he first round of the Thompson Knockout Cup was held last Thursday. MEB had a bye which left Wilmcote shooting against Binton B, Avenue-RBL against Binton A and Home Guard against Guards.

Avenue- RBL who did not do well in the league competition this year, felt unlucky to have been drawn against league winners Binton A but both teams first shooters, Phil Hemming and Steve Everett, shot matched scores of 30. Binton then shot into the lead as Simon Dale shot 34 with his fifth pellet undoubtedly a four. Louise Price's confidence was undermined as she came to shoot next. Unfortunately with fours and threes, she did not shoot well. The middle ranks kept matching scores with Michelle Dale who was next up for Binton starting with two bulls then two near misses, with two more bulls and a four she shot 32. Jo Everett's shots were less well measured but she too scored 32. John Parrott and Dee Green both shot 29 then Will Troth just missed out on a possible as his third pellet went into the four. Steve Ray was the last to shoot for the home team. He shot steadily to clear his second possible of the season. For Binton, Neil Bragg shot 30, Alan Dyer 28 and Neil Beningfield 33 to bring Binton's total to 222pts. Avenue-RBL had to rely on two A N Other scores of 28 which gave them a total of 207. Binton go on to meet the winner of the Wilmcote/Binton B match whose score has not yet been reported to the Match Secretary.

Home Guard and Guards who share the venue at Tiddington were drawn against each other again. When they met in the Webley Competition, Home Guard gave Guards 7 points but a poor performance by Guards resulted in victory for Home Guard 213 to 203pts. This time the match got off to a fairly equal start with Home Guard in the lead by only one point after three shooters - Fran Westwood 30, Carl Rapson 33 and Lisa Edwards 28 compared to Richard Mills 31, Jackie Mills 28 and Steve Hodges 31. The middle ranks for Home Guard kept out of the threes with Bill Gately scoring 32 and Colin Fulford's 33. Guard, Doug Dampier shot four bulls but two threes pulled his score down to 30. Chris Green and Jon Packard also kept out of the threes for scores of 31 and 30 respectively but Home Guard kept picking up a point here and a point there to put the pressure on Guards' last two relevantly inexperienced shooters, Wendy Taplin and Ruth Dampier, who were not up to the challenge scoring 29 and 30. Carl Villiers, together with brothers Ben and Sam Goodman all shot 31 to give Home Guard another victory over Guards when the lowest score from each team was discounted. Though Guards were able to up their game to end on 213 which is the highest score they have had as a team, a final score of 220 for Home Guard takes them through to the next round of the Knockout Competition against MEB. The next matches in this competition are due to take place at neutral venues to be decided on April 2nd.

The second round of the 4 A-Side Competition takes place tonight (26/2) when Teetotallers meet Avenue-RBL and MEB A team meet the Guards Girls team. The second MEB team and Wilmcote both having byes through to the semi final round.
A last reminder that the Charity Quiz will be held on Saturday at Wilmcote Sports and Social Club starting at 8pm. The quiz is open to shooters, their supporters and non shooters alike. Entry fee only £1 per person. Teams of four ideal. Teams are asked to donate a prize for the raffle.