he first two rounds of the Whitbread Competition were held at Home Guard Club, Tiddington on Tuesday 17 November. Of the 32 shooters who put their names down for this competition only 20 turned up on the night. This was very disappointing but it did mean that both the first and second rounds of the competition could take place. Competitors have five pellets and "clean" bulls count as 5.1 points.

Alan Watts was shooting very well and looked as if he would hit a mini possible with 20.3 points from his first four pellets but alas his fourth pellet slipped into the four to give him a total score of 24.3 in his draw against Colin Fulford. Colin shot two fours before he found the bull and with a score of 23 was knocked out of the competition. Team mates Guy Ganderton and Louise Price were drawn against each other. Guy shot a string of fours except for his last pellet which slipped into the three for 19 points. Louise also shot a three but a "clean" bull gave her this match with 20.1 points. Peter Mole, Derek Powers and Michelle Dale all secured places in the second round as their opponents, Neil Beningfield, Richard Groom and Richard Mills failed to show. Neither Irene Parsons nor Jackie Mills turned up so Michelle Dale got straight through to the quarter finals without firing a shot. Tim Stephens was not on his best form when he shot against Will Cemis. Tim shot two threes and had to be satisfied with 19 points. Will managed a single bull and fours for 20 points. Bill Fleming was through to the second round when Steve Ray failed to appear.

Simon Dale was on good form in his draw against Steve Everett who has not shot as consistently this season as last. Simon came close to shooting a mini possible with only one four he scored 24.3 points which with Alan Watts turned out to be the highest scores in the first round. Neither Andy Morris nor Paul Nixon-Barron came to the event so Simon got through to the quarter finals. Karl McMillan was through to the second round because Ben Chamberlain did not attend. The match between Sam Goodman and Gary Hooper was close with both shooters hitting three bulls and two fours but it was Gary who was the more accurate with two of his bulls being "clean", he won with 23.2 points. Paul Seabury, new to bell target shooting this season, was drawn against Alison McMillan who always seems to do well in competition matches. He acquitted himself well after a shaky start with 20.1 points but Alison did better with 23.1. Mike Perry, Alan Brookes and Paul Clingan were all through to the second round as their opponents, Joshua Bridge, Ben Goodman and Kath Williams did not turn up. In the second round, Alan Watts shot three bulls for 23.2 points and eliminated Louise Price who could only hit steady fours. Peter Mole, who has improved his shooting noticeably this season, was unlucky not to get through to the quarter final when he was beaten by Derek Powers' single bull for 21 points. Alan will meet Derek in the quarter final round. Will Cemis shot four fours before hitting the bull with his last pellet. This was not good enough and Bill Fleming with three bulls and 23.1 points went through to meet Michelle Dale in the next round. With a three and just one bull, Karl McMillan was knocked out of the competition by Gary Hooper who scored 22.2 points and who will meet team mate Simon Dale in the quarter finals. Alison McMillan shot three bulls and two fours for 23.1 when she came up against Mike Perry who started with a four but then went on to hit four bulls, including two "clean" ones for 24.2 and in the final match of the second round, Alan Brookes shot a great mini possible for 25.1 but he was drawn against Paul Clingan and this proved to be not accurate enough as Paul also shooting a mini possible but with two "clean" bulls piped him at the post with 25.2 points. Mike Perry will meet Paul in the last of the quarter finals which is due to be held at the Home Guard Club again on 15 December.

The Senior Shield, open to members of the League who have attained their 45th birthday, took place at the Home Guard Club last Thursday, 26 November. Once again the turn out was poor with only 10 competitors taking part. Five pellets are shot on each of two targets with the scores added together to determine the final placings. "Clean" bulls score 5.1 points. Paul Clingan and Steve Ray shot simultaneously on the home target and on league target one respectively. Both shot in their blue and white shooting jackets and didn't they set the bells ringing with both shooting mini possibles, Paul scoring 25.3 and Steve 25.1 points. Swapping targets, Paul shooting another mini possible, also shot 25.1 to give him a total of 50.4 out of 51 points. Steve started with three "clean" bulls and Paul thought he'd lost the competition but Steve lost his concentration when he shot the fourth pellet to get a four though he did recover to get a "clean" bull with his last pellet. This gave him a total of 49.5 points and second place. The standard of shooting from the rest of the competitiors was high with only an occasional stray pellet in the threes but after the accuracy shown by Paul and Steve there was not much they could do. Alan Brookes came third with 45.4 points and Veteran Ray Hodgkins was fourth with 45.2 which included extra points because he is over 70 years of age.

The league were hoping that Gordon Spencer would take part in this competition. Had he done so, it would have marked 50 years to the day since he joined the league. Gordon made his debut on 26 November 1959 in a match between the Bulls Head, subsequently known as The Sportsman and more recently as The West End, located in Bull Street, Old Town and a team from the GPO (The General Post Office). He replaced his father in the team which included Chris Ritchins who was landlord of the Bulls Head and who some years later went on to present to the League the Ritchins Cup. This trophy was originally presented to the winners of the League's second division but since the League reduced to only one division, it has been presented to the runner up team and is currently held by Wilmcote.
 

Back in 1959 Gordon shot against other illustrious names which included Phil Morris who still takes a keen interest in the performance of the MEB team, though he seldom takes part in league matches or competitions these days; Bill Amos who shot with the Red Lion team and is remembered each year when the Christmas Shoot takes place using the Webley Mk 3 rifle donated by him and Jim Tyler who retired in 2007 having completed 57 years shooting for the Ex-Servicemen's Club team which has been known in more recent years as the Royal British Legion Club.