Leicestershire v Derbyshire
After a disappointing start to their campaign in division three of the BDO Inter County Championships whereby Derbyshire lost their opening four games they have now found a new lease of life and regained the kind of form they showed three seasons ago which saw them gain promotion from division two to division one.
Following wins against Tyne and Wear and Gloucestershire Derbyshire’s seventh game was an away tie against Leicestershire. Saturday’s games saw the ladies ‘B’ make it three games without defeat and two consecutive draws. Taking the match award in the 3-3 draw was Sara-Jane Harrison with a 19.78 average.
The men’s ‘B’ made it three wins in a row with their best result of the season so far 9-3, Robert Hawker their top man with a superb 29.10 average.
Sunday also got off to a fine start as the ladies ‘A’ team followed up their 5-1 win over Gloucestershire with a similar result against Leicestershire, Jackie Sweet the lady of the match for a second successive game with a great 21.30 average.
It was not such a good weekend for the men’s ‘A’ team as they finished on the wrong side of an 8-4 result with Paul Baker taking the match award for his 25.89 average.
Despite the men’s ‘A’ team losing the overall result was a terrific 21-15 win for Derbyshire which has seen them move out of the relegation zone up to seventh in the table on 132 points, however they are not out of the woods yet and cannot afford to be too complacent as both Wiltshire and Norfolk are just one point behind them and bottom placed Tyne and Wear with 129 points have only three points fewer.
With just two more fixtures to play Derbyshire have home advantage in both and although one of them is against high riding top of the table Berkshire the other is against Wiltshire which could well be a relegation decider.
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