Following a 20-16 defeat at Suffolk, in the Premier Division of the UKDA National League, Warwickshire were hoping to bounce back with a home win over Glamorgan, in what was to be their sixth fixture and their visitors seventh.
Going into the fixture, Warwickshire were placed seventh with ninety-four points and their opponents fifth with 116 points.
The ladies ‘A’ got off to a good start with Lucy Shepherd winning 3-0 against Sophie Price, lady of the match Natalie Gilbert doubled the lead with her, once again straight 3-0 result, over Jo Pugh and 23.86 average. Tia Sterio pulled one back for Glamorgan with her 3-0 win against Nina Bolt, only to see the home side ensure themselves of a share of the spoils when Kacie O’Connor beat Abbie Brewster 3-2 to put them 3-1 up. The result was taken to the final game after Donna Buckley added the visitors second win when she beat Jodie Rigg 3-0. The 4-2 win was secured when Kirsty Hinchliffe won the final game against Michelle Jones 3-0.
After going 1-0 down when Anthony Waters won 4-1 against Jason Meek, the men’s ‘B’ then opened up a 4-1 lead as Zac Prince beat Gavin Sterio 4-2, William Naylor won 4-2 against Liam Wigley and in the process earned himself the match award for his 27.03 average, Jason Prince moved the score along to 3-1 with his 4-2 win over Bleddyn Lyons and Taylor McGuckian made it 4-1 when he won 4-1 against Shaun Dibbs. The final game of the half went to Glamorgan as John Cook won 4-3 against Mark Carter.
The second half was mainly Glamorgan’s as they won five of the six games. Stewart Smith and Steven Inkpen in turn won 4-3 against Mark Strong and Dave Hill before Ian Shaw recorded Warwickshire’s fifth win when he accounted for Josh Lloyd with a 4-3 result. The away side took the last three games as Richard Jones beat Keith Deeley 4-1, David Neads won 4-2 against Karl Reynolds and Fabian Tapner won 4-0 against Lee Mills to give Glamorgan the 7-5 win.
It was a weekend to quickly forget for the ladies ‘A’ as they slumped to a 5-1 defeat with Caroline Pike their only winner as she won 3-1 against Donna Thomas with an award winning average of 20.71. Winners for Glamorgan were Eve Watson, Rhian O’Sullivan, Claire Crocombe, Sandra Quinn and Lorraine Hyde who in turn defeated Donna Pinch (3-0), Courtney Hine (3-1), Wendy Adams (3-1), Hannah Meek (3-0) and Marian Conway (3-2) to give the away team a 5-1 victory.
All of the first half games in the men’s ‘A’ match went with the first throw advantage with Glamorgan taking the lead three times only to see it cancelled out on each occasion. Winners for Glamorgan were, Craig Lewis, Liam Meek and Finley Pember who beat respective opponents Nigel Heydon (4-3), Kevin Dowling (4-2) and Steve Hine (4-1). Warwickshire’s winners were Jamie Hughes, who beat Dan Beynon 4-2, Ryan Jackson who had a 4-2 win over Sean Fisher and Sam Price whose 4-1 win against Hywel Manuel earned him the man of the match award for his 31.51 average.
Going into the final six games, Glamorgan were holding an overall 17-13 lead but that was wiped out in the opening four games as Wayne Mynard won 4-3 against Colin Powell, Gareth Braham beat Graham Harrison 4-1, Danny Lauby won 4-2 against Dean Reynolds and Jack Wareing added a 4-3 win over Tim Jones. With Warwickshire already certain of a men’s ‘A’ win with the score at 7-3, Glamorgan won the penultimate encounter against Mark Challenger 4-1, but a similar 4-1 win for Matty Washbrooke over Richie Edwards gave the hosts men’s ‘A’ an 8-4 win and put the final score for the weekend all square at 18-18.
With only a share of the points Warwickshire actually dropped one place in the table to eighth with 113 points but they do have a game in hand on half of the teams above them.
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