Fourth in the L-Style Division One table, West Midlands made the journey to the south-east to take on Berkshire who were three places below them in the table but with only five points fewer.
The ladies ‘B’ gave the Midlanders the best start possible as they stormed to a 6-0 win. Opening up a 2-0 lead were Hannah Davies and Julie Emery who beat respective counterparts Marie O’Brien and Chris Ruffell 3-0. Assuring the away team of at the worst a share of the points was Shellbie Simmons with her 3-2 win over Carole Holroyd before the win was secured in the fourth by lady of the match Sarah Maybury who had a 3-1 win over Vanessa O’Connell and averaged 17.92. Moving the score along nicely to 5-0 was Kelly Doleman with her straight 3-0 win over Sarah Walker and with a final 3-2 success for Kat McLean against Tracey Kingston the result was 6-0.
All of the first half results for the men’s ‘B’ game went with the first throw advantage with West Midlands taking the lead three times and having it cancelled out on each occasion. Opening up those leads for the visitors were Ryan Locker, Adam Teasdale and Callum Parkes who won in turn against Ryan Newton (4-1), Steven Hobbs (4-3) and James Clifton (4-3). Replying for Berkshire were Lewis Doe, Ian Hobbs and Kevin Morley who accounted for their respective opponents John Simms (4-1), Will Beaden (4-3) and Cameron Baird (4-2).
The second half began where the first had left off with the opening two encounters again going with the first throw advantage. Luke Griffiths putting West Midlands 4-3 up with his 4-3 win over Steve Baggaley only to see Paul Holloway beat namesake Paul Price 4-2 to level the game at four each. For the first time in the game Berkshire went ahead in the ninth when Doug Harwood won 4-2 against Chris Slater and with a 4-1 success for Jack Mayoh over Kieran O’Mahoney the hosts were within an ace of victory. It took a man of the match performance from Alex Simmons to keep hopes of a draw alive for the West Midlands as he won 4-1 against James Johnson with a 25.72 average and with a similar 4-1 result for Ian Stanton against Thomas Grigg, the final score was 6-6.
Getting the ladies ‘A’ off to a bright start were Gemma Barrett and Jacqueline Trott, both winning 3-1 in turn against Debbie Shadwell and Tania Burdett. Kelly Ellis (Berkshire) halved the deficit when she won 3-0 against Claire Hobbs but that was to be the last of the cheers from the home crowd as Jacqueline Maiden defeated Hayley Watts 3-2 and Evonne Taylor, lady of the match for the Black Country, made it 4-1 when she accounted for Ally Judge with a 3-0 result and 22.77 average. Kat McLean won the final game against Karen Jackson 3-0 to give West Midlands a super 5-1 result.
With a 16-8 lead going into the men’s ‘A’ game, West Midlands lost the opener as Stephen Wood beat Ryan O’Connor 4-1. However, they moved into an overall unbeatable position when award winner Jack Aldridge won 4-1 against James Wiggins with a 27.09 average and Neil Pointon beat Peter Bisset 4-2. The win for the weekend was achieved in the fourth when Gavin Baker got the better of Paul Self with a close 4-3 result but then from leading 3-1 the score at the midway point was all-square at 3-3 after Archie Self won 4-0 against Shaun Carroll and Anthony Dean beat Rob Thompson 4-3.
From 3-3 the second half was pretty much all West Midlands as Scott Baker won 4-1 against Jake Hobbs, Richard Platt and Mark Craddock had 4-1 wins in turn over Joe Lacey and Terry Stubbs, before both Darren Williams and Alex Simmons handed out 4-0 defeats to Richard Stride and Karl Williams. The last game of the day and weekend went to Berkshire as former West Midlands man Paul Hogan beat Glen McGrandle 4-1 to put the result at 8-4 to the West Midlands.
The overall 24-12 result saw West Midlands hold on to fourth place in the table with 175 points, just one point behind third placed Merseyside and only two short of local neighbours, second placed Black Country.
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