hitbread Individual Competition. Binton Social Club hosted the Whitbread Individual Competition on 13 November. Lester Langford, last year’s winner was drawn to shoot in one of three preliminary rounds and was knocked out of the competition by Michelle Dale when she shot a mini possible to score 25.2 points. She went on to shoot another mini possible 25.3 in the next round and eliminated Binton team mate Collin Hayes to secure her place in the semi final where she came up against Chris Reed who had knocked out TJ Hooker in his quarter final match. Reed was in good fettle and with five bulls shot 33. Though Dale shot two clean bulls she had to make do with 31.2 points to go out of the competition.

The second semi final match found Benn Chamberlain who had knocked out Derek Powers in a quarter final match, shooting against Will Cemis who had narrowly defeated Binton team mate Andy Smith 24.3 to 24.1 in the previous round. Cemis had his eye on the centre of the target and he missed only one bull for 34.3 points which saw off Chamberlain’s challenge.

The final between two Binton shooters saw both Reed and Cemis on fine form for though they both started with a four they both went on to shoot six bulls. A clean bull which leaves no mark on the target plate counts as 5.1 and it was a close match as Reed finished on 34.3 and Cemis on 34.5. Cemis won the trophy for the first time in his career.

Avon 224 Binton A 231. Both teams had eight shooters and started well with 33 then 34 from their first two shooters. Binton kept the bull ringing rather more than Avon to finish with not only the highest team score of the week but also of the season. Andy Smith shot 34 and Chris Reed, Collin Hayes, Andrew Radbourne Alan Dyer and Will Cemis all shot 33. Bill Fleming topped Avon’s score card with 34 and Nick Williams and Steve Ray both shot 33s. A solid win for Binton to keep them in joint first place at the top of the league table.

Binton B 207 Wilmcote 226. Wilmcote shooters had one three but mainly bulls on the score card to give them a positive win over Binton. Lester Langford topped the scores with 34. The home team had just two threes but seemed to have problems finding the bull. Their top shot was Steve Hodges with 33 but with mainly fours Binton had to settle for second place.

MEB 216 Home Guard 212. MEB had eight shooters but Home Guard only six. Gareth Morris started with 33 for Home Guard and their final shooter Andy Morris missed only one bull for 34 but the A N Other score did them no favours. The MEB team shot consistently well with 32s from Derek Powers and Paul Onions and 31s from Steph Ford and Alan Stewart to win the match by four points.

Report by Juana Everett, to be published on 22nd November 2018