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the league matches on Thursday last, Binton B put an end to the unbeaten record
notched up by Binton A. Both teams put up eight shooters and so had to drop
their lowest score. Binton A set the pace with scores of 29 and two 31's from
Phil Hemming, Simon Dale and Gary Hooper. For Binton B, Brian Portman, Mike
Perry and Bill Fleming shot 25, 30 and 28 respectively. The A team's middle
ranks shot steadily with Neil Bragg 29, Will Troth 33 and Michelle Dale 31 but
the B team's middle ranks showed better accuracy and narrowed the points
difference with Roy Clarke, refreshed from his holiday, shooting a seasonal best
of 32, Kevin Johnson 31 and Gordon O'nions 30. On paper Binton A were still in
the lead but points were gradually being taken by the B team. Alan Dyer and Neil
Beningfield, Binton A's anchormen shot fours and bulls for 30 and 31 but the B
team's Ben Chamberlain and Rob Johnson did better, with seasonal bests of 33 and
34. The final scores were Binton B 243 and Binton A 245. It all came down to the
lowest scores. The B team dropped 25 and the A team 29 which gave the B team,
who shot well above their league average this so far this season, a 2pt victory.MEB opened their match against Guards with Paul Clingan, now with three possibles notched up in the league and plenty of bulls scored in the Whitbread on Tuesday, set to score another possible with his first five pellets ringing the bell, but his penultimate shot straddled the four and the bull and failed to ring the bell. Not to be put off, he rang the bell with his last pellet to score 34. Doug Dampier started for Guards but failed to keep the consistency of recent weeks with two threes and a bull amongst fours for 27. Kath Williams (MEB) managed 29 with two bulls and a three, whilst Ruth Dampier seized the opportunity to beat her husband's score and shot a solid 30 with no threes! Jan Beattie, for MEB, shot fours with just one bull but then disappointingly scored two 3's for only 27 which was MEB's scratched score. Jon Packard for Guards, saw the chance to pull some points back from the MEB and rang the bell four times to give him Guards' best score of the night 32. MEB shooters Sheila Clarke, new man Richard Groom, and Fred Williams then all shot 32's to take the match beyond the Guards' reach, when Chris Green shot two bulls for 30, Wendy Taplin's accuracy getting three bulls was cancelled out when she shot two threes for 29 which was matched by her husband Nigel. Fran Westwood kept out of the threes and with two bulls shot 30 which brought Guards' total to 207. MEB's Karl McMillan shot two fours followed by three bulls but disappointingly ended with two threes for 29 giving a total of 245 but after ignoring the lowest score they finished on 218pts.
Tiddington Club also saw a match between Home Guard and Wilmcote. Andy Morris was just not as accurate as he has been this season scoring only 31 but his son, Gareth showed the way when he scored his first possible giving Wilmcote an early 7pt lead in this match. Jackie Mills and Irene Parsons made hard work of shooting 29 when each put in threes to pull down the bulls they had scored. The Brookes' Lyn and Alan shot fours and bulls for 31 and 30 respectively pressing the Wilmcote advantage despite Home Guardsman's Colin Fulford just missing out on possible when his third pellet slipped into a four scoring 34. Veteran, John Maycock gave a good performance with his 32, as did Tim Stephens. Sam Goodman shot 32 but brother Ben had more difficulty finding the bull and could only manage 28. Paul Boazman kept out of the threes until his last pellet to score 29 but unfortunately new shooter Jack Shipton had trouble keeping out of the threes. Wilmcote's total score was 243. Home Guard finished with Bill Gately and Steve Hodges both shooting 31 to bring their total to 244 but as with the match at Binton both teams had eight shooters and they had to drop their lowest scores. This left the score line at Home Guard 207 and Wilmcote 220. Wilmcote, undefeated, now move to the top of the league table with 16pts from eight matches and an average of 217.25pts.
Matches this week (20 Nov) Binton A v Wilmcote; Home Guard v Avenue-RBL; MEB v Binton B. Guards have a bye.