2014-01-01

After three wins in their opening three games in division two of the Riley’s BDO Inter County Championships, West Midlands bubble has burst. In their away game against Berkshire it was a weekend that belonged solely to the home team.
Saturday’s ladies game opened with a battling performance from West Midlands Claire Hobbs. Claire was twice pegged back to level terms by Lisa Webb, but she stuck to her task and went on to win 3-2. The pendulum then swung decisively in Berkshire’s favour. Kate Denton began a run of four wins when she beat Jacqueline Maiden 3-1, the same margin by which Louise Walford defeated Samantha Maiden. Jackie Walford’s 3-2 win over Shellbie Simmons followed by a 3-0 success for Priscilla Cummings in her tie with Kim Fellows put the hosts in an unassailable 4-1 position.
West Midlands kept the best till last and was in the form of Heather Wright. Heather chalked up a straight 3-0 win over Jenny Payne, her 15.34 average giving her the lady of the match award and her win making the final score a little more respectable at 4-2.
The men’s ‘B’ game had a set pattern of win two lose two right up to the penultimate game, Lee Drinkwater and Stephen Green, were Berkshire’s opening duo putting them two up with 3-2 wins against respective opponents Robert Thompson and Peter Wyse. Replying for the West Midlands were Mark Craddock and Avtar Singh and once again the results were 3-2 as in turn they accounted for John Hall and Steve Shadwell.
The hosts forged ahead again, this time with two 3-0 wins supplied by Richard Stride and Paul Croucher, Jamie Barrowman and Paul Price on the receiving end.
West Midlands man of the match, John Platt was at number seven and it was he who started the next two games winning run. Platt twice went ahead against Daniel Woodcraft with 19 darts legs, the home player winning the second leg in 25 darts and the fourth in 17. Platt then won the deciding leg in 18 darts with an 84 checkout leaving his opponent nursing 142. Platt’s winning average was 24.71.
Squaring the game in the eight encounter was Karl Hughes, a no nonsense 3-0 win over Steve Lane. As before West Midlands were unable to get their noses in front and it was a 3-0 win over Simon Meredith by Luke Humphries that put Berkshire 5-4 up. John Gray made it 6-4, coming back from 2-1 down against Sean Carroll to win 3-2 and with further wins from William Foot and Ryan Newton at the expense of Jordan Singh and Mark Watkiss Allen, the home team recorded an 8-4 victory.
West Midlands ladies ‘A’ outstanding player so far this season must surely be Sarah Roberts. After winning all three of this seasons lady of the match awards she began the ‘A’ teams match with yet another award winning performance. Playing against Carole Holroyd, Sarah found herself with her back to the wall and 2-0 down. She began her fight back magnificently with a superb sixteen darts leg hitting 81, 60, 140, 76 and 132, then promptly despatched double six with her first dart. Inspired by this Sarah then went on to win the following two legs to win 3-2 and average 21.56 for the award.
From one up it all then went a little pear shaped as Gemma Barrett lost 3-0 to Ally Judge, Jackie Crew went down 3-1 to Hayley Croucher and Diane Tolley was another 3-0 casualty to Jo Rolls to put Berkshire 3-1 up.
Kath Jenkins looked all set to keep West Midlands in the game when she won the first two legs against Debbie Shadwell, however finishing doubles then eluded Kath and Debbie went on to win 3-2 and secure another win for Berkshire.
As the ‘B’ side won the first and last games, the ‘A’ side emulated that when Lisa Astbury recorded a 3-0 win over Debbie Connors to put the result at 4-2 to Berkshire.
The men’s ‘A’ had a storming start, Ian Jones set the standard with a 4-1 win over Terry Stubbs, Ian having a 26.67 average. Mark Jones doubled that lead when he took out Paul Snowsill in battle to the end for his 3-2 win. Jones won the first, Snowsill the second. Jones then won two in a row to open up a 3-1 lead only to see his counterpart win the next two legs so level the game at 3-3. Double two with his sixteenth dart gave Jones a 4-3 win leaving his opponent way back on 116 when he checked out. Making it 3-0 to the \West Midlands was Matthew Dicken, who after winning the first and third legs against Paul Roe suddenly found himself trailing 3-2. Roe left double twenty off 93 in the sixth leg, but didn’t get a throw at it as Dicken’s 46 game shot squared the game at 3-3. In the seventh and final leg Dicken scored a maximum, which was enough to give him the lead and first throw at a double that double was 16, which he got first dart with Roe still requiring 83.
A 3-0 lead, West Midlands could not have wished for a better start, but then it slowly began to go downhill. Glen Cullen and Michael Baker both lost 4-2 to Luke Woodland and Kevin Morley. Mark Rollinson and Richard Platt were 3-0 losers to Joe Lacy and Stephen Rose to see the home team reverse a 3-0 deficit and turn it into a 4-3 lead.
Nick Fullwell momentarily stopped the rot when he secured a 4-2 win over Andy McNeill-Aitken despite the home player taking a 2-0 lead, making it 4-4. Coming back to 3-2 after being 3-0 down was not enough for Gary Watts to avoid a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Paul Hogan, but a hard fought tussle between Simon Purvey (Berkshire) and Andrew Forrester saw the latter clinch a 4-3 win to level at 5-5 with two to play.
John Jamieson looked all set to give the home team a vital 6-5 lead when he won the first three legs against Gavin Baker all in just 14 darts. Fortunately for Baker Jamieson missed his doubles in the fourth leg for a straight legs victory and in stepped Baker with a 115 game shot to stay in the game. Baker then added another 18 darts leg before Jamieson once again slipped up when he missed his finishing doubles and allowed Baker to check out on double eighteen with his nineteenth dart to level at 3-3 after he looked dead and buried at 3-0 down.
The final leg saw Baker turn the screws, scores of 140, 60, 100 and 140 left him requiring 61 after only twelve darts, Jamieson after the same dozen darts was way back on 207. Baker needed just three more darts as he wrapped up a fantastic 4-3 win in fifteen darts and at the same time recorded a man of the match winning average of 28.27to leave the result hinging on the final game of the weekend.
Playing the final game was Gary Jones (Berkshire) and Ian Stanton for West Midlands. The advantage switched one way then the other as Jones won the first leg, Stanton took the next two. Jones came back with two in a row to go 3-2 up, but after missing his doubles in the last two legs Jones let Stanton in with finishes of 89 and 16 for a 4-3 win and a 7-5 success for the men’s ‘A’.
The overall result was a 21-15 victory for Berkshire, which lifts them to fifth in the table, West Midlands drop from third to fourth, both teams are level on 83 points, eight behind the leading trio of Derbyshire, Somerset and Cleveland.