2011-05-01

West Midlands final home game and penultimate fixture of the season in division one of the Riley’s BDO Inter County Championships was not a happy one. The encounter was always going to be a tough one as their opponents were riding high in the table with both eyes firmly fixed on promotion to the premier division.
Saturday’s ‘B’ games saw the ladies suffer their first clean sheet defeat of the campaign. Chalking up Hampshire’s 6-0 drubbing were Maxine Cadwallader and Charlotte Burgess, who in turn beat Kim Fellows and Jacqueline Maiden 3-0. Tara Power was made to fight for her win, Jenna Couch taking her the full five legs distance before going down 3-2. The following two games finished with 3-1 scorelines, wins for Elaine Harty and Nikki Stevens against Jacqui Simmons and Tammy Chance. Rounding off Hampshire’s clean sweep win was Gemma Hayter who had a 3-0 success over Doreen Kaye.
To date the men’s ‘B’ were the success story of the season, played seven, won six and only lost one and that was away to Oxfordshire way back in October. Getting the game underway was John Platt, who had a relatively comfortable 3-0 win over Steve Ballard. Danny Coyle made it 2-0 with his 3-1 success against Paul Dunn. Martin Angell was taken the full five legs distance by Dave Bonnett, with a maximum in the first leg Coyle won it in sixteen darts. Bonnett notched three tons in the second to draw level, but only to see the West Midlands man forge ahead again this time in eighteen darts and a 130 game shot. The Hampshire man fought back again to square the match, but it was all in vain as Martin Angell clinched his 3-2 win in the fifth in 21 darts.
Leading 3-0 Ian Stanton was at number four and in good form too. As his opponent, David Harper left himself on a 40 finish Ian checked out on the same double twenty to go one up. From there on in it was all Stanton, he doubled his lead with a tremendous 140 outshot leaving Harper way back on 133 and then sealed his 3-0 victory when he finished on 94, Harper this time still requiring 238.
Bryan Laws looked all set to reduce the arrears for the visitors when he won the opening leg against Paul Wright in 17 darts. Wright responded with a 108 game shot to level the game and could have gone 2-1 up if he had only found the elusive double nine he required. Similar to the previous leg, the fourth could have gone either way, but this time it was Wright who got the vital double to take the game to a deciding leg. Despite throwing against the darts Wright had top shots of 121 and 100 which gave him the advantage he required to be first to a double, which he disposed of clinically for a 3-2 win, his opponent left on 76.
Going into the midway game the West Midlands had a comfortable 5-0 lead, Danny Ballard (Hampshire) was set to do his bit to reduce that deficit, and that was exactly what he did. Playing against Ian Hartland, Ballard was the man that found the doubles unlike his counterpart who had chances in the second and third legs to win but failed, paid the price and lost 3-0.
Chris Hickman and Lance Hackett were both taken to the limit by Brian Bayford and Dennis Simpson. Hickman won the first, Bayford the second. Hickman then with scores of 140, 60 and 180 followed up with a 121 finish for a 12 darts leg to go 2-1 up, only to see his counterpart bounce back to level once more. The final leg was touch and go, but a sweet double ten gave Hickman the 3-2 verdict.
Hackett meanwhile went one up with a 111 finish and 2-0, while Simpson still required 160. The home player then lost touch with his doubles and Simpson stepped in to square the game at 2-2. Simpson missed his opportunity to steal the game and Hackett clinched his 3-2 win with a 32 outshot, at the same time guaranteeing another victory for his team as the score then stood at 7-1.
Mick Street was Hampshire’s second winner, playing against Wayne Griffiths he recorded a 3-1 win, however, he was to be the away team’s last winner as Paul Price beat Lee Ward 3-1, then in the penultimate encounter Viv Gould (25.00) turned on a man of the match performance against Chris Witts. Witts actually went 2-0 up before Gould got into gear. He won the third and squared the game in 17 darts in the fourth. He then went one better and won the game 3-2 with a 16 darts leg in the decider.
To round off the day’s games Greg Parkes faced up Paul Winter (Hampshire). Winter one the first, Parkes the next two. Winter levelled in the fourth, but Parkes won the decided for a 3-2 win giving West Midlands a great 10-2 win.
Similar to Saturday’s ‘B’ games the ladies did not have the best of results. Jane Monaghan gave the away side first blood as she recorded a 3-1 win over Lisa Astbury. West Midlands long time servant, Diane Tolley looked as if she would cancel out Monaghan’s win when she opened up a 2-0 lead against Sue Thompson, but then lost her way with finishing doubles and Thompson took the next three legs to seal a 3-2 victory. Taking the score along to 3-0 was Sue Lowther who beat Heather Wright in straight legs.
West Midlands sole shining light, Claire Hobbs was on at number four, she lost the first to Pennie Lewis, won the next two, lost the fourth but won the all important fifth for a 3-2 win, her 16.69 average earning her the match award.
The cheers were short lived by the home crowd as Wendy Reinstadtler beat Sarah Robbins 3-0 and then in the final game, taking the result to 5-11 for Hampshire was Stephanie Smee who with a 3-1 result accounted for Kath Jenkins.
The first two games of the men’s ‘A’ match went with the darts advantage, Mick Street putting the away team one up with a 3-2 win over Andy Forrester after Forrester had gone 2-1 up. Nilson Pritchard won the opening leg against Ian Jones, but as ever, never say die Jones fought back. With a 100 and 180 in the second leg he levelled the game in 18 darts, went ahead in 21 and won it 3-1 with another fine 21 darts leg hitting 3×100 in the process.
Kevin Ede got Hampshire’s noses in front again when he defeated Mark Rollinson 3-2 and the lead was extended when first Sam Rooney beat Avtar Singh 3-1 and by the same margin Kevin Murrell beat Dean Stewart. At 4-1 down the West Midlands now needed something special to get them back in the game, Richard Platt was the man to provide it. With top shots of 100 and 140 he took the first leg off Phil Harty in 17 darts. He doubled his advantage with a 16 darts leg after scores of 2×100 and 140 and then rounded off his 3-0 win with Harty left nursing 16.
The second half was not any better for the hosts, Gary Stafford, after trailing 2-1 to Nick Fulwell won 3-2 before a brief respite for the Midlands side when Jamie Hughes gained a 3-0 success over Andy Mitchell. Steve Musson moved the score along to 6-3 when he beat Matt Dicken 3-0 and with a similar win from Robert Crawley against Peter Wyse Hampshire had wrapped up a win as the score stood then at 7-3 with two to play.
West Midlands long standing player Lol Frazer, despite hitting the high scores was unable to avoid a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Mark Thorne before Neil Pointon took on Danny Smith in the weekend’s final game. It was a close affair with finishing doubles proving once again to be the all important ingredient and it was Neil Pointon who had that vital ingredient as he romped to a 3-0 victory to put the final score at 8-4 to Hampshire, also giving them an overall victory of 26-10 to put them top of the promotion table with 181 points and leaving West Midlands languishing fourth from bottom with144 points.