It was not a good start to the New Year for either of our local teams, Warwickshire and West Midlands as they resumed their fixtures in the Riley’s BDO Inter County Championships.
Warwickshire with just one win in four games travelled north to take on Lancashire in their fifth premier division fixture of the campaign and ended with four disastrous results. The men’s ‘B’ without a victory so far this season went down 10-2 with Dave Sanders (26.50) their man of the match. The ‘A’ side didn’t fair much better as they finished on the wrong side of an 8-4 result with Nigel Heydon (30.17) their top man.
The ladies are not having the best of seasons either as both teams lost heavily by 5-1. For the ‘A’ the result was compounded by the defeat of Trina Gulliver, her first defeat since September 2009 and only her second reversal in 106 games. Match awards went to ‘A’ Denise Burke (16.34) and ‘B’ Angela Jones (17.24).
In division one West Midlands hosted County Durham and like their neighbours were hoping to add to their wins in the previous outings, unfortunately it was not to be. The men’s ‘A’ finished all square at six each, but the highlight of the weekend was the performance of Dean Stewart. On at number six against Durham’s Allan Bell, Stewart won the opening leg in 13 darts hitting 100,140,180,49 and double 16 first dart. The second leg he hit 180,100,180 and 25 checking out in 14 darts. He then clinched his 3-0 win and an absolutely fabulous average of 37.58 with scores of 100,140,180,41 and double twenty for another 13 darts leg.
The men’s ‘B’ won their tie 7-5, Chris Stanley the man of the match with a 27.33 average.
The ladies ‘A’ shared the spoils in a 3-3 draw, while the ‘B’ lost 5-1, Kath Jenkins (17.27) and Diane Tolley (16.12) taking the respective match awards.
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Custard House, leaders of the Small Heath League had their fixture with Hay Mills Social postponed this week and as a result have lost the number one spot. Second placed Emerald Club won their home tie with Devils by a massive 8-1 scoreline and have now gone two points clear of Custard House, who have a game in hand.
In the middle of the table clash between Custard House Flights and Wagon and Horses, home advantage for the Wagon did not pay off as they lost 6-3.
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Three Horse Shoes consolidated their pole position in the Tamworth Sports Bar League by handing out a 9-0 whitewash in their home game against Globe ‘A’. The win gives the Shoes a total of 29 points, three ahead of the rest of the filed.
Second place Sports Bar 180 won their away tie with Mile Oak Rovers 6-3 and third in the table St Johns Club won 5-2 away to bottom of the table Market Vaults to keep them on level terms, both points and average with Sports Bar 180.
In the players league Paul Whittaker leads the way on 12 points with four wins in as many games, then comes a block of four players, Grant Harris, Lee Kirkham, Mac Tarbuck and Terry Molineux all on nine points.
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