West Midlands went into their sixth fixture of the season in the Andy Wheeler Fisheries Championship Division lying second in the table and their visitors, Middlesex, third with the difference between the two teams, just one single point..
The first game of the ladies ‘B’ match went to Middlesex as Tina Neylon beat Jade Wellings 3-0. Lady of the match Shellbie Simmons levelled the game when she won 3-0 against Louise Grannell with a 22.77 average. The hosts took the lead in the third when Katherine Jenkins won 3-2 against Leanne Palmer, only to see parity restored in the fourth when Sindy Stiles beat Tara Fullwood 3-1. The last two games both finished with 3-2 results, both of them going to West Midlands, as Kelly Aston won against Marlene Pope and Hannah Davies won against Lisa McClatchey to give a 4-2 result in favour of the home side.
The men’s ‘B’ opened up a 4-0 lead in double-quick time all begun by Rob Thompson who won 4-3 against Adam Finch. A 4-0 win for Kieran O’Mahoney over Frankie Collopy doubled the lead and with a 4-3 win for Mark Craddock against Tim Green the score was 3-0. Man of the match Dan Nicholls made it 4-0 when he won 4-0 against Brian Green and averaged 29.47 before Middlesex got their first stripe on the board when Matthew Hall beat Luke Griffiths 4-1. By the midway point, West Midlands were leading 5-1 as Cameron Baird closed the half with a 4-1 win over Tom Dallender.
It was a repeat performance in the second half as the home side won the first four games, Middlesex won the fifth and West Midlands the sixth to give the hosts a resounding 10-2 victory. The first four winners were, Martin Price, Connor Lucas, Callum Parkes and Sean Craig who defeated in turn Chris Everley (4-2), Andy Turnbull (4-3), Jason Neville (4-2) and Luke Ely (4-1). Steve Dettmer was the sole Middlesex winner of the half, beating Justin Evans 4-1, the final game going to Dean Fullwood who won 4-2 against Chris Grannell.
It was not a good day for the ladies ‘A’ who finished on the wrong side of the 5- 1 result. Hayleigh Shaw won the opener for Middlesex against Eloise, 3-0, Vickie Kiely doubling the lead with her 3-1 success over Kat McLean. Third on Evonne Taylor, was the only winner for West Midlands, her 3-0 win over Margaret Sutton earning her the match award for her 19.27 average. The last three games all finished with a 3-1 result, going to Middlesex players Lisa Brosnan, Michele Copas and Wendy Reinstadtler who in turn accounted for Gemma Barrett, Jacqueline Maiden and Jacqueline Trott.
The men’s ‘A’ went 2-1 up with 4-3 wins from Adam Teasdalle and Shaun Carroll over Pat Gleghorn and Owen Carr, Joshua Burksfield (Middlesex) winning the second encounter against Darren Williams 4-0. The home team then went 3-1 up when their man of the match Daniel Hands beat Brandonn Pearson 4-1 with a superb 32.87 average and with a further 4-3 win for Jay Woodhouse over Josh Hook, the hosts were 4-1 up. It was 4-2 at the halfway stage as Edgar Znutins beat Will Bearen 4-2 in the last game of the half.
As the second half got underway, Dan Nicholls made it 5-2 with his 4-2 win over Dave Buckley and although Middles reduced the arrears when Allen Bond beat Jon Platt 4-0, the next two games saw Jack Aldridge win 4-2 against Jamie McKinnon and Richard Platt win 4-1 against Matty Finch to put West Midlands into a 7-3 unassailable lead. The last two games both went to Middlesex, Harvey Wilkinson winning 4-3 against Ryan O’Connor and James Smith beating Gavin Baker 4-2 to give a final score of 7-5 to West Midlands men’s ‘A’.
The overall result for the weekend was 22-14 to West Midlands, which took them to the top of the table with 147 points and a lead of sixteen points over second placed Hampshire.
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