Black Country went into their final fixture of the season in the L-Style Division One knowing that despite being placed fifth in the divisional table, their 191 points were only nine short of their neighbours and second in the league West Midlands, so promotion was still a mathematical possibility and in their home tie with leaders Middlesex they required as big a win as they could attain, but playing against the divisional leaders was never going to be an easy task.
With a lady of the match performance in the opening game by Grace Angell, Black Country could not have asked for a better start, Angell winning 3-0 against Leah Nelson with a 16.70 average. As the first game went against the first throw advantage so did the following three games. Louise Grannell had a 3-1 win over Sarah-Jane Parker to level the game only to see the hosts go ahead in the third when McKenzie Raine Thomas won 3-2 against Christie Scott. Restoring parity for a second time was Hayleigh Shaw who beat Lacey Hughes 3-0 to take the score to 2-2. It was at this point the sequence changed and Middlesex went ahead for the first time when Leanne Palmer added her 3-0 win over Kirsty Shaughnessy before a final 3-2 win for Sindy Stiles over Paige Robbins to give Middlesex the 4-2 result.
The men’s ‘B’ began with five winners in the opening five games the quintet of wins all started by opener Mark Jones who beat Tom Dallender 4-2. Then with a similar 4-2 result Sam Bissell beat Andy Turnbull to put the home team two up, which was increased when Rob Smith made it win number three with his 4-1 result over Frankie Collopy. Taking the score along to 4-0 was Rich Bowen who accounted for James Smith with a 4-2 scoreline before Ian Townsend made it 5-0 with his 4-3 win over Scott Robertson. The last game of the first half saw Middlesex get the first stripe on the board when Pat Gleghorn beat Andy Garratt 4-3.
Middlesex began the second half as they finished the first half with a win, Brian Green adding his 4-1 victory over Al Smith to their account. Martin Greenwood’s 4-1 win over George Wilkinson assured the home team of a share of the points before Cam Crabtree added third win for the visitors when he beat Wayne Hobday 4-0. The win came in the ninth game when man of the match Adam Edgar won 4-2 against Chris Grannell with a 25.94 average. The last two games both went the full seven legs distance with Edgar Znutins (Middlesex) beating Mark Rollinson and Jake Shipley (Black Country) winning against Owen Carr to give a result of 8-4 to Black Country.
It took just the opening three games of the ladies ‘A’ match for Middlesex to storm to an unbeatable 3-0 position, Lisa Brosnan and Vickie Kiely in turn winning 3-0 against Amy-Leigh Tolley and Stella Sims followed by a 3-1 success for Wendy Reinstadtler over Tammy Chance. Chez Allcock stopped the Middlesex charge when she won 3-1 against Margaret Sutton and with a 3-2 win and 17.72 average for lady of the match Heather Wright over Hayleigh Shaw, Black Country were still in with a shout for a draw. Unfortunately it was not to be as Michele Copas (Middlesex) won the last game against Maxine Prosser 3-1 to give the away team a 4-2 victory.
The first half of the men’s ‘A’ match turned out to be, in itself a game of two halves as Black Country opened up a 3-0 lead thanks to Michael Powell, Kieron Bridgwater and Paul Wells who in turn won against Ian Bartlett (4-2), Cam Crabtree (4-3) and Brandon Pearson (4-0) before Middlesex won the last three games of the half as Allen Bond, Nigel Prior and Martin Lukeman defeated respective opponents Cayden Smith (4-1), Harry Williams (4-3) and Trev Brennan (4-2).
Middlesex went 5-3 up as the second session got going, Matty Finch beating Dan Homer 4-2 and Tim Green wining 4-1 against George Willetts. Tom Bissell put a halt to the Middlesex progress as he earned himself the match award for his 31.69 average and 4-1 win over Josh Hook and with a 4-3 win for Aaron Colley against Harvey Wilkinson, parity was restored in the tenth, but with a 4-0 win for Aaron Beeney over Jamie Barrowman and a 4-1 success for Joshua Burksfield over Jamie Rollinson, the 7-5 result went to Middlesex.
With an overall 19-17 defeat Black Country finished their campaign in the same fifth place as they were before their game against Middlesex and with a total of 208 points were twenty-two short of their title winning opponents and fourteen behind runners-up and neighbours West Midlands.
| Final | Table | |||||||
| L-Style Division One | ||||||||
| County | P | MA | WA | MB | WB | BP | TP | +/- |
| Middlesex | 10 | 67 | 44 | 69 | 28 | 22 | 230 | 176 |
| West Midlands | 10 | 67 | 30 | 72 | 31 | 24 | *222 | 102 |
| Clwyd | 10 | 68 | 40 | 51 | 37 | 24 | 220 | 96 |
| Merseyside | 10 | 66 | 32 | 70 | 29 | 18 | 215 | 92 |
| The Black Country | 10 | 61 | 32 | 71 | 26 | 18 | 208 | 44 |
| Leicestershire | 10 | 64 | 29 | 65 | 29 | 18 | 205 | 51 |
| Somerset | 10 | 49 | 38 | 48 | 37 | 10 | 182 | -75 |
| Berkshire | 10 | 59 | 19 | 63 | 24 | 12 | 177 | -70 |
| Devon | 10 | 47 | 18 | 63 | 33 | 9 | 170 | -108 |
| Cleveland | 10 | 57 | 22 | 46 | 30 | 6 | 161 | -138 |
| Buckinghamshire | 10 | 55 | 26 | 42 | 26 | 3 | 152 | -170 |
| An * in TP column indicates that penalty points have been deducted | ||||||||
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