2013-12-01

Despite having two wins from their opening two fixtures in division two of the Riley’s BDO Inter County Championships, West Midlands trip to the south west was always going to be a tough one when they were facing up to high riding Somerset.
The encounter turned out to be a game of two halves, Saturday going in favour of the West Midlands and Sunday it was the turn of the hosts. Having said that the ladies ‘B’ didn’t get the best of start as Lynne Whiffen beat Jacqueline Maiden 3-1 and both Barbara Dyke and Natalie Wadham each in turn recorded 3-0 wins over Claire Hobbs and Kim Fellows to put Somerset 3-0 up. However, then the tide began to turn as lady of the match Shellbie Simmons after going one down to Val Griffiths fought back to earn a 3-1 win and the match award with her 16.70 average
Adding to the West Midlands tally was Heather Wright, she had a straight 3-0 win against Marianne Bisset to give her team mate Samantha Maiden a fighting chance to earn a draw in the final game. And earn a draw is exactly what Samantha did. Playing against Kay Bisset she was made to fight all the way for her win, twice coming from behind before winning the last two legs to seal her 3-2 victory and a share of the points in a final 3-3 draw.
The men’s ‘B’ side saw the opening four players all lose the first leg as Sean Carrol kicked off the proceedings against Somerset’s Gary Morse. Carrol came back to win 3-1 after trailing 1-0, as did Mark Craddock (West Midlands), who beat Alan Veale. Peter Wyse twice fell behind to the hosts Darren Godfrey, but stuck to his task and went on to snatch a 4-3 win. Making it 4-0 to the West Midlands was Paul Price. Price lost the opening leg to Darren White in 15 darts, but went on to win the tie 3-1 with winning legs of 20, 16 and 20 darts for a match award winning average of 27.72.
Jamie Barrowman opened up a 2-0 lead against Paul Harrison and although the home player fought back to level terms it was Barrowman who won the decider for a close 3-2 win.
As early as the sixth game West Midlands were assured of taking home at least a share of the spoils as Richard Platt came out of his game against Les Lester with a 3-1 verdict to take the scoreline along to 6-0 in the visitors favour.
Matt Chantrey stopped the rot for Somerset, he went two up against Martin Angell and although Angell squared at two each it was Chantrey who got the final leg for a 3-2 win. The win however was just a minor setback for the away team as Karl Hughes secured the win with his three legs victory over Nathan Gill. Jordan Singh moved the score along to 8-1 when he beat David Thyer 3-2 after Thyer had opened a 2-0 lead.
Despite twice taking the lead over Benjamin Witcombe, Avatar Singh was unable to push home his advantage and finally lost 3-2. Nevertheless, the final score was taken to 10-2 for the West Midlands when first Robert Thompson beat Russell Joyner 3-2, Joyner levelling the game in both the second and fourth legs. Then to wind up the proceedings Gary Watts won 3-0 against Tom Lonsdale.
Sunday was Somerset’s day, trailing overall 13-5 from the previous day the ladies reduced those arrears considerably. Kate Hulme beat Kath Jenkins 3-0, Sally Dart (and can she throw one!) won 3-1 against Jackie Crew, Becky Gould added her 3-0 success over Diane Tolley to the tally and wrapping up the points in only the fourth game was Marie Gearney, who had to come from 2-0 down against Lisa Astbury to win 3-2.
Sarah Roberts was not only West Midlands first winner, but their only winner, her superb 23.86 average giving her the match award as she defeated Donna Gullock in 20, 21 and 22 darts.
Karen Littler was the home team’s final player, she made the result 5-1 with a 3-0 win over Gemma Barrett.
The first five games of the men’s ‘A’ match all went with the first throw advantage. Mark Rollinson (West Midlands) was trailing 2-0 and 3-1 before sealing a 4-3 win. Marcus Knapman was the man to restore parity when he beat Mark Watkiss Allen with a straight 4-0 result. For the second time West Midlands took the lead, this time thanks to Michael Baker, who went 2-0 up with a great 156 finish in the second leg, was pegged back to level terms by Steve Werrett and then went on to win 4-2. Ryan Palmer was Somerset’s second winner, another straight 4-0 for the home side, this time it was Neil Pointon on the receiving end.
Putting the West Midlands in front for the third time was man of the match Nick Fullwell. Nick went 2-0 up against Neil Raikes in 19 and 17 dart’s, Reikes won the third only to see Fullwell restore his two games buffer with an 18 darts leg.
Raikes came back again to make the score 3-2 before Fullwell produced his fastest leg of the game, a sixteen darts leg hitting a maximum, 140 and checking out on double four with his sixteenth dart for a 4-2 win and a 27.25 average.
At this point the pattern changed and making that change was Matthew Dicken, his 4-1 win against George Gardner giving the away team a 4-2 lead at the midway point of the match. Extending that lead was Ian Jones, another consistent game from Jones in which he beat Gordon Fitzpatrick 4-1 in games of 18, 16 and 2×19 dart legs, hit two maximums and averaged 27.15.
So at 5-2 the West Midlands men’s ‘A’ side looked all set to record their third consecutive win, but then it all went wrong. Dave Weston (Somerset) beat Glen Cullen 4-1, Mark Stock and Dean Baker had respective 4-2 wins against Andrew Forrester and Ian Stanton, Steve Johnson handed out a 4-0 defeat to John Roberts and chalking up the all important seventh winning game was David Burrill with a 4- 1success against Gavin Baker to give a final score of 7-5 to the home team.
Despite the disappointment of the men’s ‘A’ losing their 100% win record and ladies ‘B’ following up their two wins with a draw, the outcome of the fixture was a very pleasing 19-17 win for the West Midlands to put them on 68 just one point behind their opponents Somerset, who lead the table on 69, Derbyshire are second with the same 68 points as West Midlands and Cleveland fourth a further one point adrift. So three games played and just two points separating the top four teams, should be quite a season!!!