2014-06-01

In division two of the Riley’s BDO Inter County Championships West Midlands penultimate fixture of the season was an away game with Wiltshire, one which the west Midlands just had to win to have any outside chance of promotion to division one. After chalking up their best win of the campaign in their previous fixture with Northamptonshire, whereby all four teams recorded wins, confidence should have been riding high.
The ladies ‘B’ saw Jacqueline Simmons open up with a win in the first leg against Freda Squires, but the Wiltshire player took advantage of some missed doubles by Simmons and went on to win 3-1. Gemma Barrett (West Midlands) took the first leg against Lorraine Kemp only to see her opponent win the next two. Gemma kept her nerve and levelled in the fourth and after Kemp had left double two in the decider Gemma produced a tremendous 114 finish to clinch a 3-2 win and also the match award with her 17.23 average.
The home side took the lead again in the third when Julie Woolf beat Doreen Kaye 3-0 and extended their lead to 3-1 when Sue Lane beat Claire Hobbs 3-1 after losing the first leg.
Samantha Maiden began well against Kylie Murphy (Wiltshire) winning the first leg with Murphy still way back on 149. Both players had darts at double twenty in the second leg, but it was Murphy who found it to level the game. She then took the lead with double sixteen in the third leg and after failing on doubles in the fourth allowed Maiden to check out on 54 to force a decider. The last leg could have gone either way despite Maiden having first throw at a finishing double, fortunately her early misses were not costly as she wrapped up the leg and the game with a 40 outshot and a 3-2 win.
Jacqueline Maiden was not so fortunate, she won the first against Stacey Day, lost the next two and took the game to a fifth and final leg when she won the fourth, but it was Day who got the vital double twenty to secure a 3-2 win and a 4-2 win for her team.
Avtar Singh was twice pegged back to level terms by Michael Duggan before he sealed a 3-2 win and the man of the match award for his 25.63 average in the first of the men’s ‘B’ games. Adam Johnson doubled that lead with a straight 3-0 win against Paul Oakley before the home side chalked up their first winner. Providing the win was Joseph Brock-Hoskins, who fell behind twice to Gary Watts but went on to win 3-2.
The two games buffer in favour of the West Midlands was restored when Glen Cullen beat Scott Millin 3-1 for a 3-1 lead, a lead which quickly eroded as Ronald Ashton won 3-1 against Mark Watkiss Allen, Stuart Maundrell beat Jamie Barrowman 3-2 and Paul Woolf accounted for Jordan Singh with a similar 3-2 result to turn around the advantage and give Wiltshire a 4-3 lead.
Robert Thompson’s 3-1 win over Andrew Southam cancelled out the home teams lead, but only momentarily as Martin Harle won 3-1 against Mark Craddock and Nick Budgen beat John Mycock 3-2 to put the hosts 6-4 up and just one game away from victory.
A sterling 3-0 win from West Midlands Martin Angell kept his team in the game and with a further straight legs win from Karl Hughes over Kevin Barefoot, the result was a 6-6 draw.
Similar to the men’s ‘B’ game the ladies ‘A’ began with an award winning performance, Heather Wright was first on and faced up to Jaine Telling. Heather made short work of her task recording a convincing 3-0 win with a 19.27 average. Doubling that lead was Sarah Roberts. Sarah had won all seven of the previous match awards and narrowly missed out again as she beat Joanna Hooke 3-0 and averaged 17.89.
Tina Rowlands (Wiltshire) was the first player to help the home team’s cause, for the third time in a row it was 3-0 Tina beating Lisa Astbury. Jackie Crew assured her team mates of at least a share of the spoils when she twice came from behind against Erica Hartnett and went on to win 3-2.
Kim Fellos (West Midlands) began well taking the first leg off Carol Bowers, but then lost out 3-1 and if only Kath Jenkins had been a little luckier on finishing doubles she could have won the final game against Kayleigh Woolf, as it was she came from 2-0 down to 2-2 and then lost the last leg to finish the game at 3-3.
The men’s ‘A’ now needed to emulate their 8-4 win from their previous game against Northamptonshire to complete an overall victory. For a third time over the weekend the award winner was first on and taking the stage for the ‘A’ team was Michael Baker, who in a see-saw game against Dan Butler came out the 4-3 winner with a 25.07 average. Sean Carroll had to come from behind no fewer than three times before clinching a 4-3 win against Matthew Aubrey to double West Midlands lead.
David Lewis and Dave Wicks were in turn 4-1 winners against John Platt and Paul Price to square the match at 2-2, before Gavin Baker’s 4-1 win over Robert Bowers put the West Midland noses in front again. The two games advantage looked to be on the cards when Mark Rollinson went two up against Adi Acott and then 3-1 up to move within one leg of his win, but it was not to be as Acott rattled off three wins in the last three legs for a 4-3 success.
Game seven saw the home side take the lead for the first time in the match, Terry Smith’s 4-2 win over Richard Platt giving them a slender 4-3 advantage. The lead was not long lasting as Neil Pointon, despite going two down to Paul Boulton went on to win 4-2, checking out on 142 in the third leg. Danny Coyle was another player to record a high finish a fabulous 161 but it was not enough to avoid a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Lee Evans to put Wiltshire 5-4 up.
With only three games to play Ian Stanton stepped up to the mark for West Midlands to level the match for a fourth time. Ian lost the opener to Matt Harris then went 3-1 up with Harris winning the fifth before Stanton checked out on double five for a 4-2 win. Peter Wyse went 2-0 up and 3-2 up against Chris Daglish, but didn’t confirm his win until the final leg, a 4-3 success to give West Midlands a 6-5 lead with the final game being contested by Ian Jones, a man who many, many times has won vital games for the county.
Playing against Jones was Anthony Moulden, who had just 18 darts in both of the first two legs and found himself trailing 2-0. Moulden levelled the game with two fifteen darts legs and went ahead in 17. He then won the tie with another seventeen darts leg, a 4-2 win with an award winning 28.63 average, Jones meanwhile, who had been on a double in every leg apart from the third, finished with a 27.69 average, the best on the day for the West Midlands, but the win for him or his team was not to be, the result all square at 6-6.
The overall result was 19-17 to Wiltshire, which effectively rules out promotion for the West Midlands as they 164 points, 14 behind second placed Somerset and their final game of the season is a home tie with top of the table Cleveland.