After suffering a 20-16 home defeat against Cornwall in their opening fixture of the season in the Premier Division of the UKDA National League, Warwickshire then had the daunting task of playing away against reigning champions Lancashire.
Saturday’s ‘B’ game saw the ladies finish all square at 3-3 with Caroline Pike their top player with an 18.82 average in her 3-2 win over Gina Jones. Other winners were Nina Bolt and Donna Pinch. The men’s ‘B’ side, after going 4-2 down then took charge of the game and roared to a 7-5 victory with Wayne Mynard picking up the man of the match award for his straight 4-0 victory over Jason Longmate in which he averaged 29.91. Chalking up the other six wins were Jnr Joyce, Dave Hill, Mark Martin, William Naylor, Mark Strong and Karl Reynolds.
Like their ‘B’ team the ladies ‘A’ also finished all-square at three each after trailing 3-2. Top average for the ladies ‘A’ went to Natalie Gilbert whose very creditable 23.43 average and 3-2 win over Audrey Underwood actually clinched the draw in the final encounter. Wendy Adams was first on for the Bears and came from 2-0 down against Jenny Nuttall to win 3-2 before Hannah Meek won the fourth game against Eleanor Cairns 3-1 after losing the first leg. The men’s ‘A’ after going 1-0 down then opened up a 4-1 lead with wins from Steve Hine, Matty Washbrooke, Jamie Atkins and Danny Lauby. Then from 4-1 up Warwickshire trailed 5-4 and keeping them in the game was Jack Wareing with his 4-2 win over Sam Cromwell. Restoring Warwickshire’s lead was man of the match Jamie Hughes who accounted for Kev Garcia with a straight 4-0 win and a super 30.83 average to seal a share of the points. A share of the points is what the men’s ‘A’ got as the final score was 6-6 but the overall result for the weekend was a tremendous 19-17 victory for the Bears.
Despite the superb win Warwickshire actually dropped one place in the table to seventh but they are only three points behind their second placed opponents who are on forty-one points, six short of new leaders Cornwall after their 21-15 home win over Hampshire.
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