2015-06-01

In division two of the BDO Inter County Championships West Midlands, in their penultimate and last home fixture of the season registered their best win of the season so far a massive 28-8 victory over bottom of the table Wiltshire.
This was West Midlands biggest win since they won 29-7 at home to Suffolk on the weekend of the 18th and 19th of October 1997 and the first time they have won all four games since March 2014 at home to Northamptonshire.
What a start the ladies ‘B’ had when Sarah Roberts opened up with a 17.89 average over Carol Bowers to give her not only a straight 3-0 win but also her fourth consecutive lady of the match award. Samantha Maiden doubled the lead when she beat Sue Lane 3-2 after Lane had taken a 2-1 lead. A draw was guaranteed as early as the third game with a further 3-1 win from Sophie Singh over Lorraine Kemp and with a similar 3-1 success by Wendy Waine against Jill Little the match was won in the first four games.
Jacqueline Maiden added her 3-1 against Linzi Holton to the tally before Wiltshire chalked up their one and only winner April Polden beat Claire Hobbs 3-0 in the final game to give the home team a 5-1 victory.
The men’s ‘B’ were aiming to make it three wins in a row and they got the first half off to a good start as Robert Thompson recorded a 3-1 win over Terry Smith and although Stuart Maundrell cancelled out the West Midlands win with his 3-2 success against Neil Pointon it was the home side that went ahead again in the third when Danny Coyle beat Andrew Hoare 3-1.
Coyle’s 3-1 win was followed by two more similar results as Ashe Khayat and Chris Stanley in turn defeated Roy Pryor and Kevin Barefoot.
The running score was taken to 4-2 at the midway point when Robert Bowers (Wiltshire) won 3-1 against Mark Watkiss.
Scott Millin made it two in a row for the away team with his 3-1 win over Gary Watts but Sam Guest restored West Midlands two games buffer when he won 3-2 against Jon House.
Robert Smith’s 3-0 win against Bob Phillips assured the hosts of at least a share of the points but when Paul Price followed up with another 3-0 win this time over Steve Lane the win was then guaranteed as the running score then stood at 7-3. The win by Price in 18, 17 and 18 darts gave him a 28.36 average and earned him the team’s match award.
Richie Ettwell added another stripe to Wiltshire’s tally when in the penultimate encounter he beat John Mycock 3-0 but taking the final score to 8-4 was Karl Hughes who won his tie with his namesake Connor Hughes 3-2.
The ladies ‘A’ without a win since the opening day’s 6-0 success away to Merseyside had a terrific game which was a carbon copy of their ‘B’ team insomuch as they won the first five games and lost the last. Lisa Astbury winner of six of this season’s seven match awards opened up with a 3-2 win and 17.49 average against Erica Hartnett, but on this occasion it was her team mate and next on Debbie Loon who took the award as she like Lisa won 3-2 but with an 18.90 average against Stacey Day.
Kim Fellows fought all the way for her 3-2 victory as she twice came from behind against Jaine Telling but in the end it was the experienced Fellows that won to take the score to 3-0.
Heather Wright confirmed the win in the fourth with the 3-1 defeat of Joanna Hooke and taking the score nicely along to 5-0 was Gemma Barrett with her straight 3-0 win over Tina Rowlands.
In the final ladies game Shirley Castle (Wiltshire) won 3-1 against Kath Jenkins in a game that could easily have swung either way.
Just one defeat in seven, four wins and two draws that’s was the men’s ‘A’ record prior to the game and it wasn’t long before they were making those statistics look even better. Mark Rollinson won the first 4-0 against Roy Pryor, Richard Platt was pegged back to level terms three times before achieving his 4-3 win over Shane Harvey, Avtar Singh made it 3-0 when he beat Chris Daglish 4-2 and making it 4-0 was Michael Baker with a 29.91 average and the 4-0 defeat of Andrew Southam.
Paul Hopkins looked set to pull one back for Wiltshire when he opened up a 2-0 lead over Mark Craddock and even when Craddock made it all square at 2-2 the away player went ahead again but it was all in vain as Craddock in 15 and 17 darts won the final two legs for a 4-3 victory.
Shawn Carroll made it 6-0 when he won 4-1 against Dave Wicks and ironically Paul Price, the player who had chalked up the winning seventh leg the previous day for the ‘B’ team did it again for the ‘A’ as he defeated Michael Duggan 4-0 taking the running score to 7-0.
As I have said many, many times before “Ian Jones was in tremendous form” he kicked off his game against Anthony Moulder with a superb twelve darts leg hitting 100, 180, 100 and checking out on 121, he followed that with a 17 darts leg, then a 20 darts leg and finally wrapped up a 4-0 win with a 14 darts leg for a fantastic 31.81 average and the match award.
Matt Harris (Wiltshire) took the lead twice against Jonathan Platt only to see Platt win the last three legs for a 4-2 win. Keith Allman won the first two legs against Lee Evans but was unable to stop Evans recording the visitor’s first win as Evans won the next four.
Christopher Mason was certainly in fine finishing form against Dennis Bryant as he checked out on 120 in the first leg, he then lost the second, won third with a 100 outshot and went 3-1 up with another three figure game shot this time 104. Mason rounded off a 4-1 win with a somewhat, by his own standards on the day mediocre 98 finish.
The last game of the weekend went to Wiltshire Paul Boulton beating Glen Cullen 4-2 for a final score of 10-2 to the West Midlands and an overall massive 28-8 victory to give them 160 points and a comfortable mid table position.
Full Results:West Midlands v Wiltshire (28-8):(West Midlands names first):Men’s ‘A’:- Mark Rollinson 4 Roy Pryor 0, Richard Platt 4 Shane Harvey 3, Avtar Singh 4 Chris Daglish 2, Michael Baker 4 Andrew Southam 0, Mark Craddock 4 Paul Hopkins 3, Shawn Carroll 4 Dave Wicks 1, Paul Price 4 Michael Duggan 0, Ian Jones 4 Anthony Moulden 0, Jonathan Platt 4 Matt Harris 2, Keith Allman 2 Lee Evans 4, Christopher Mason 4 Dennis Bryant 1, Glen Cullen 2 Paul Boulton 4, Men’s ‘B’:- Robert Thompson 3 Terry Smith 1, Neil Pointon 2 Stuart Maundrell 3, Danny Coyle 3 Andrew Hoare 1, Ash Khayatt 3 Roy Pryor 1, Chris Stanley 3 Kevin Barefoot 1, Mark Watkiss 1 Robert Bowers 3, Gary Watts 1 Scott Millin 3, Sam Guest 3 Jon House 2, Robert Smith 3 Bob Phillips 0, Paul Price 3 Steve Lane 0, John Mycock 0 Richie Ettwell 3, Karl Hughes 3 Connor Hughes 2, Women’s ‘A’:- Lisa Whitmore 3 Erica Hartnett 2, Debbie Loon 3 Stacey Day 2, Kim Fellows 3 Jaine Telling 2, Heather Wright 3 Joanna Hooke 1, Gemma Barrett 3 Tina Rowlands 0, Kath Jenkins 1 Shirley Castle 3, Women’s ‘B’:- Sarah Roberts 3 Carol Bowers 0, Samantha Maiden 3 Sue Lane 2, Sophie Singh 3 Lorraine Kemp 1, Wendy Waine 3 Jill Little 1, Jacqueline Maiden 3 Linzi Holton 1, Claire Hobbs 0 April Polden 3.