2006-04-01

After a close 19-17 defeat in their last outing away to Gwynedd, West Midlands have responded in the best possible way, as in the very next fixture in division three of the Kaliber BDO Inter Counties Championship, a home tie with Humberside they roared to their biggest win of the season so far.
The fixture got off to a great start on Saturday when the ladies ‘B’, after trailing 2-0 to wins from Ann Waslin and Cheryl McLoughlin against their respective counterparts Chris Banks and Teresa Johnston, bounced back to claim a fantastic 4-2 win.
Claire Ford began the fight back with her straight 3-0 win over Ruth Ward. Angie Perry was next to the oche turning on a lady of the match performance against Dot Edmondson, winning 3-1 with a 19.12 average to level the scoreline. Teresa Woakes got the West Midlands nose in front for the first time in the penultimate encounter with Sue Bilby. Teresa won the first leg and took the second with a superb 102 game shot. She then wrapped up the issue with a double eight finish in the third. Clinching victory was Ann Jones, but she was made to fight all the way by Jane Nicholson, who twice came from behind to level terms before she failed at the final hurdle and Ann won 3-2.
Saturday’s success story continued with the men’s ‘B’ team. In double quick time they opened up a commanding 4-0 lead. Chris Jones lead the way as opened their account with a 3-2 win over John Ingram, who had gone ahead twice in the first three legs. David Arnold doubled the West Midlands advantage with his 3-1 win against Jamie Owens.
Game three saw Humberside’s Al Whitehand go two up in his tie with Viv Gould. However, Gould stuck to his task, clawed his way back to 2-2 and then won the decider with a double sixteen outshot. The fourth encounter was nip and tuck all the way. Humberside’s Richard Heathcote won the first leg, West Midlands Robert Carr the second and third. Heathcote squared the tie in the fourth and Carr won the game in the fifth.
4-0 up and coasting, but to finish off the first half Kev Mooney beat Mark Lloyd in the fifth 3-1 and Jim Grayson, with a similar margin defeated Frank Johnson to put the score at the midway point 4-2 in favour of the hosts.
The home team got back on the winning tack again in the second half, Mick Noakes starting the ball rolling with a neat 3-0 success over Steve Burwell. Man of the match Ian Hartland (26.47) moved the scoreline along to 6-2 to West Midlands when he beat Julian Carpenter in a five legs thriller and with a 3-1 win by Andy Forrester against Craig Harrison the points were in the bag by the ninth game.
Neil Dobson reduced the arrears for Humberside when he won another five legs affair against Jack Routledge, Dobson getting back on terms with Routledge in the second leg with a 156 finish. Andy Busby (West Midlands) also produced a three figure checkout as he went one up against Mick Lidgett with a 101 game shot. Although Busby then lost the next two legs he won the following two to grab a 3-2 victory. The final tussle between Colin Wood and Stuart Jennings (Humberside) saw the former win 3-1 with Jennings winning the second leg. The final score 9-3 to the home side, giving them a total Saturday win of 13-5, requiring just six winners from Sunday for an overall win.
The ladies ‘a’ team like their ‘B’ had to fight their way back into the game after a stuttering start. Jackie Symmons lost the first 3-1 to Chris Redhead and despite an award winning effort from Sara Jukes (18.84) cancelling the deficit with her similar 3-1 success over Karen Richardson, the visitors went within an ace of victory with further wins from Wendy Dearing and Maureen Herrington, who in turn beat Kim Fellows (1-3) and Claire Hobbs (1-3).
As with the first four games the last two also finished with a 3-1 result, both of them in West Midlands favour. Kath Jenkins and Leanne Jennings beat Kath Marshall and Michelle Britton to give a final 3-3 verdict.
Who could be better equipped to get the men’s ‘A’ match underway than the winner of the four previous match awards, Ian Jones. Once again Jones was in fine form winning his game with Tony Howard 3-0 in 21, 16 and 18 darts for a 27.33 average. Although at the end of the day Ian’s average was not enough to win him a fifth consecutive award it was nevertheless a vital win for his team leaving them requiring just two more winners for the weekend’s victory.
Richard Foster ((29.47) emulated Jones’ 3-0 win and in the process earned himself the man of the match award when he accounted for Dave Brooks in 19, 16 and 16 darts before Humberside stepped up a gear and won the next three games. Terry Temple and Pete Leake had 3-1 wins over Eddie Price and Gary Taylor followed by a 3-2 win from Dave Ladley against Dave Robbins to forge a 3-2 lead for the away side. To take the match into the break Peter Wyse added another straight 3-0 win to the Midlander’s tally at the expense of Darren Coates to ensure the win bonus points, leaving the men now to concentrate on a team win to make it three in a row.
That win was not long awaited as all of the second half belonged to the West Midlands. Three 3-1 wins in a row from Daryl Thorpe, Lol Frazer and Mark Rollinson, who defeated Brian Preece, Mick Stocks and Tony Richardson. Mick James with an opening 140 checkout beat Steve Tranmer 3-2, the margin by which team mate Avtar Singh beat Lee Blakely and to round off a tremendous 9-3 win Stuart Kendrick added his 3-1 success over Mick Nickson giving a weekend win of 25-11.