Status Quo maintained as the top four sides in the league all win

THE top four places in the Hinckley Air Rifle League remained unchanged after this week’s matches as the teams in those positions all won their latest encounter.

Three of those four had home advantage with only the top-placed Trojans having to travel, their destination being the Barwell Constitional Club, home venue for Smallshaws. The visitors did well in their first half with mark Horsler’s 26, Rebecca Horsler’s 27, Dave Brown’s 28 and Phil Hood’s 29 but the home team did even better thanks to Jamie Slimm’s 26; the 28s of Chris Slimm, Rob Wainwright and Simon Grewcock; and John Stevenson’s 29. However the Trojans improved after the break with a trio of 28s from Rob Forman, Leigh Hall and Mark Smith putting Chris Sills in position to take his team’s totals to 198 and 13 points thanks to his closing 30. The Smallshaws second half did reasonably well but not quite well enough, the 28s of Tom Williams and Bob West leaving them on 195 and 12 points.

The second placed Sporting Lions team had less difficulty against the visiting Taylor & Ayre. Todd Astill opened the match for the Lions with his fourth successive 30 and although the remainder of the first half couldn’t quite match that they still managed to put together an impressive performance thanks to the 29s of Glen Dainter and Karl Bunting; the 28 of Jeanette Mulkeirins; and Lee Johnson’s 27. The response from T&A’s first half shooters was much less assured with only Giles Headley and Norman Hall coming close to scoring enough with 28 and 26 respectively. The Lions’ second half started well thanks to a 29 from Melanie Jenkins and Taryn Cockerill’s 27 but those were the last notable scores, leaving them on 199 and 12 points. The visitors improved in their second half but not by enough for them to get anything out of the night’s competitions as the 26s of Paul Griffin and Phil Steele; Matt Hall’s 28; and the closing 29s of Alison Smith and Darren Hicks took them to 192 and 9 points.

Ashby Road held on to third place thanks to a narrow victory over their guests from the New Plough Inn. The home team started well with Alison Finney’s opening 28 being followed by Innes Droomer’s 26 but it wasn’t until the second half that they managed to reach this level again. Neil Smith’s 27 got them back on track whilst Lorraine White’s 30, Richard White’s 28, and the 26s of David White and Pete Finney helped them to their 191 and 11 point totals. The New Plough’s first half improved on Ashby Road’s with Daniel Lakin’s 27 preceding Darren Statham’s 26 and John Bray’s 30, but despite a second half made up of a 26 from Steve Reynolds and the 27s of Tom Bray and Nigel Hill they still finished short in both competitions with 187 and 10 points.

With only shooters present Bedworth Ex Servicemen’s Club knew that there was little room for error in their match against the visiting Ashby Road ‘B’. Fortunately they all shot reasonably well with their lowest score being Klaus Baker’s 26; their highest scores the 30s of Jackie Bend and Bill Bend; and the remaining scores being Mick Cryer’s 28 and the 29s of Andrew Cryer and James Bend. The resulting totals of 196 and 9 points proved too good for the visitors who responded with 185 and 7 points, even with a 28 from Jon Storer; the 27s of Neil Price, Martyn Wood and Alf Shore; and Mike Sansom’s 26.

The Hounds faced the visiting Hinckley Phoenix hoping to carry on their winning ways of the week before when they’d won the Presidents’ Trophy.

The home side won the toss and decided to shoot first but unfortunately they failed to take full advantage of this, their best scores being Richard Green’s 27 and the 26s of Lee Foskett, Callum Garner and Roy Pritchard. As disappointing as this was the start of their second half was even more so with none of the first three shooters bettering 24 and though Richard Allen and Paul Huddlestone closed for them with 27 and 29 respectively, the resulting totals of 186 and 5 points immediately seem deficient. And so it proved.

The visitors started well with a Barry Wright 27, a score matched by four other shooter; Karen Bown, Luke Bown, Fred Knowles and Kurt Challifour. Samantha Haskins improved on these with her 29, and Colin Rusted and Ian Ratheram came close to matching it with their 26s, all of which left the Phoenix team on 190 and 12 points.