The Lincolnshire voodoo continues for Warwickshire County Darts Organisation as in their latest fixture in the Cosmo Darts Premier Division of the UKDA National League for the fourth consecutive season, they lost. Home advantage proved to be no benefit whatsoever on this occasion as three of the four teams all finished on the wrong side of their respective results. Saturday’s games saw the ladies ‘B’ go down 4-2 after leading 2-0, Jodie Rigg and Donna Pinch the two winners with Rigg taking the match award for her 3-1 win over Heather Lodge and 17.28 average. The men’s ‘B’ suffered a huge 10-2 defeat with Ian McFarlane not only levelling the match in the second game when he came from 3-0 down to beat Dave Wilson 4-3 but he also took the team’s match award for his 25.43 average. Warwickshire’s only other winner came in game number eight when Mark Faulkner beat Danny Goddard 4-2.
Sunday had no better start than the previous day as the ladies ‘A’ like their ‘B’ side lost 4-2 with Natalie Gilbert and Hannah Meek winning the last two games. Lady of the match was Hannah Meek who won 3-2 against Paula Jacklin and chalked up an average of 21.33. The men’s ‘A’ provided the only shining light of the weekend when they won 8-4 thanks to wins from Mark Carte, Samuel Price, Sam Whittaker, Martin Tonks, Nigel Heydon, Gareth Braham, Jamie Hughes and Danny Lauby. Nigel Heydon was the team’s top player in a game that swayed one way and then the other against Lloyd Pennell. Heydon went one up in 18 darts with Pennell replying by opening a 2-1 lead in 17 and 18 darts. Heydon levelled in the fourth in 15 darts and then went ahead again in the fifth with a 13 darts game. The tie went to a decider when Pennell won the sixth in 15 darts but a 14 darts leg in the seventh went Nigel Heydon for a hard fought 4-3 win with a superb 32.30 average.
The overall score for the weekend was 22-14 to Lincolnshire but despite the defat Warwickshire actually moved up one place in the table to sixth with 52 points, twenty short of new leaders Yorkshire.
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