In the L-Style Division One West Midlands travelled to take on Buckinghamshire who were bottom of the division with thirty-four points from their opening two games while West Midlands were just two places above them on thirty-eight points from a similar two games, both teams having everything to play for.
After going 1-0 down wins from Hannah Davies, Kelly Doleman and lady of the match Tara Simmons-Fullwood, who won 3-1 against Lesley Gibbs with a 16.85 average, saw West Midlands take an unassailable 3-1 lead which at the end of the match saw them share the 3-3 result. At the midway point of the men’s ‘B’ match the away side were trailing 4-2 with Anthony Whitehouse and Callum Parkes their only winners. However, it was a much better second half as West Midlands, through Kieran O’Mahoney, Will Beaden, Dean Simmons-Fullwood and Darren Williams won the first four games to put them into an unbeatable 6-4 lead, Darren Williams their top player beating Emlyn Jones 4-3 with a 28.91 average. A win for Ash Khayat in the final game took the result to 7-5 to West Midlands giving them a 10-8 lead to take into Sunday’s games.
Despite losing the opening two games, West Midlands ladies ‘A’, then won the remaining four to win 4-1 thanks to wins from Gemma Barrett, Evonne Taylor, Jacqueline Maiden and Jacqueline Trott, Evonne Taylor their award winner as she beat Ann Wakefield 3-2 with a 19.06 average. With an overall 14-10 lead the men’s ‘A’ could lose 7-5 and still have an overall 19-17 success for the weekend, four of those wins coming in the first half as Gavin Baker, Scott Baker, Shaun Carroll and Shane Price all won. Wins in the first and last games of the second half from Richard Platt and Martin Price saw the result end at 6-6. The match award went to Gavin Baker who beat Liam Maughan 4-2 and averaged 30.49.
The score for the weekend was a 20-16 win for West Midlands which saw them move up two places in the table to seventh with fifty-nine points and although they are forty-one points behind leaders Middlesex they do have a game in hand
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