2006-05-01

After a disappointing 19-17 defeat in their away game against Gwynedd in division three of the Kaliber BDO Inter Counties Championships, West Midlands were quick to bounce back to winning ways as they chalked up their best victory of the season a 25-11 home win over Humberside.
Saturdays games saw the ladies ‘B’ gain an impressive 4-2 win over their rivals, Angie Perry (19.12) claiming her third consecutive match award. The men’s ‘B’ maintained their 100% win record with a terrific 9-3 success, their top man being Ian Hartland who finished with a 26.47 average.
Sunday began with a 3-3 draw for the ladies, once again Sara Jukes was in great form registering an 18.84 average for her fifth successive lady of the match award. Rounding off a superb weekend the men’s ‘A’ made it three wins in their last three outings with a fabulous 9-3 win to give the final scoreline of 25-11 in West Midlands favour.
West Midlands followed up their home win over Humberside with another home fixture, this time it was Derbyshire who provided the opposition. As in the previous encounter the ladies ‘B’ side got the county off to a cracking start to the weekend although they did suffer something of a stutter at the beginning as Teresa Johnston lost her tie with Joanne Oldershaw in three straight legs. Nevertheless, from the shaky start it was West Midlands all the way from there on in. Claire Ford’s 3-1 win over Lesley Allen squared the match and Julie Aston’3-0 success against Tracey Johnson saw the home side get their noses in front. Chris Banks made it two straight wins in a row when she beat Carol Western to take the running score along to 3-1 in favour of the hosts.
A 3-1 win from Teresa Woakes over Sue Redfern ensured another ladies ‘B’ victory before Angie Perry put the result at 5-1 to the Midlander’s. Angie defeated Ann Birkin 3-0 and recorded a 21.78 average, which gave her the home teams’ lady of the match award for the fourth consecutive fixture.
The men’s ‘B’ were looking to make it seven wins in as many games and that was exactly what they did but they were certainly made to fight for it. As with the ladies the match did not get off to a very good start, Andy Busby opened up against Derbyshire’s man of the match Mick Chapman (26.37) and finished on the wrong side of a 3-0 scoreline. Next on, Ray Benton, who won the first leg against Dave B.Smith but unfortunately lost the following three to give Derbyshire a 2-0 lead. Andy Forrester (West Midlands) stemmed the flow with the 3-0 defeat of Steve Redfern, winning the tie with a 118 checkout in the third leg.
Game number four saw the away side move up a gear again, Terry Birch twice came from behind against Mick Noakes to win 3-2 and Alan Evans made it 4-1 when he took out Frank Johnson 3-0. The half closed on a happier note as Colin Wood chalked up a 3-0 win over Tim Daniels to keep his side in the hunt, trailing 4-2.
Veteran campaigner Jack Routledge reduced the arrears even further when he won 3-2 in his game with Richard Hanson and a 3-2 win from Ian Hartland over Paul Preston levelled the match at 4-4. Steve Pashley gave Derbyshire the advantage again, a straight 3-0 win against David Arnold, but their cheers were short lived as Viv Gould fought back from 1-0 down to David Buckley to win 3-2 and square the match for a second time.
5-5 and two to play, Chris Jones (West Midlands) lost the first leg to Steve Roberts but won the next two. Roberts forced a decider by winning the fourth, however, he missed his doubles in the final leg and Jones won the tie 3-2 with a 32 game shot. A draw was now assured but that was not enough to keep the ‘B’ teams win record intact so they just had to win the last game and who better to win it than Mark Lloyd. Lloyd kicked off with a first leg win against Andy Gillot and then produced a fifteen darts leg including a 107 outshot and wrapped up the game with an eighteen darts leg in the third to give him a 3-0 win, his team a 7-5 victory, a 27.33 average plus the man of the match award.
With one win, one draw and four defeats the ladies ‘A’ team have not had the best of seasons so far and their game against Derbyshire did nothing to better that record. Kim Fellows lost 3-2 to Rachel Bird in the first game but Leanne Jennings (19.55) with a match award winning performance erased the defeat with her 3-1 win against Rebecca Hoyland. Then disaster, Claire Hobbs and Ann Jones both lost 3-0 to respective opponents Jane Densley and Dawn Buckley to put the visitors within an ace of victory. Sara Jukes, who had been in top form for the ‘A’ team this season saw her luck desert her as she opened up a 2-1 lead over Lorraine Farnham, but then failed to finish in the last two legs and went down 3-2. The scoreline was made a little more respectable when in the last game Kath Jenkins, despite being pushed all the way beat Elaine Marshall 3-2 to give a result of 4-2 to Derbyshire.
14-10 up, all that was now required by the West Midlands men’s ‘a’ team was five more winners to register their fifth win in seven outings. After the first half those five winners were looking hard to come by. Dave Smith-Hayes (Derbyshire) won the opener against Eddie Price 3-1 and the lead was then doubled with a 3-0 win from John Hendy over Robert Carr. A further straight legs win by Gary Fenn in his tie with Richie Foster saw the away team open up a 3-0 advantage. Long time West Midlands servant Lol Frazer was the home teams first winner. Taking on Brian Startin in the fourth game Lol turned in a neat performance to win 3-1 with a 24.99 average, which included a 113 game shot. However, Frazer’s win proved to be the only one that the hosts recorded in the first half as wins from Phil Henshaw and Trev Burchill over Stuart Kendrick and Peter Wyse took the tally along to 5-1 to Derbyshire at the break.
What was now needed was a bit of inspiration and that came in the form of Ian Jones, many times of the years the West Midlands saviour. Jones dropped the first leg to Bob Pinder but his response was superb. He won the second leg in 17 darts and the third in 16 to go 2-1 up. The fourth leg was an absolute stormer. Jones hit a maximum, followed by another maximum, he then scored 91 to leave himself on the bull after only nine darts. With only his fourth visit to the oche he calmly stepped up and planted his first dart smack bang in the centre of the bull for a magnificent TEN darts winning leg. A 3-1 win, a 35.85 average plus his fifth man of the match award in seven games tremendous.
Next to the board was Dave Robbins (West Midlands) and Jim Beardmore. Robbins turned on the style to beat the former England man 3-0 and take the score to 5-3 to the visitors. Darren Brown and Gary Bennett extended the away teams lead to 7-3 when in turn they beat Daryl Thorpe 3-0 and Mick James 3-2. With only two to play, three winners in the first ten games and requiring two more winners, an overall victory was looking at the best a little remote. Keeping hopes alive was Mark Rollinson who in the penultimate game beat Mick Haynes 3-1, but the dream to make it two wins in a row appeared to be gone when Paul Redfern won the first two legs in his encounter with Gary Taylor, but a game is not lost until it is won and Taylor gradually edged himself back into the game, winning the third and then the fourth legs to force a deciding leg. Although not a classic decider the result was a win for Taylor his 3-2 success meant that the West Midlands won the fixture 19-17 despite losing the men’s ‘A’ 7-5.