Sporting Lions maintain perfect record in cup

THIS week’s outstanding team performance in the Hinckley Air Rifle League came at the New Plough Inn where the visitors were the Sporting Lions.

The Lions had won all of their previous matches in the Gordon Smith Cup but knew that a loss would open the door to the rival Trojans, so their decision to ask the Plough team to shoot first could have backfired.

The Plough had a decent first half that included Daniel Lakin’s 28.3, Glenn Sephton’s 27.1, Darren Statham’s 26.1, and John Orton’s 26, but decent looked increasing inadequate as Glen Dainter’s opening 29.3 was followed by Taryn Cockerill’s 29, Mark Davies’ 26, and Jeanette Mulkeirins’ 30.3. The home side managed to improve after the break with John Bray’s 29.2, Tom Bray’s 28, and Nigel Hill’s 28.1, but their total of 192.8, normally a good score, proved to be too little as the Lions emphasised their superiority with a second half made up of Melanie Jenkins’ 28.1, Jackie Bend’s 27.1, Karl Bunting’s 30.3, and Bill Bend’s 29.2. These took the visitors to an outstanding 203.3 and made them extremely strong favourites to lift the cup.

The Trojans remain the only team with any chance of depriving the Lions of the trophy thanks to an easy win over the travelling Smallshaws, but the nature of their win made the likelihood of their lifting the trophy recede.

The visitors won the toss and decided to shoot first but they failed to capitalize on this, finishing on a meagre 173.2 despite Jack Horobin’s 29, and Tom Williams’ 27.2.

With scores of 29.4 from Chris Sills, 29.2 from Rob Forman and Mark Smith, Nigel Jackson’s 28.2, and Kenny Sills’ 26.2, a win for the home side was never really in doubt but unfortunately a weakened squad meant they finished on 186.4.

This left them only two points behind the Lions but also meant that they would have to beat the Lions by 23 shots in their final match to deprive them of the title.

Top faced bottom in the Paynes Cup standings as the winless Hounds travelled to the home of the unbeaten Ashby Road. Put in by their guests, Ashby Road had a disappointing first half with Alison Finney’s 27 being the sole highlight, but the second half made up for this as the team moved onto 190.0 thanks to Innes Droomer’s 28.3, Pete Finney’s 28.2, Seamus Moore’s 28.1, Bertie Bugden’s 27.2, and Richard White’s 26.2.

The Hounds had slightly higher first half scores than their hosts with Harlie McKeown’s 27.3 and Claire Barnes’ 26, and they had a strong second half made up of Paul Griffin’s 27.3 and Paul Huddlestone’s 30.2, but with just seven shooters they weren’t in a position to discard any of their lower scores and so they finished some distance behind on 183.8.

Ashby Road B’s win at the home of Hinckley Phoenix lifted them into second place in the Paynes Cup standing and made them the only team capable of depriving the other Ashby Road team of the cup.

Phoenix won the toss and decide to shoot first, whereupon the proceeded to shoot consistently but unremarkably, their best scores being Karen Bown’s 27.3 and Luke Bown’s 27.2. With the next best scores being Roxy Ratheram’s 26, and the 26.1s of Geoff Herbert and Ian Ratheram.

The resulting 182.9 proved not quite enough with the visitors outscoring them by 4 shots with a 186.9 total that included Jon Storer’s 30.2, Rikki Hammersley’s 28.3, Andrew Cryer’s 27.1, Alf Shore’s 26.2, and Stephen Watson’s 26.