West Midlands, newly promoted to the Andy Wheeler Fisheries Championship Division, had an opening day home fixture against Kent, which saw both ladies teams finish all-square at 3-3. The ‘B’ side game began with a win for Kent as Cara Broad won 3-2 against Shellbie Guest. The visitors lead was short-lived as Sarah Maybury won 3-1 against Tina Kennard and with a similar 3-1 win for lady of the match Kelly Aston (15.55) over Rebecca Garrett the home side were 2-1 up. Parity was restored in the fourth when Jeanette Tilley beat Jade Wellings 3-2 but a draw was guaranteed in the fifth when Katherine Jenkins won 3-0 against Lisa Stefano. A 3-1 win for Natalie Berry (Kent) over Hannah Davies took the final score to 3-3.
The ladies ‘A’ got off to a good start as Jacqueline Trott won 3-2 against Julie Row and Kat McLean beat Stacey Dawkins 3-0 to put the hosts two up. However from 2-0 up the home side then found themselves trailing 3-2 as Kent’s Kelly Westlake, Millie Packer-Wood and Emma Martin in turn defeated Jacqueline Maiden (3-0), Evonne Taylor (3-0) and Claire Hobbs (3-2). Securing a share of the spoils for West Midlands was their lady of the match Gemma Barrett who in her 3-2 win over Jackie Holman averaged 21.89.
All of the first half games for the men’s ‘B’ match went with the first throw advantage with Kent taking the lead three times only to see the home team cancel it out on each occasion. Winners for Kent were David Heath, Lewis Venes and Ben Webster who had wins over Ian Stanton (4-1), Adam Teasdale (4-2) and Kian Rogers (4-2). Replying for the West Midlands were Kieran O’Mahoney who beat Richard Elms 4-1, man of the match Martin Price who defeated Dave Saint 4-2 with a 28.78 average and Will Beaden who won 4-3 against Hayden Robbie.
For the first time in the match the home team went ahead as the second session got underway, Jordan Craig beating Martin Goodin 4-2. The game was taken to 4-4 when Scott Lackford (Kent) won the eighth encounter with Cameron Baird 4-1, however with Luke Griffiths winning 4-3 against Craig Connor, Jay Woodhouse beating John Dyke 4-0 and Rob Thompson who won 4-0 against Michael Finch West Midlands were now in a winning 7-4 position. The last game saw Kent’s Peter Davies win 4-0 against Karl Hughes to put the final score at 7-5.
Ryan O’Connor opened for the men’s A’ and his 4-2 win over Steve Stacey gave West Midlands the early lead. However it didn’t last long as Paul Dawkins won 4-1 against Shaun Carroll to level the game. For a second time the hosts went ahead, this time it was Paul Price with his 4-1 win over Scott Artiss who gave them the 2-1 advantage and with 4-2 wins from Jack Aldridge and Scott Baker over respective opponents Nigel Payne and Daniel Todd, the home team were 4-1 up. At the halfway stage the score was 4-2 as Ross Lowe (Kent) won the sixth encounter against Alex Simmons 4-0.
West Midlands quickly moved into an unassailable 6-2 lead as Mark Craddock and Jon Platt in turn won 4-1 and 4-2 against Keith Montgomery and Lewis Venes before Kent had their best run of the match with three consecutive wins. Kieran O’Brien began the trio of wins when he won 4-1 against Glen McGrandle, James Davison helping to keep hopes alive for a draw with his 4-2 win over Callum Parkes and it was still looking good for the draw when Peter Allen beat Gavin Baker 4-3 to take the score to 6-5 to West Midlands. However,West Midlands kept their best till last as anchor man Richard Platt turned on a man of the match performance to beat Peter Gallacher 4-3 with an award winning average of 27.98 to give the men’s ‘A’ a 7-5 win.
The overall 20-16 win for the West Midlands saw them in fourth position in the divisional table but level on twenty-three points with all four teams above them, Cheshire, Humberside and London.
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