he Webley Shield Competition got off to a faltering start on Jan 8 when Binton B who could not raise a team had to postpone their match against Binton A. The competition which evens out the shooting abilities of teams by awarding a handicap to the team with the higher average score, or conversely, bonus points to the team with the lower average score still presents a challenge to shooters to maintain or even improve on their individual averages.

In the match between high scoring Wilmcote and the less accurate Avenue-RBL the handicap for Wilmcote was 16pts. Jo Everett and Louise Price both shot a steady 29 for the visitors but Wilmcote's Andy Morris just missed out on a possible when he shot yet another 34 and Tom Morris shot 32 to pull back the handicap. Steve Everett shot above his average with 32 and was followed by Guy Ganderton and Paul Nixon Barron who both maintained their average scores. Wilmcote's middle ranks kept on the pressure with John Maycock 31, Gareth Morris 33, Alan Brookes 30 and Tim Stephens 32. Avenue-RBL ran into trouble when Dee Green had the misfortune to have a misfire which left her with only 24pts and Peter Mole struggled to hit only two fours which resulted in his score being scratched. Wilmcote's last two shooters, Trev Skinner and Paul Boazman shot 30 and 29 respectively which gave the team after disregarding their lowest of eight scores, a total of 222pts which was 4 above their league average. Avenue-RBL's anchorman Steve Ray shot five bulls and looked as if he might get the illusive possible but a four slipped in followed by a further bull for 34. Avenue-RBL had to double check the score, unable to believe their luck when they found they had shot 6 above the team's average which with the bonus points gave them a total score of 223pts which gave them victory by the narrowest of margins.

Home Guard gave Guards 7 points but a poor performance by Guards resulted in a resounding victory for Home Guard 213 to 203pts. Sam Goodman for Home Guard shot bulls and fours for 33 whilst Richard Mills and Colin Fulford both shot 32. However, Irene Parsons was undoubtedly the star performer on the night when she improved on her personal best with a score of 32. By and large Home Guard kept out of the threes which tend to loose matches and shot well above their team average to win despite giving away 7pts. Guards performance was lack lustre overall with only Carl Rapson and Ruth Dampier managing 30pts and Wendy Taplin who kept out of the threes for 29. The rest of the team including Captain Fran Westwood and Jon Packard, scored too many threes which kept their scores down between 25 and 28.