Warwickshire County Darts Organisation will have the opportunity to move up the premier division table in the BDO Inter County Championships this coming weekend when they play away to Cheshire who are three places above them but only two points better off.
In last season’s fixture Warwickshire played hosts and won the tie 22-14 a repeat performance would be the ideal result.
Lining up for Warwickshire will be Men’s ‘A’:- Bob Nixon, Dean Stewart, Richard Foster, Ted Evetts, Jamie Hughes, Mark Carter, Nigel Heydon, Mark Westgarth, Noel Grant, Antony Allen, Tom Aldridge, Mark Strong, Men’s ‘B’:- Matt Edgar, Luke Kennedy, Rob Hawker, Carl Green, Anthony West, Mangal Singh, Peter Hughes, Tom Ryan, Tom Martin, Graham Hall, Ian McFarlane, James Hykin, Reserves:- Simon Power, Prakash Jiwa, Jamie Atkins, William Naylor, Ian Shaw, Tom McGlone, Paul Deslandes, Simon Fairbrother, Women’s ‘A’ :- Trina Gulliver, Sue Gulliver, Donna Pinch, Natalie Gilbert, Kerry Bambridge, Melanie Hill, Women’s ‘B’:- Angela Jones, Denise Keyte, Marian Conway, Helen Rigg, Wendy Adams, Nona Bolt, Reserves:- Lisa Deslandes, Caroline Pike, Chloe McKevitt, Kat Spanswick.
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A 24-12 win against Cleveland in their last outing in division one of the BDO Inter County Championships saw West Midlands leap up the table into second place seven points adrift of leaders Hampshire. This coming weekend West Midlands have a tough fixture as they play away to Gwent who are two places below them and with 41 points only two points behind them.
Team selection for the West Midlands is Men’s ‘A’:- Keith Allman, Gavin Baker, Michael Baker, Shaun Carroll, Mark Craddock, Nick Fullwell, Ian Jones, Ash Khayat, John Morris, Jonathan Platt, Lewis Venes, Gary Watts, Men’s ‘B’:- Scott Baker, Matthew Dicken, Sam Guest, Mark Hampton, Glen McGrandle, John Mycock, Danny Nicholls, Richard Platt, Paul Price, Robert Smith, Mark Watkiss, Paul Wells, Reserves:- Danny Coyle, Glen Cullen, Michael Hoult, Neil Pointon, Dave Redding, Mark Rollason, Jack Routledge, Women’s ‘A’:- Sarah Roberts, Lisa Badger, Debbie Loon, Kath Jenkins, Gemma Barrett, Sophie Singh, Women’s ‘B’:- Jacqueline Maiden, Samantha Maiden, Claire Hobbs, Kirsty Shaughnessy, Shellbie Simmons, Heather Wright, reserves:- Wendy Waine, Lizzy Arnold, Shannon Hall, Kim Fellows.
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Chris Thomas didn’t play this week in the Shirley Red Lion Premier League and for the first time this season he has been ousted from the number one spot and drops to fourth place. Taking over in pole position is Paul Higgins who moves up from third in the table after chalking up 3-1 wins over both Dave Hesketh and Steve Heeks.
2-2 draws against Adam Stuart and Antony Daly were enough to see Mick Bown move up two places to second with 32 points, three short of Higgins, and in the number three spot is Tom Bent who played four games in week seven winning 3-0 against Stuart Dixon, 3-1 against Brian Lawton and Jack Nason and finishing all square at 2-2 with Mark Gwalchmai to leave him four points off the top but having played two games more than the two players above him.
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It’s week two in the South Birmingham League and Mackadown Social made it two consecutive 8-1 wins in division one when they followed up their opening success over Crown at Shard End with a similar win against Crown Arrows to keep them top of the table. Second placed Erdington Members Club won their first game against Coleshill Social 7-2 and with the same result beat The Trident to leave them just two legs of average adrift of Mackadown.
In the second division The Dog and Toby Jug are both level on points and average, The Dog latest fixture saw them win 5-4 against Smithswood Social while with the same scoreline Toby Jug accounted for Banbury Flights.
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Kingshurst Knights got their season underway in the Forest of Arden Winter League with a 6-3 win at Ivy Leaf to take them into second place in the division one table and leave them two points behind leaders Journeys End who won their second game of the new season against Highwood KB 5-4.
