Montgomery and Radnor v Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Darts Organisation will be pleased to see 2017 out and start afresh in 2018 as their record for 2017 reads played nine won one and lost eight, four of those defeats coming in the first four games of the current season..
The year wound down with an away fixture against Montgomery and Radnor who prior to the fixture were three places and fifteen points to the good on Derbyshire that was about to get worse.
Saturday’s games began with the ladies ‘B’ who got off to a bright start when Lauren Jackson beat Kelly Butler 3-1 and then doubling Derbyshire’s lead was lady of the match Terri Bellamy who won her first award of the seaspn with a neat 3-0 win over Racheal Williams, Terri recording an 18.11 average in the process.
From 2-0 up it all went a little pear shaped as Sally Urwin beat Dawn Buckley 3-0, Sarah Louise Williams and Louise Davies had 3-2 wins over respective opponents Holly Wright and Dee Fenn and rounding off a 4-2 win for the hosts was Jo Dawson with her 3-1 success over Sara-Jane Harrison.
Kicking off the men’s ‘B’ game for Derbyshire was Henry Coates who lost 3-0 to Mark Bellerby. Roger Williams (Montgomery and Radnor) had his lead wiped out twice by Benjamin Holmes but went on to win the decider for a 3-2 victory.
Taking the score along to 3-0 for the home team was Buddy Budryk who beat Paul Williams 3-1 before the visitors chalked up their first win supplied by Keith Cooper. Cooper lost the opening leg to Steve Price but then stormed to a 3-1 win. Reducing the arrears even further to 3-2 was Nigel Daniels who handed out a straight 3-0 defeat to Ben Amos.
The home team’s two games buffer was restored in the sixth when Ewan Jones beat Daniel Ford 3-0 and although Stephen Paling (Derbyshire) beat Ben Bevan by the same 3-0 scoreline Montgomery and Radnor opened up a 5-3 lead when Daniel Petty won 3-1 against Timothy Rippon.
With both teams still fighting for the result Ian Allcock kept Derbyshire’s hopes alive with a 3-1 win over Tony Rimmer and when Colin Rich laid on a man of the match performance against Jamie Kynaston who he beat 3-0 with winning legs of 16, 19 and 23 darts for a 25.91 average, the away team were back on level terms at 5-5 and had everything to play for.
Richard Palmer (Derbyshire) opened up a 1-0 lead against Gareth Goode but then failed on his finishing doubles and went down 3-1 to leave the outcome of the game all on the final tie of the day.
Lining up for the hosts was Mark Jones and for Derbyshire Andrew Gillott. Jones won the first leg, Gillott the second. Jones went ahead again in the third only to see his opponent cancel out his lead for a second time when he produced a fourteen darts leg.
In the final leg of the day Jones with top scores of 125 and 122 was first to a double as Gillott failed to hit a three figure score. After missing his doubles on two visits to the oche, Jones finally with the first dart of his eighth set found double five to win 3-2 and give his team a 7-5 victory.
After the first four games of the ladies ‘A’ match Derbyshire were playing for persona; pride as Montgomery and Radnor won the opening four games to seal their win. Jan Ashton put the home side on a winning track when she beat Rachel Ayres 3-0. Katie Bellerby went ahead twice and had her lead cancelled twice by Jenny McCormick before winning the game 3-2. Eluned Wright made it 3-0 when she won 3-1 against Jackie Sweet and chalking up the vital winning fourth game was Evonne Taylor with her 3-0 success against Rebecca Hoyland.
Samantha Marshall broke the ice for Derbyshire when in the penultimate game she recorded their first win in a game with Sandra Jones that saw Jones win the first then Marshall take the next two. Jones levelled in the fourth but it was Marshall who got the 3-2 verdict when she found double twenty first dart.
The last game for the ladies produced Derbyshire’s lady of the match in the form of Louise Rawson. Louise was made to fight all the way for her 3-2 win by another Louise, this time George who came from 1-0 and 2-1 down to level terms before losing the last leg and the game 3-2. Derbyshire’s Louise lifted the award for her 18.33 average. The final score, as per Saturday’s result 4-2 to Montgomery and Radnor.
