Ashby Road edge win over Trojans as top teams meet in league
THE two teams occupying the top positions in the Hinckley Air Rifle League’s table, the Trojans and Ashby Road, met at the Greyhound, home of the former, each hoping to maintain their unbeaten records.
The visitors opened the match in unspectacular manner with successive 26s from Alison Finney, Innes Droomer and Bertie Bugden but closed their first half strongly thanks to Pete Finney’s 29.
The response from the home side was even less impressive, the only noteworthy score being Rebecca Horsler’s 27, leaving them behind at half way stage. Ashby Road’s second half improved slightly on their first thanks to 27s from Paul Holyland, Seamus Moore and David White but the resulting 188 total immediately began to looked inadequate as the home side’s reply started with Rob Forman’s 27 and Leigh Hall’s 28.
However, consecutive 26s from Mark Smith and Will Chambers left the last shooter, Chris Sills, needing a 30 to win the match. Unfortunately for him and the Trojans, his second and fourth shots weren’t quite close enough to the centre of the target and the ensuing 28 left his team one shy of their guests with 187.
The Sporting Lions moved into third place in the table thanks to a comfortable win against the visiting Hounds.
The Hounds won the toss and decided to shoot first but they couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity to pressurise their opponents, the best scores in their first half being a trio of 26s from Roy Pritchard, Leanne Simpson, and Adam Padamsey.
The rejoinder from the Lions was emphatically better as Glen Dainter’s opening 30 was followed in quick succession by Todd Astill’s 28, Karl Bunting’s RUGBY is a complex game, and with complexity often comes frustrations, and frustrating is what Saturday was for Hinckley.
Although it would be insulting to the visitors to say Hinckley were dominant for most of the game, the home side certainly had the lion’s share of possession and territory but were unable to convert, whereas Otley converted their opportunities and, on the back of an excellent defensive effort, deserved their 17-14 victory.
It was a very cagey first ten minutes from both sides, with Hinckley pleased not to concede an early try as has been an issue in the opening games of the year.
After that Hornets began to build some pressure although making the gain line was a real struggle, and it took until the 25th minute for the opening 30, and Jeanette Mulkeirins’ 29. Paul Huddlestone gave the Hounds’ score a fillip as he closed their second half with his own 30 but this was only enough to take them to 180, woefully inadequate against the Lions who reached 194 despite the best scores in their second half being the 26s of Taryn Cockerill and Mollie Harris.
The highest team score of the week came at the New Plough Inn were the visiting Hinckley Phoenix were put into shoot first by their hosts. Phoenix had a good first half made up of the 26s of Tony Overton and Craig Bown, Luke Bown’s 27, Samantha Haskins’ score, when, after a series of lineouts and scrums Alex Tansley fed Ben Pointon for the opening try, Joe Wilson converted.
Disappointingly however, the lead only lasted a few minutes with a strong Hinckley defence broken by a missed tackle on one of the visiting second rows took the score back to 7 all.
Then, on half time what was probably the turning point of the game, a pass in the Hinckley midfield was called to be forward when it looked like a genuine try scoring opportunity might be on, and from the resulting scrum Otley went to the corner with the forwards from that scoring their second try and taking a 14-7 lead into the break.
The second half saw Hinckley have the majority of the pressure and although genuine chances were at a premium, the positions that the home 29, and Karen Bown’s 30 but the reply from the Plough wasn’t nearly as accomplished with the best scores being Paul Barwell’s 29 and Glen Foxon’s 26. The visitors’ second half maintained the standard set by the first with Geoff Herbert’s 26, Kurt Challifour’s 27, and the 28s of Colin Rusted and Ian Ratheram helping them to an excellent 195.
The home side improved in their second half as John Bray’s 30 was joined by Tom Bray’s 28 and Nigel Hill’s 27 but the damage but these weren’t enough to close the gap, leaving them six short with 189. side got themselves into meant they were disappointed not to come away with scores on at least four occasions, and it took until the 76th minute for the score to be equalled up with a try line to try line attack leading to a score for Mitch Lamb converted by Joe Glover.
At this point, the game could then go either way and unfortunately it went the way of the visitors when they were seated a penalty 40 metres out which they kicked with the final play.
Hinckley can have no complaints about the result. It wasn’t a poor performance by any stretch of the imagination, but once again the conversion rate in the opposition 22 needed to be better.
Hornets director of rugby Scott Hamilton bemoaned the lack of inventiveness from his backs.
“This has given us plenty to work on,” he said. “Players need to step up.”