In division two Crown Arrows recorded their second win in as many games when they beat Chelmsley Town 7-2 and in the all Highwood encounter Highwood Arms beat Highwood Exiles 5-4 to leave Exiles bottom of the table.
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A 7-2 win at Old Oscott WMC has kept The Boat in pole position in division one of the Four Oaks and District League making it three wins in as many games. Golden Hind are on the same six points as Boat following their 5-4 home win over Drakes Drum, the only other unbeaten team in the division Boldmere St Mike’s chalked up the division’s biggest win when they beat their hosts Plough and Arrows 8-1.
Bishop Vesey recorded their first win in three winning the first seven games against Pint Pot Flights before going on to win 7-2.
Second and third placed The Fox and The Boot in division two met on the latter’s board and the result was a close 5-4 in favour of Fox to see them replace Erdington Club, who had a bye this week, at the top of the table with six points, Erdington Club, Red Lion, Boot and Erdington Arrows are all on four points with Erdington Club having played one game fewer than the rest.
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Despite beating Double Trouble 39-9 in the Winmau Centre Monday Night League leaders What’s The Point with a 180 from Simon Ward and Bob Lockley plus a twelve darts game from Lockley have had their advantage reduced from 28 to 19 points as second in the table Smash It handed out a crushing 48-0 whitewash to their opponents Supermongs.
After the leading duo there is a gap of 32 points to third in the table The Outcasts who won their tie with Here For The Beer 27-21.
Notable individual achievements saw two maximums from Dave Lewis (Keep It In The Family) and Vic Lloyd (Oche Dokie) and one each for Brian Clarke (Matt’s Team), Kevin Bate and R.Bate (The Outcasts). Shellbie Simmons (Oche Dokie) recorded a 19 darts game.
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The Kings Norton League have been engaged in their Section Cup and in the Upper Section E57 had a narrow 11-10 win over Toby Jug ‘A’ whose R.Higgins had a 160 break. The Lower Section saw Grant Arms beat division two leaders Kings Norton Ex Serviceman’s Club 12-9, Coldstream winning the Bottom Section game against Toby Jug Flights by the rounds biggest margin of 15-6.
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The Small Heath League had the preliminary round of their League Cup on the fixture card in which league leaders East Birmingham Allotment Holders Association beat Mitre 5-4 and Gulp Tribe accounted for Wagon and Horses with a 7-2 result.
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In what should be the penultimate week of the Winmau Centre Thursday Night Champions League leader Louis Burley added 6-1 and 4-3 wins over respective opponents Tam Singh and Mick O’Neill to his tally to give him a total of 204 points from 29 games. Reigning champion Mick Baker has moved up into second place with a 4-3 win against Ken West followed by a 7-0 success over Phil Summers to give him 196 points, eight short of Burley but he has three games in hand which hold a possible 21 points. Third placed Kevin Harris is on 191 points but has played 37 games one more than Baker.
Although it is scheduled as the penultimate week there are still a few catch up rearranged games to be played and realistically there will probably be another couple of weeks still to play.
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The Brierley Hill Monday Night League played off the final of their League Cup which saw league runners up The Bridge beat Blue Brick, who finished fourth in the league 5-3.
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A South Birmingham League select side took on the Sports Argus Charity team at the Crown, Shard End, the 8-1 result going in favour of the charity team with Luis Barberan the only winner for South Birmingham as he beat Tom White 2-0, but at the end of the day it was all about raising cash for charity and that objective was achieved with an amount in excess of £250 raised from the game.
After the main event there was a doubles game which saw Dave Mortiboys and Alan Whitehouse win 1-0 against Andy Hutchings and Tom McGlone.
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A 6-3 win over Drakes Drum keeps Kingstanding Ex Serviceman’s Club top of the Aston League with a perfect eight points from their opening four games and sees Drakes Drum drop from second to fourth in the table with four points.
Second place is tied between Sportsman’s Rest and Erdington Club, Sportsman’s winning 6-3 at Mitre while Erdington had a 7-2 home win over St Thomas to put both teams on six points and level on average.
