There were mixed fortunes for our local counties, Warwickshire and West Midlands in their opening fixtures of the season in the Riley’s BDO Inter Counties Championships. Warwickshire had a tough opener in the premier division away to the mighty Yorkshire and the result highlighted just what a good side the hosts were. All four of Warwickshire’s teams lost, the men’s ‘A’ 8-4, the ‘B’ 11-1, the ladies ‘A’ 5-1 and the ‘B’ 4-2, giving the home side a very convincing 28-8 victory. Award winners were Mark McGeeney (A-29.04), Jamie Atkins (B-26,29), Trina Gulliver (A-22.43) and Angela Jones (B-18.54).
In division one West Midlands played hosts to Middlesex and got their season off to a fine start with a 19-17 win. There were wins for both of the men’s teams, the ‘A’ 9-3 and the ‘B’ 7-5 with Mark Rollinson (34.16) and Richard Platt (27.11) taking the respective match awards. It was not such good news for the ladies as their ‘A’ side lost 4-2, with their top player being Lisa Astbury (18.56) and Gemma Poole (13.72) took the ‘B’ award as the sole winner in their 5-1 demise.
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The Sheldon and District Summer League have completed its final week of fixtures and in group three Pavilions lost the title in their very last game. Going into the fixture they were top of the group but had a home tie against their nearest rivals Kingshurst Labour Club. The result was 6-2 in favour of Kingshurst giving them a total of 16 points and leaving Pavilions as runners up on 15 points. The other group winners were, Bromford Bridge Members Club Exiles (Group One), Highwood ‘A’ (Group Two), Highwood ‘B’ (Group Four), Shirley RBL Flights (Group Five) and Garrettes Green Social (Group Six).
IN the league’s Mrs F Richman Trophy there were wins for Rileys Flights and Olton RBL in the semi final. The final was very close with Olton just getting the 4-3 edge. Player of the final was Andy Hutchings (Olton RBL) who had top shots of 180,137 and 3×100.
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Three Horse Shoes are the Tamworth Sports Bar League champions on 111 points, runners up were Sports Bar 180 with 95 points. The Players League was much closer with no fewer than three players, Clyde Hooper, Mac Tarbuck and Richie Bake all finishing on 33 points. The league has decided that there will be a play off to decide who will be the outright winner.
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With just one more week’s fixtures to play in the thisisdarts.co.uk Individual League, leader Ian McFarlane continued kind of form that has seen him chalk up 42 victories from 43 games, an incredible performance that has already seen him claim the title. In this weeks games he recorded a further two 3-0 wins against Adam Gallett, who is third in the table and Rick Barberan, registering top shots of 3×140, 2×125 and 7×100 in the two games.
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The Small Heath League played off their Doubles Knockout and this seasons champions are Neil Parsonage and Raymond Fisher from the Emerald Club. Neil and Ray defeated Dave Lacy and Brendan Lysaght (Mitre) in the final. Losing semi finalists were, Arthur Forde and Edward Martin (Devils Club) plus Paul Brown and Alan Wale (Custard House).
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Riley’s Flights consolidated their number one spot in division one of the Forest of Arden Summer league with a convincing 7-2 home win over bottom of the table Chelmsley Arrows. Riley’s Flights are two points clear of Old Bill and Bull with a game in hand. Third placed Riley’s Red Arrows lost ground in the title race going down 5-4 at home to Sheldon Flights, leaving them six points adrift of the leaders with a game in hand.
In the second division the top two teams chalked up wins, leaders Sheldon Arrows beat Riley’s Mixed 7-2 to maintain a two points lead over Highwood who won their home tie with Old Bill and Bull Flights 6-3.
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