2009-01-01

With only one win in three games in division one of the BDO Inter Counties Championships, newly promoted West Midlands were looking to take anything they could out of their home tie with local rivals Staffordshire.
Ladies ‘B’ with two draws and a defeat got off to a good start when curtain raiser Claire Ford rattled off a fine 3-0 win over Karen Turner. Deborah Upton replied for the visitors with a similar result in her game with Gemma Poole to level at one each. West Midlands went ahead again when Sarah Robbins, after going 2-0 up against Rachael Oldfield, went on to win 3-2 in a game that could easily have gone either way. Taking the score along to 3-1 was Natalie Harris (16.13), a match award winning 3-1 success after her opponent Nikki Chatfield had won the first leg.
With a 3-1 advantage and two to play the hosts appeared to be in a strong position, however, Barbara Carey came back from 1-0 down to Jayne Stubbs to win 3-1 and in the final game Sharon Kingston beat Jacqui Simmons by the same margin to make it honours shared in a final 3-3 scoreline.
The men’s ‘A’ record was a creditable two wins and one defeat and so confidence was definitely on the good to high side and a further boost was when Mark Lloyd kicked the game off with what turned out to be a match award performance against Andy Pearce. Mark won the first leg in 20 darts, then he recorded a super 14 darts leg and won the game 3-0 with a further 16 darts leg to average 30.06, leaving his counterpart without a throw at a finishing double.
Staffordshire then began to turn the screw. Paul Wright twice came from behind to beat Mathew Tedstone 3-2, Kevin Jenkins won 3-1 against Ian Hartland, Trevor Carter won 3-2 in his tie with Chris Hickman after Hickman had drawn level from 2-0 down and taking the score along to 4-1 to the away team was Danny Stevenson who beat Matthew Dicken 3-1. To round off the first half of the men’s game Chris Plumpton reduced the arrears to 4-2 by winning 3-1 against Richard Platt after Platt had gone 1-0 up.
It was now going to be tough road ahead and unfortunately the going got even tougher. Danny Coyle (29.47) extended Staffordshire’s lead to 5-2 with a neat match award 3-0 win over Eddie Price, Tim Whiston beat Peter Edmunds by the same margin and putting the result beyond West Midlands reach was Karl Marvin who had a 3-2 win over Andy Forrester.
7-2 down and three to play, Paul Price (West Midlands) eased the pain with his 3-1 win over Jake Jones and making the scoreline even more respectable was Ian Stanton who had a fine straight 3-0 win against Jamie Whitmore. The final score was taken to 8-4 for Staffordshire when Darren Whittingham beat Stuart Kendrick 3-1 in the last game of the day.
The ladies ‘A’ were protecting an undefeated record of one win and two draws, Diane Tolley started the ball rolling with her 3-1 win over Sarah Cope, unfortunately the cheers were short lived as two 3-1 wins from Yvonne Whitley and Michelle Colclough at the expense of Claire Hobbs and Kin Fellows reversed the advantage giving Staffordshire a 2-1 lead.
Winner of two previous match awards Leanne Jennings levelled the scoreline when she added her straight 3-0 win over Becky Frost to the West Midlands tally, only to see the away team forge ahead again with a 3-0 win from Sue Sherratt in her encounter with Kath Jenkins to leave the result hinging on the final tussle between Lisa Astbury (West Midlands) and Andrea Colclough.
The first leg of the fifth game could have gone to either player, but it was Lisa Astbury’s double three that clinched it. Lisa then went on to win the tie 3-0 with Andrea unable to reach a checkout in either of the last two legs. Lisa’s 19.52 average earned her the match award and her win gave the team a share of the spoils.
Trailing 14-10 West Midlands men’s ‘A’ side now required a massive 9-3 victory to claim an overall win. They did not get the best of starts, Steve Mason, Alan Derrett and Geoff Whitworth recorde wins in turn against Peter Wyse, Martin Angell and Nicky Bache to give the visitors a 3-0 lead.
Game four saw the West Midlands revival, Richard Foster beginning the fight back. Foster’s 3-0 win over Peter Giorgino was followed by a 3-1 success from Jamie Hughes against Alex Ford and a further 3-2 win by Avtar Singh over Nigel Birch saw the score level at three each at the midway point.
Mark Jones put West Midlands noses in front for the first time in the match when he defeated Jason Gilbert 3-0 and took the score to 4-3. With four consecutive winners West Midlands were now on a roll and it continued when further wins were added by Tom Aldridge, 3-0 against Martin Wheawall, Mark Rollinson’s 3-2 win against Neil Pointon, a 3-1 success by Ian Jones over Mark Bloor and a 3-2 win over Andy Beardmore by Steve Farmer to take the running tally to 8-3 in favour of the hosts after trailing 3-0. Farmer’s win saw him average a tremendous 32.34 per dart to win him the match award.
Everything now rested on the final game between Lol Frazer and Mark Frost. West Midlands were still in with a chance of an overall victory, the best Staffordshire could hope for was a draw. Against the darts Frost won the first leg in 15 darts. Frazer, again against the throw, took the second in 20 darts. The pattern continued Frost won the third in 16 and Frazer the fourth in 26 with the last leg of the fixture left to decide the weekend’s result. Frost left himself on double twenty, Frazer stepped up the oche to throw for double ten, he missed, Frost didn’t, he won the leg in 21 darts and the game 3-2 to give an 8-4 result for the West Midlands with an overall 18-18 result for the weekend.