Hill holds his nerve to score first 30 of the season
THE most competitive match of the week in the Hinckley Air Rifle League took place at the home of Hinckley Phoenix where the visitors were the New Plough. The home side shot first and had a very mixed first half with scores ranging from 21 to Samantha Haskins’ 30, with a 24 and the 28s of Karen Bown and Craig Bown in between.
The reply from the Plough’s first half was less extreme but also lower scoring with Daniel Lakin’s opening 28 being their best individual score, followed by Glen Foxon’s 27 and a 26 from Darren Statham. The visitors maintained a reasonably high level of scoring after the break as Colin Rusted’s 26 together with Ian Ratheram’s 27 and the 28s of Mick Edwards and Kurt Challifour helped them to set challenging totals of 195 and 13 points. This left the remaining New Plough shooters - John Bray, Tom Bray and Nigel Hill - all needing to score 30s in order to win both matches by one. John started off with the required score but unfortunately Tom’s fourth shot missed the mark to give him 29 (but still two points). Thankfully Nigel held his nerve under the enormous pressure of hope to score his first 30 of the season to take his team’s totals to 195 and 14 points, tying the regular match and winning the Bernard Yates Trophy point match.
The match between the Hounds and the in-form Sporting Lions saw the former winning the toss and deciding to shoot first. They put together a reasonable first half performance, thanks to 26s from Lee Foskett and Paul Griffin plus Giles Headley’s 28 and a closing 29 from Richard Green but these were out-scored substantially by the visitors who started with the 29s of Glen Dainter and Todd Astill, and continued with back-to-back 30s from Karl Bunting and Jeanette Mulkeirins. With just three remaining shooters, the home side needed to shoot excellently and hope that their guests would have an unprecedented collapse in their own second half. The Hounds almost managed the first as Claire Barnes (trying her new shooting jacket for the first time) scored a 28 and Paul Huddlestone closed for the home side with a 30, but the second part didn’t occur as the Lions second half added 28s from Alison Smith and Taryn Cockerill plus the 29s of Melanie Jenkins and Darren Hicks. This gave the visitors victory in the regular match by a margin of 204-192 and a much closer 12-11 points win in the Yates Trophy.
A combination of a strong visiting team and a below par home side meant that Ashby Road’s meeting with the visiting Trojans ended with them losing in in both competitions. The writing was on the wall for Ashby Road from the start with the Trojans’ first half including Phil Hood’s 29, Dave Brown’s 28, and the 27s of Rebecca Horsler and Rob Forman whilst Ashby Road had to be content with Seamus Moore’s 28, Lewis Raine’s 27, and the 26s of Bertie Bugden and Alison Finney. The differences between the teams became even more stark after the break as the Trojans added a Mark Smith 27; the 28s of Leigh Hall, Will Chambers and Nigel Jackson; and Chris Sills’ 29 whereas the best that Ashby Road could come up with were Richard White’s 26 and the 27s of Pete Finney and David White. This left Ashby Road trailing badly in both competitions, losing the regular match by 197-187 and the points match by 13-6.