2014-05-14

In division two of the Riley’s BDO Inter County Championships, West Midlands played their final away game of the season against Wiltshire. Realistically, as the hosts were next to bottom of the table it should have been a win for the West Midlands to keep them in with an outside chance of promotion, but unfortunately that is not how it turned out.
Saturday saw the ladies lose 4-2 with Gemma Barrett (17.23 lady of the match) and Samantha Maiden the only two winners. Avtar Singh opened up for the men and took the match award with his 25.63 average and 3-2 win against Michael Duggan. Then after taking a 3-1 lead had to win the final two games through Martin Angell and Karl Hughes to earn a 6-6 draw.
The Sunday ‘A’ games both finished all square the ladies went 3-1 up through Heather Wright (19.27 lady of the match) Sarah Roberts and Jackie Crew, but lost the last two games and were held to a 3-3 draw.
The men took the lead three times but in the end had to be satisfied with a 6-6 draw, Michael Baker (25.07) was their top player as he won 4-3 in the first game against Dan Butler.
The overall score for the weekend was 19-17 to Wiltshire and now effectively rules out promotion for another season as West Midlands are currently fifth in the table with 164 points, 14 points behind second placed Somerset and 17 adrift of leaders Cleveland who they play in the final game of the season.