In the second set of fixtures of the Winter season, the Shrewsbury Air Rifle League saw slightly lower scores than last week.
There were only a couple of “Possibles” across all 55 shooters who took part. A Possible being when the shooter manages to get all 7 shots through the centre of the target without straying too far outside of the 5 scoring zone.
The highest scoring team of the night were the Breidden Inn team who scored a great 175.5 whilst shooting away at the Marchamley Social Club team. The home team scored a 168.0 letting the Middletown based team grab their first two points of the season for the win. Martin Pearce for the Breidden scored the only possible of the match and Dan Evanson, of the Marchamley team, scored a good 36.0 after going on first against last year’s League Champions first shooter Rich Morgan who shot a 35.0.
Nomadic team The Cock Inn, newly migrated to their new Hanwood home from the Harlescott Club, drove to the Telepost Club to face a team happy at a good win last week against the Breidden. There were no possibles in the match that saw possibly the leagues newest and youngest shooters, Oliver Jones and Will Chilton from the visiting team shoot excellently to finish with a 25 and 32.5 respectively.
Bob Griffiths said “It’s good to see youngsters coming into the sport as some of the previous generation retire and they’ll certainly improve and become great shooters in a short space of time”. Highest scores in this match were from the home team’s Peter Dallmeier who scored a 36.5 whilst the Cock Inn’s Graham Howells scored a great 36.0. Both shooters just a little unlucky to drop one of their seven pellets outside of the 5 zone. Telepost took the points with a 176.0 against the Cock’s 162 and are looking forward to visiting the new Hanwood venue in the second half of the season.
Unison continued their form from last week to win their match at the Harlescott Social Club against the club’s “A” team. Unison scored an awesome 175.5 with a possible of 36.5 from Mike Lewis who shot seventh to take the match beyond the reach of the home team. Sheila Haden, shooting for HSC A got her team’s highest score of 34.0 after dropping just two shots out of the 5 scoring zone. Andy Williams from the visitor’s team dropped a single shot into the 4.5 zone to score a great 35.0 also. Both teams enjoyed a hot casserole and bread roles provided by the club to round the early autumn evening off.
Last fixture to catch up with is Condover Club against the Harlescott Social Club’s “B” Team. The home team, Condover, opened with their Captain, Helen Alderson, shooting a below average 32.5 against Adam Binnersley’s 36.5 something that would prove to be significant later! Claire Bithell then equalled her opponent Rikki Pacini both scoring a 34.5. Claire’s husband, Dave followed and pipped his Paul Binnersley from HSC B by 0.5 with a good 35.5.
League stalwarts, Condover’s Derek Berkley and Harlescott B’s Vito Pacini faced off with the former winning his match by 0.5. The home side’s Stuart Morgan then equalled Rian Pacini’s 35.0 which meant that result was a close run thing. The next match was nail-bitingly tense with the visitor’s Marino Pacini shooting against Ian Small. Ian hit a 35.5 to beat Marino’s 34.5. Doctor Who-like hiding behind the sofas was called for as Condover’s anchor-man Neal Alderson shot last to finish with a 34 to HSC B’s Mark Crisp’s 32.
A flurry of calculation and speculation eventually proved that the HSC B team had narrowly won by a single point. 175.5 to 174.5. Consistent shooting saved the day for the visitors after their first competitor Adam dropped a 4, his and his teams consistent shooting saved the two points for a win on this occasion.
Next week league leaders Unison take on the might of the Breidden at the Abbey Foregate based venue in what promises to be a battle of the giants! Look out for the results of that and the other three matches here!!
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