2002-05-01

With just one home game and one away game remaining and only one win so far this season, time is running out for the West Midlands in division three of the BDO Inter Counties Championships. Wins are now top of the agenda for the Midlands outfit in order to avoid the big drop.
The latest of the fixtures saw West Midlands play at their home venue, Club 99, Oldbury and take on Bedfordshire. The ladies ‘B’ side, with one draw and five defeats from their previous six games began with Lilian Tonks winning the opening leg against Sylvia Critcher. Critcher won the next two legs, with Tonks drawing level in the fourth. The home player had chances to win the decider but failed on her doubles, that was not the case for her opponent as she wrapped up the leg and the game on double eighteen. At number two was Teresa Johnson, a three times match award winner so far this season. Teresa made short work of her opponent Margaret Nash as she raced to a straight 3-0 victory, in the process recording a 19.03 average, which at the end of the day earned her match award number four.
With the score at one each the third game was vital to both teams. Bedfordshire’s Lorraine Martin made sure that it went to the visitors as she chalked up a 3-0 success against Nell Bryant to give her team mates the lead for the second time in the match. Sheila Vintner (Bedfordshire) extended that advantage to 3-1 when she beat Sue Smith 3-2. Smith made her counterpart work hard for her win, taking the lead in the first leg and then squaring the game in the fourth. Unfortunately she was unable to sustain her challenge, missed doubles costing her the game as Vintner claimed the 3-2 verdict with a 52 game shot.
Requiring just one more result for a team win, Bedfordshire did not have long to wait. Angela King put up the unassailable fourth win when she beat Val Arnold 3-0, Val not reaching a double in any of her three legs. The final game went to the hosts, Teresa Johnston their 3-2 winner against Michelle Lee, after Lee had opened up a 2-0 lead. The final score 4-2 to the visitors.
Following two consecutive defeats the men’s ‘B’ were hoping to bounce back to winning ways. Adrian Hammersley got them off to a winning start. He lost the first leg to Chris Wooton, levelled in style with a 140 outshot and then went on to win 3-1. Jonathon Platt was not able to increase that lead as he lost 3-1 to Darren Knight. West Midlands then began to turn up the heat. Fred Parsons had a comfortable 3-0 win over Mick Battams, Joe Biggs came back from one down to win 3-1 against Stephen King and moving the score along nicely to 4-1 was Paul Johnson with another 3-1 success, this time Kevin Mansfield was on the receiving end. Moving into the break the away team reduced the arrears to 4-2. Jimmy Wilson beat Frank Johnson again the score was 3-1.
Three wins in the first three games of the second half extended West Midlands lead to an unbeatable 7-2. Viv Gould won 3-1 against Vince Whittaker, Andrew Milton took the lead three times against Paul Anthony before securing his 3-2 win and Jamie Parsons completed the trio with his straight legs win over John Quigley.
Mick Garrett pulled one back for Bedfordshire with his 3-0 victory over Roger Kinsella. His win however was the away teams last win as Vic Lloyd won 3-1 against Bob Taylor and Steve Penwright rounded off an emphatic 9-3 victory when he, with a 3-0 result accounted for Peter King.
In the most horrible nightmares the ladies ‘A’ could not have had a worse start. Claire Downing, Ann Jones and Janet Hubbard lost in turn to Diane Nash, Julie Newman and Paula Smith without winning a single leg between them. However, as the old saying goes, “It’s never over until the fat lady sings” and this proved to be exactly the case on this occasion. Angie Perry extended her five-match award-winning feat with a 3-0 win over Pauline Ennis, her 18.56 average justifying her sixth consecutive lady of the match awards. In the penultimate encounter Claire Hobbs took on Lisa Perkins, again the result was a straight legs victory for the West Midlands player to leave the result hinging on the last game. On at number six for the hosts was the seasoned campaigner Rose Mycock. If ever a team needed an experienced player for such a vital game, Rose was their lady. Playing against Lyn Bailey, Rose won the first two legs and narrowly missed the third as she failed on her doubles. Lyn stepped in and won the leg on double five and then forced a decider when she won the fourth on double ten. The fifth leg could have swung either way, but it was Rose who got the all important finishing double to win 3-2 and give her team mates a share of the spoils.
With the overall score standing at 14-10 in favour of the home team a win was now most definitely on the cards. Adrian Arnold and Martin Tibbetts were the first two players for the Midlands side, taking on in turn Darren Knight and Derek Hunt. Both Arnold and Tibbetts fell behind but came back successfully to claim 3-2 wins. Bedfordshire fought back in the shape of Bill Wenglarick and Mick Carbin, eachof them winning 3-1 against respective opponents Darren Williams and Avtar Singh to level a 2-2.
Joe Biggs (West Midlands) was pegged back from 2-0 up to 2-2. But he won the decider in style in thirteen darts hitting 140,140,97 and 116 and double four for a 3-2 win. To close the first half Nick Walters added his 3-1 win over Tracey Pearson to give the Midlanders a 4-2 advantage.
Ian Jones got the second half to a great start when he twice came from behind against Bob Clarke to win 3-2, his 28.29 average earning him the man of the match trophy. With a further 3-2 win from Tom Aldridge, at the expense of Stuart Walton, West Midlands now had a 6-2 lead, the win appearing a mere formality.
Ian Hartland and Paddy Johnson, after trailing 1-0 to Adam King and Paul Butcher, both went 2- 1up. Unfortunately they also both then lost 3-2 to bring the away team back into the match at 6-4. A convincing 3-0 win from Paul Warwick against Steve Brindley reduced the arrears even further and with Lee Beesley’s 3-1 success against Mick James in the last game of the weekend the result was squared at six each. Nevertheless the overall result was a satisfying and much needed 20-16 victory for the West Midlands. A couple more results like this are now what are required in the two closing fixtures of the season against Wiltshire and Breconshire.