The men’s ‘A’ game began with great promise as Gary Fenn after going 1-0 up and 2-1 down went on to beat Jon Mansell 4-2 and Richard Hanson with an award winning game against Jim Williams made it 2-0. Hanson opened up a 2-0 lead with two 17 darts legs and although he lost the third in 15 darts he then produced a 15 darts leg with a 122 finish before wrapping up his 4-1 win in 19 darts and a 28.73 average.
It was at two up that Derbyshire’s luck, albeit bad took over as Mitchell Butler beat Robert Hawker 4-2, Craig Davies beat Lee Stanley 4-1, Steven Ritchie had a 4-2 win against Andrew Baker and rounding off the first half and giving Montgomery and Radnor a 4-2 lead was Scott Dockerty who defeated Ian Allcock 4-1.
The second half began where the first left off with the home side adding another two wins to their tally taking their lead to 6-2 with a very close 4-3 win for Neil Astley against Tim Daniels after Daniels had taken 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 leads and then narrowly missed winning the game in the sixth when he missed his finishing doubles. Montgomery’s sixth winner was Steve Farmer as per the previous encounter it was once again a seven legs thriller as Farmer went 3-0 up against Steven Soar and then Soar with 15 and two 18 darts legs forced a decider to be played. The final leg was a real cracker with Farmer having top scores of 140 and 105 to Soar’s 140 and 150. Soar left himself double sixteen after only twelve darts but with the first throw advantage it was Farmer in 15 darts with a 160 checkout that won 4-3.
Keeping Derbyshire in with an outside chance of a draw was Sean Lambert who accounted for John Williams-Jones with a 4-2 result. However Lambert’s win only delayed what had appeared to be the inevitable as Aled Goode won 4-0 against Ian Clarke to put the home team in an unbeatable 7-3 position.
Jonathan Francis took the score along to 8-3 with a 4-2 win over Brian Snell with the final score taken to 8-4 in Montgomery’s favour when Peter Burgoyne recorded Derbyshire’s fourth win in the last game of the weekend against Gareth Holt.
The overall result was a 23-13 win for Montgomery and Radnor to lift them two places up the table to third while Derbyshire dropped into the bottom two with 59 points from four games, bottom placed Tyne and Wear are some eleven points behind with a game in hand
Full Results: Montgomery and Radnor v Derbyshire (23-13)🙁Montgomery and Radnor names first):Men’s ‘A’:- Jon Mansell 2 Gary Fenn 4, Jim Williams 1 Richard Hanson 4, Mitchell Butler 4 Robert Hawker 2, Craig Davies 4 Lee Stanley 1, Steven Ritchie 4 Andrew Baker 2, Scott Dockerty 4 Ian Allcock 1, Neil Astley 4 Tim Daniels 3, Steve Farmer 4 Steven Soar 3, John Williams-Jones 2 Sean Lambert 4, Aled Goode 4 Ian Clarke 0, Jonathan Francis 4 Brian Snell 2, Gareth Holt 3 Peter Burgoyne 4, Men’s ‘B’:- Mark Bellerby 3 Henry Coates 0, Roger Williams 3 Benjamin Holmes 2, Buddy Budryk 3 Paul Williams 1, Steve Price 1 Keith Cooper 3, Ben Amos 0 Nigel Daniels 3, Ewan Jones 3 Daniel Ford 0, Ben Bevan 0 Stephen Paling 3, Daniel Petty 3 Timothy Rippon 1, Tony Rimmer 1 Ian Allcock 3, Jamie Kynaston 0 Colin Rich 3, Gareth Goode 3 Richard Palmer 1, Mark Jones 3 Andrew Gillott 2, Women’s ‘A’:- Jan Ashton 3 Rachel Ayres 0, Katie Bellerby 3 Jenny McCormick 2, Eluned Wright 3 Jackie Sweet 1, Evonne Taylor 3 Rebecca Hoyland 0, Sandra Jacks 2 Samantha Marshall 3, Louise George 2 Louise Rawson 3, Women’s ‘B’:- Kelly Butler 1 Lauren Jackson 3, Racheal Williams 0 Terri Bellamy 3, Sally Urwin 3 Dawn Buckley 0, Sarah Louise Williams 33 Holly Wright 2, Louise Davies 3 Dee Fenn 2, Jo Dawson 3 Sara-Jane Harrison 1.
———————————