2003-04-01

After four consecutive wins in division four of the BDO Inter Counties Championships a defeat at Tyne and Wear for the West Midlands was looked upon merely as a blip, but now after their fixture at home to Breconshire, perhaps a few doubts may be creeping into the West Midlands camp.
The ladies ‘B’, who have enjoyed quite a successful season so far, with four wins in five outings, began the weekend. The Brecon women were first to settle, a 3-0 win for Danni Goffe over Sara Jukes getting them on their way. Tracey Rogerson was up next. She accounted for Jean Tibbetts with a 301 result and with similar scorelines from Pam Shepherd and Sharon Hill against respective opponents Claire Hobbs and Sue Smith, Breconshire, after only four games were in an unassailable 4-0 lead.
Mary Jones added to the visitors cause when she defeated Lynette Pearce in three straight legs before West Midlands, in the shape of Teresa Johnston produced their one and only winner of the game. Teresa, with a 19.78 average beat Trisha Carpenter 3-0 to put the final score at 5-1 to the away side.
Already there was, if not a mountain a rather large hill to climb and who better than the men’s ‘B’ side who were able to boast a 100% win record to put them back into the game.
The match could not have had a better start for the Midlander’s as Paddy Johnson (25.88) kicked off with a man of the match performance beating Garry Jones 3-2. Jones had fought back to level terms after trailing 2-0. Billy Owen levelled for the away team, a 3-1 success against Paul Johnson. However, the remainder of the half was all West Midlands. Adrian Hammersley and Steve Penwright both won 3-0 in the respective games against John Price and Elwyn Jones. The Alan Cockayne and Avtar Singh had 3-2 wins over Howard Evans and Huw Jones after both of the away players had taken the lead. So the hosts went into the break with a commanding 5-1 lead, which incidentally put the overall score back to level terms, 6-6.
The second half also began well, Peter Wyse took a 2-0 lead over Eddy Thomas and despite being pegged back to 2-2 went on to win the decider. Joe Biggs recorded the all important seventh winning game when he beat Lee Savage 3-0. Breconshire then had their best spell of the game, three consecutive wins. Alan Williams began their fight back with a clinical 3-0 win over Steve Brindley. Paul Babb’s 3-1 success against Jamie Parsons added another notch to Brecon’s tally and Davis Matthews reduced the arrears to 7-4 when he won 3-0 against Fred Parsons. The final game went to Mervyn Field (West Midlands) a 3-0 success against Simon Griffiths to finish the match with an 8-4 win fir the ‘B’ side.
The women’s ‘A’ with two draws and three defeats were still seeking their first win of the campaign. This was not to be the day they found it although the game did get off to a very promising start when Claire Downing (13.81) chalked up a 3-1 victory over Kath Goldup, Claire’s win proving to be a match award winner also. Then it suddenly all went pear shaped. Rita Jones (Breconshire) beat Kath Jenkins 3-1 and Liz Williams, after twice being pulled back to level terms, won 3-2 against Teresa Johnston. Janthea Williams, with a 3-1 win over Teresa Johnson extended the visitors lead to 3-1 before Natalie Evans guaranteed the victory with her 3-1 defeat of Angie Perry.
Taking the result to 4-2 to Breconshire, Janet Hubbard (West Midlands) twice came from behind against Christine Sheen to win 3-2.
Trailing 13-11 once again it was down to the men’s team to try to pull the result out of the fire. A bright start from Ian Jones winning 3-0 over Lenny Wannacott was not sustained as Martin Tibbetts lost 3-1 to John Evans and Frank Johnson went down by the same scoreline to Philip Page. Darren Williams levelled the match when he beat Mike Gummary 3-0, but wins from Phill Evans and Andy Chappell over Mick James and Gary Taylor gave the away team a 4-2 lead at the halfway point.
The second half began much better. Richard Foster (32.67) had a great 3-0 win over Richie Williams, with legs of 16, 14 and 16 darts to earn him the man of the match award. John Pountney made it 4-4 with his 3-1 win over Steve Grumbach and with a 3-0 success from Chris Hickman against Mike Shipsey the West Midlands went ahead 5-4, for the first time since the opening game.
Chas Gough cancelled out the hosts lead when he won 3-1 against Viv Gould, but a 3-0 win, including a 121 checkout in the final leg from Dave Evans over Amos Smith put the home team within an ace of victory and an overall draw. It was not to be, Colin Davies put up a brave performance against Chris Hill, coming from behind twice, but on the day it was not enough as Hill went on to win 3-2, give his side a share of the points and an overall 22-17 victory.
Now from what appeared to be a comfortable lead at the top of the promotion table the West Midlands have had their lead reduced to one point, Gwynedd, who defeated Shropshire 25-14 are lying in second place just waiting to take over if their rivals should falter yet again.