johnson’s opening 27.3 being followed by the 30.2s of Todd Astill and Glen Dainter, Jeanette Mulkeirins’ 29.3, and Karl Bunting’s 30.4. Their second half started just as strongly thanks to Melanie Jenkins’ 30.3 and whilst the remaining shooters couldn’t match this level of scoring, Peter Dainter’s 26.2 score was enough to take to an excellent 203.9 total. The reply from the Plough had its own highlights, most notably an excellent 30.5 from John Bray, but this together with Nigel Hill’s 27.1 and the 26.1s of Darren Statham and Tom Bray still left them well adrift on 183.0.

Taylor & Ayre hosted the Trojans at The Barn and were put in first by their guests. Aly Steele’s opening 28.3 was bettered by Giles Headley’s 29.2, after which Steve Vincent shot a 27.1 and John Orton a 26. Nigel Dave Brown also scored a 27.1 for the Trojans before Rebecca Horsler provided a dramatic interlude, destroying the target lighting despite scoring a clean bull! With a new bulb fitted, Rebecca remained embarrassed but unfazed, going on to score 29.3. Rob Forman scored 27.1 leaving Phil Hood to close the half with a 30.5. T&A continued to score well in the second half; Phil Steele and Darren Hicks each hitting a 29.2 either side of Alison Smith’s 28.1; but unfortunately for them so did the Trojans. Leigh Hall recorded a 29.3, Mark Smith a 28.3 and Chris Sills just nicked the plate with his last shot making him joint top scorer with 29.5. Small differences gave the visitors a wider margin of victory than a glance at the score sheet would suggest, taking the match by 202.1 to 197.1.

There was little to differentiate between the two teams in the match at the Greyhound where the Hounds were visited by Hinckley Phoenix. The Hounds had a reasonably successful first half thanks to Leanne Simpson’s 27.3, Richard Green’s 26.1 and Richard Allen’s 26.2 but the visitors did slightly better with Samantha Haskins’ 28.2 leading the scoring ahead of Karen Bown’s 26.1 and Craig Bown’s 27.1. However the home side improved markedly after the break with Chris Allen’s 26 preceding Roy Pritchard’s 27.1 and a superb 30.5 from Paul Huddlestone. The resulting 188.3 looked like the sort of score that could win or lose the match for them particularly after Teresa Barnes’ 27 and Geoff Herbert’s 27.1 left the Phoenix captain, Ian Ratheram, needing a 28 to take his team through to the next round. After his first shot found the four ring the Hounds may have started to sense victory but he recovered magnificently to ring the bell with his five shots, scoring the 29.1 that gave his team 189.7 and victory by 1.4.

The battle of the Ashby Road teams produced an even closer result with a victory margin of less than one. The home team, Ashby Road, were nothing if not consistent with six of their eleven shooters – Lorraine White, David White, Lewis Raine, Neil Smith, Chris Rose and Richard White -scoring 26s of one variety or another. Only their final two shooters, Seamus Moore and Pete Finney, could do better, scoring 29.3 and 28.1 respectively to take them to their 188.1 total. The response from Ashby Road ‘B’ started slowly but Kim Baker’s 28.2, Jon Storer’s 29.2, Martyn Wood’s 26.2 and Mike Sansome’s 29.2 left last man Jeff Goodyer needing an eminently gettable 27 for victory. This became more difficult when three of his first four shots failed to ring the bell but he held his nerve for the closing shots to score 27.1 and to take his team’s total to 189.0, just 0.9 ahead.