2007-04-01

West Midlands push for promotion from division three of the Kaliber BDO Inter Counties Championships continued with an away fixture against Humberside. Playing at the Cavalier Club the ladies ‘B’ got the proceedings underway. Diane Tolley was the Midlander’s first player up to the oche taking on Bev Waller. From 1-0 up Diane went 2-1 down. However, she drew level with a win in a very close fourth leg and then went on to win the decider comfortably as her opponent was left way back on 147 when she checked out on 26.
The lead was short lived as Wendy Dearing was pegged back to level terms after opening up a 2-0 lead, but went on to win 3-2. Game three was another five legs affair, Sue Walker (Humberside) twice got her head in front against Claire Ford before clinching a 3-2 success in the final leg and give her team a 2-1 lead. Once again the advantage did not last for long as Sarah Robbins turned on a match award performance to win 3-2 over Denise Burns. Burns won the first leg, Sarah the second. Sarah the won the third leg only to see the home player force a fifth leg when she won the fourth. It was nerves and tension all the way in the decider, but a cool dart at double twenty sealed a 3-2 win for Sarah Robbins and her 16.22 average also gained her the team award.
In the penultimate game Chris Banks (West Midlands) found herself within an ace of defeat when she went 2-0 down to Ruth Ward. Either player could have won the third leg but it eventually went to Chris with a double two checkout to keep her in the game. The next two legs were won convincingly by Chris Banks, game shots of 56 and 20 sealed a 3-2 win with her counterpart way back on 168 and 178.
The win by Banks set up a cliff hanger of a finish between Dawn Williams for Humberside and Jackie Simmons. Williams had a relatively easy win in the first leg, but missed finishing doubles by Simmons cost her the following two legs and gave Williams a straight 3-0 victory and put the final scoreline all square at three each.
West Midlands men’s ‘B’ team were out to extend their 100% record of five consecutive wins and although the game did not get off to the very best of starts they quickly recovered. Chris Jones (West Midlands) won the first leg against Julian Carpenter, but then lost the next three to go down 3-1. Andy Forrester did exactly the opposite to his team mate Jones, he lost the first and won the next three against Steve Burwell to level up the score. West Midlands got their noses in front thanks to Eddie Price. Price went from 1-0 up to 2-1 down to win 3-2 over Jamie Owens. Chris Plumpton made short work of Darren Coates as he recorded a 3-0 win to increase the lead to 3-1 and with a further straight legs win from man of the match Nick Bache (25.47) over John Ingram, West Midlands had opened up a 4-1 advantage, which by the midway point was increased to 5-1 as the half was rounded off with a 3-2 win for David Arnold against Neil Dobson.
Ian Hartland assured the visitors of maintaining their unbeaten run when he accounted for Pete Marshall with a 3-0 win in the first game of the second half, but the actual team win took a little longer. Stu Jennings (Humberside) and Craig Owens rattled off 3-0 wins against respective opponents Mick Noakes and Jack Routledge to reduce the arrears to 6-3. The gap was reduced even further when Kev O’Hara beat Steve Penwright 3-1, but the winning record was stretched to six games when Colin Wood added his 3-0 success over Richard Heathcote to the tally taking the score to 7-4 in West Midlands favour. The result was a second consecutive 8-4 victory after Viv Gould defeated Pete Robinson 3-0 in the last game of the day.
Leanne Jennings made it four match awards out of six games when she opened up for the ladies ‘A’ against Karen Richardson and won 3-1. After winning the first two legs Leanne stuttered and lost the third, but she made a quick recovery and won the fourth leg recording an 18.96 average in the process. The second encounter
between Chris Readhead (Humberside) and Cath Jenkins could easily have gone either way after the first four legs had been shared. However, Cath missed her final double and Chris stepped in to take the leg and the game by 3-2 with a 16 outshot to make it 1-1.
West Midlands then had a convincing run of two straight wins provided by Julie Aston and Sara Jukes at the expense of Cheryl McLoughin and Ann Waslin to give the visitors a 3-1 lead with only two to play. Both of the last two games went the full five legs distance. Michelle Britton went 1-0 down to Chris Banks, then 2-1 up and 2-2. To seal her win she
finished on 48 with Banks still requiring 92. Last on for the hosts was Maureen Herrinton facing up to Claire Hobbs. It was nip and tuck all the way as Maureen won the first, Claire the second. Maureen forged ahead again in the third only to see Claire win the fourth and force a decider. It went down to the final double, Claire missed Maureen didn’t. A 32 game shot giving Maureen a 3-2 and earning a share of the spoils for he team as the result finished at three each.
All that was now required of the men’s ‘A’ side was five winning games to earn an overall win for the weekend. However, with the promotional table so close it was imperative that minds were focussed on As big a win as possible to keep them in the race for a place in division two next season.
Robert Carr got the ball rolling for the Midlands outfit. He was taken all the way to the finishing line by Steve Tranmer, but it was Carr who got the vital 24 game shot in the fifth leg for a 3-2 victory. Next to the oche for the West Midlands was Mr Reliable himself, Ian Jones. Jones suffered a minor setback when he lost the opening leg to Vijay Kumar, but as usual was not put off in the slightest, fighting back to secure a 3-1 win and double his team’s lead.
Game number three saw Humberside chalk up their first winner. On the mark for the home team was Kev Mooney with a 3-2 win over Mick James. Peter Wyse restored West Midlands two games buffer when he beat Craig Harrison 3-1. Unfortunately by the halfway stage the scene had changed completely as Lee Blakey and Rob Kerrison levelled the match with 3-0 wins over their respective opponents Mark Rollinson and Mark Lloyd.
Mark Jones got the West Midlands back on track when he began the second half with a 3-0 win over Pete Leake. Then came Richard Foster, who despite suffering a fifteen darts loss in the first leg to Tony Richardson bounced back to win in 20, 14 and 20 darts for a 3-1 win and an award winning 28.58 average.
The sequence of two wins in a row continued when Humberside, through Brian Preece and Dave Ladley drew level at 5-5 with Stuart Kendrick and Lol Frazer on the wrong side of 3-2 results. That pattern was extended further when Nick Bache came from two down against Mick Lidgett to win 3-2 and anchor man Gary Taylor beat Al Whitehand 3-1 to give a final verdict of 7-5 to the West Midlands and an overall weekend result of 21-15, again in favour of the West Midlands to keep alive their hopes of promotion at the end of the campaign.