AGL held the annual competition for the Roderick Baker Cup last Tuesday at Binton Social Club. Will Cemis knocked out Robb Dipple in the first round of the competition when he scored maximum points including three clean bulls for 35.3 points. In a semi final round he came up against Andy Morris. Both shooters shot seven bulls so the deciding factor was the number of clean bulls shot. Will hit
three again and Andy two to take Will through to the final with another score of 35.3.

The other semi final was between Nick Williams and Andy Smith, a re-run of last year’s final. Both shooters did better than last year and the bells kept ringing as both shot seven bulls. Nick got four clean bulls for 35.4 but Andy went one better for 35.5 to meet Will in the final.

Andy who has won the Cup for the last two consecutive years started well with five bulls but ended with two fours for 33.3 points. Will Cemis was unstoppable hitting seven more bulls making a total of twenty one on the night and though only two were clean, he took the trophy back having held it for three years between 2010 and 2013.

he first round of the Thompson Knockout Competition was shot last Thursday when current cup holders Wilmcote strongly defended the trophy against Binton B. Jamie Putnam and Adam Clarke both shot possibles and Graham East and Sammy Skye Unit both missed one bull for 34s. As expected Wilmcote won through to the next round with their high score of 231 points. Binton who could only field a team of five did not expect to win nor did they.

Avon took an the lead in this match with 32 from Bill Fleming and 35 for Nick Williams giving them a seven point lead. MEB kept their nerve and mid match started to pull back points with 31 from Joe Dipple and 32 from Rob Dipple to leave MEB two points behind. After seven shooters Avon finished the match on 214 points with MEB two points behind but MEB had eight shooters and after dropping their lowest score so far in the match Paul Onions their final shooter needed 31 to draw the match. Paul shooting only bulls and fours shot 33 to win the match for MEB with 216 points - a good win for the team.

Binton A took the lead when they went to Tiddington to shoot against Home Guard. Andy Smith missed one bull for 34 and Will Cemis shot 33 for a seven point lead after two shooters. Michelle Dale kept the pressure on with 33 to give Binton a nine point lead. Home Guard strove to regain points with 31 from Alan Brookes and 32s from Gareth and Andy Morris but it was too little too late and the team finished on 212 points. Binton’s six shooters had shot 188 but with an A N Other score of 28 they came out winners with 216 points and go forward to the next round.

Report by Juana Everett, to be published on 7th March 2019