Bedworth claim the Triple Town Trophy after three nights of competition

EVERY year the tree local air rifle leagues – Hinckley, Bedworth and Nuneaton – contest the unimaginatively titled Triple Town Trophy. Each league plays host for one of the three nights and this year it was the turn of Nuneaton to invite the other two leagues to the Coton Conservative Club for Monday’s first night of shooting.

Of the three teams it was Bedworth that got off to by far the best start with successive 30.5s from Andrew Cryer and Todd Astill followed by Mick Cryer’s

28 and Jackie Bend’s 27.2. Hinckley came close to matching them as Glen Dainter’s opening 27.2 was followed by a 30.3 from Paul Huddlestone, Karl Bunting’s 20.4 and Alison Finney’s 26.2 whilst Nuneaton struggled to keep up as Ray Catern’s opening 26.2 preceded Jon Storer’s 28.2, Jeanette Mulkeirins’ 27.2, and Alyson Steele’s 29.2.

Bedworth and Hinckley continued to match each other over the remainder of the night; Bedworth scoring a Rikki Hammersley 27.2, Linda Metcalfe’s

Nuneaton angler Phil Baker who fed and fished bread to the far shelf without much success a few small roach, so switched to worm down the track and waited patiently.

Having managed a few small perch, as the match was coming to an end his luck changed. In the last 40 minutes or so he managed to snare one very good perch around the 1.5lb mark followed by two other good perch he ended with a level 3lbs.

Second place went to Hinckley angler Kev Milne on peg 6

30.2, James Bend’s 29.3, Bill Bend’s 30.4 and Klaus Baker’s 28.1 whereas Hinckley added John Bray’s 28.3, Rebecca Horsler’s 29.1, Alison Smith’s 30.4, Adam Padamsey’s 29.3, Nigel Hill’s 29.1, and Chris Sill’s 29.2. In fact, so closely were the two teams matched that they finished the night dead level on 234.2 apiece. Unfortunately for the home side they couldn’t compete with this level of shooting, finishing on just 225.6 despite Phil Steele’s 28.3, Alf Shore’s 28.1, Mike Sansome’s 30.1, and a closing 30.3 who having struggled for most of the match managed one good bream around 2lbs down the track on worm plus some small perch to end with 2lbs 12ozs.

Third place on peg 4 was another Hinckley angler Ade Holland who fed and fished bread to the far ledge to catch some small roach and skimmers.

Resorting to worm down the track saw success in the form of three perch up to 12ozs to end with 2lbs 8ozs. Fourth place went to Hinckley canal legend from Darren Hicks.

Tuesday night saw the three teams moving to the Bedworth Ex Servicemen’s Club where the home side again got off to an excellent start thanks to the 30.4s of Andrew Cryer and Todd Astill. Their next couple of shooters struggled a little but Rikki Hammersley got them back on track with his 28, after which they counted Linda Metcalfe’s 30.1, James Bend’s 29.4, Bill Bend’s 30.4, and Klaus Baker’s 30.3.

The resulting 235.1 was enough to

Doug Dimbleby on peg 1 who fed and fished bread from the off to the far bank.

He started very well catching small roach on and off, but when they dried up he resorted to worm on the inside and down the track to catch small perch ending up with 2lbs 4ozs.

The two section winners were Nuneaton angler Kev Cooper on peg 3 who managed afew small roach on bread from the far shelf for just 11ozs and Tamworth angler Phil Hicks on peg 14 who had 24 small roach & a give them a sizeable lead over their Hinckley rivals who shot well but not quite well enough, finishing on 230.7 thanks to Glen Dainter’s 29.4, Paul Huddlestone’s 29.2, John Bray’s 29.1, Pete Finney’s 28.2, Rebecca Horsler’s 29.2, Alison Finney’s 27.1, Nigel Hill’s 27, Alison Smith’s 29.2 and Chris Sills’ 30.2.

Nuneaton again finished in a distant third with a total of just 220.3 total even with Ray Cartern’s 27.1, Jon Storer’s 29.3, Phil Steele’s 27.2, Jeanette Mulkeirins’ 28.1, Andy Morris’ 28.1, Martyn Wood’s 29.3, Taryn Cockerill’s 27 and Darren Hicks’ 28.2.

The Hinckley leg, held on Thursday evening at Ashby Road Sports Club, started well for the home side as they almost pulled back the whole of Bedworth’s lead on the first shooters with Hinckley’s Glen Dainter scoring a faultless 30.6 to James Bend’s 27.2 but most of these gains were lost in the next squad as Andrew Cryer scored 30.3 for Bedworth whilst Paul Huddlestone, struggling with a malfunctioning rifle, managed a disappointing 27.3. Todd Astill’s 30.4 did Bedworth’s hopes of lifting the trophy no harm after which Rikki Hammersley and Tom Williams both contributed 29.1s, Linda Metcalfe chipped in with a 27, Bill Bend added 30, and Elaine Metcalfe and Klaus Baker closed the shooting for them with 27.1 and 29.3 respectively.

Hinckley came close to matching these scores with Pete Finney’s 27.1, Karl Bunting’s 30.2, Alison Finney’s 28.1, John Bray’s 27, Alison Smith’s 29.3, Adam Padamsey’s 28.4, Giles Headley’s 30.4, Nigel Hill’s 28.1 and Chris Sills’ 28.4 but this wasn’t enough as they finished trailing Bedworth by 232.4 to 231.6 on the night and by 701.7 to 696.5 overall.

Unsurprisingly, Nuneaton fell even further into arrears, finishing the night on just 222.6 despite Jon Storer’s 29.4, Alyson Steele’s 30.3, Jeanette Mulkeirins’ 28.1, Phil Steele’s 27.3, Mike Sansome’s 27.2, and Darren Hicks’ 30.3. This left them with an overall total of 668.5, more than 30 behind the winning Bedworth team. skimmer on bread from the far side for 1lb 8ozs”.

Saturday 14th March 2020 is the last day of the traditional season and thereafter the canal between Snarestone and Carlton will be closed for fishing due to being wholly a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Bailiffs will patrol, so please be warned, illegally fishing in the Close Season can result in very heavy fines.

There will be one last competition (a knock-up) on the canal on Saturday, draw 1pm at The Globe and fish 2-5pm.