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There were mixed fortunes for the Pensnett Welfare Club teams in week 8 of the Brierley Hill Friday Night League as the ‘A’ team continue to lead the field and open up a two points lead after a 7-0 win over Lenches Bridge and the ‘B’ side drop one place to third as they went down 4-3 away to Netherton Cricket Club ‘A’ who are placed fourth. Brickmakers Arms take over in second place on average from Pensnett Welfare ‘B’ following their 6-1 win away to Samson and Lion who fifth in the table.
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The Netherton Thursday Night League played their 3 a-side knockout down to the last four teams at four different venues, Winning through at Dudley Ex Serviceman’s Club were M.Rowley, S.Gough, M.Bennett (Dudley Sports) and at Fairfield J.Batham, R.Powers, A.Nicholls (Dudley Sports). The winners from White Horse were L.Banner, J.Southall, A.McDonald, P.Wells (White Swan) and making up the semi finals will be P.Tonks, M.Kendall, R.Carr and D.Brown (Dudley Ex Serviceman’s Club) who won at Delph Bell.
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Warwickshire’s Ted Evetts has made it through the qualifying rounds to claim a place in the prestigious Grand Slam of Darts that is screened by Sky Sports in November. Ted took out Johnny Clayton, Jeffrey De Graaf, Gerwyn Price and Mike Zuydwijk to claim his place.
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With just one fixture remaining in the Stourbridge and District Monday Night League Bird ‘A’ (Stourbridge) look as though they have thrown the title away in the penultimate game of the season as they lost 5-4 away to fifth placed Britannia, and as a result drop into second place trailing on average to Ten Arches ‘B’ who won their home tie with Stourbridge RBL 5-4. The best Bird ‘A’ can hope for is that in the final game they win and Ten Arches ‘B’ lose as they would then finish top with a two points advantage, but third placed Ten Arches ‘A’ who won 8-1 at New Inns are on the same 68 points as the leading duo and still in the frame although they trail massively on average because should the top two lose they win they will become champions.
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Congratulations to White Horse who in the final fixture of the season in the Cradley Tuesday Night League won 5-4 at Hawne Lane Tavern to make it 29 wins in 30 games and win the title by four clear points over runners up Crown (Station Road) who ended their campaign with 7-2 home win over Chop House.
White Horse Team
Roost ‘B’ took the wooden spoon losing all 30 games while Roost ‘A’ won the shadow league with ten wins in the final fifteen games.
Joe Sharratt (Crown, Station Road) for the second successive season won the league averages losing just one of his thirty games.
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Cotterills Lane Club maintained their two points lead at the top of the Camp Hill League with a 5-2 win over Emerald Club, while Hay Mills Social in second place went one better with a 6-1 success at New Inns. Holy Gulp are on the same 14 points as Hay Mills they had a close 4-3 win against Tyseley WMC and are placed third.
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Despite 180’s from J.Singh and J.Friar Island Inn lost their home game with Old Hop Pole in the Hilltop Friendly Tuesday Night League 5-2 and now with only two games remaining have put pressure on themselves as their victors have drawn level on the same 46 points and trail by just one leg of average, either team could now finish the season as runners up behind Dewdrop whose 4-3 win at Merry-Go-Round puts them on 54 points eight more than Island Inn and Old Hop Pole.
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Division two of the Wolverhampton Tuesday Night League saw Dog and Partridge leap from third to top of the table with a 4-3 win at Ukrainian Club giving them 34 points. Dog and Partridge were aided by the defeats for both Pavilion, who lost pole position after losing 5-2 at home to Lanesfield RBL who are just two places off the foot of the table and Sunbeam, who were second and dropped to third as they also lost 5-2 at home to Riley’s ‘A’.
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Cleveland Arms, former leaders in the Tettenhall Wednesday Night League in week 33 were the only losers in the top half of the table. Playing away to third placed Riley’s ‘A’ Cleveland went down 4-3 and now trail leaders Whitmore Reans WMC by two points after Whitmore beat ECC ‘B’ 5-2.
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The Tamworth League have got their new season underway and after an opening “winners versus rest of the league” game which saw reigning champions Prince of Wales ‘A’ win 6-4 the first fixtures of the season got off with a bright start for Sports Bar who handed their hosts Wigginton Arms ‘A’ a 7-0 whitewash. Fox and Dogs and Sports Bar ‘180’ in turn had 6-1 wins over Prince of Wales and Globe Inn (Wilnecote).
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