Warwickshire began the 1999-2000 season of the BDO Inter Counties Championship with a bang in their curtain raiser against Co Durham. Saturdays fixtures were played at the Bishopsgate Club, Coventry, the ladies stormed into a 3-0 lead with wins from Caroline Pike, lady of the match Terri Bellamy ((20.59) and Debbie McPherson. However, the away team bounced back to snatch a 3-3 draw. Just the opposite happened in the men’s ‘B’ game as they after trailing 3-0 and 4-2, Carl Betteridge and Colin Laffar the only first half winners, came back in style taking five of the second half games to win 7-5. Other winners were Steve Cain, Dave Clarke, Richie Shenton, Trevor Frost and David Harris. Laffar and Cain shared the match award with a 27.33 average.
Sunday’s encounters were staged at the Belgrave Sports and Social Club, Tamworth. A match award performance from Trina Gulliver (24.10) got the ball rolling for the ladies, setting them up for a tremendous 6-0 victory, Caroline Pike, Terri Bellamy, Julie Liddell, Tammy Montgomery and Cheryl Jackson providing the other wins.
The men’s ‘A’, after losing the opening game never looked back. Peter Brotherton, Kevin Dowling, Lance Thompson and Mark Hollyoake putting them 4-2 up at the break, then to complete a 9-3 success Steve Hine, Peter Rouse, Colin Fowler (30.67 man of the match), Steve Dwyer and Alan Sharratt all chalked up wins to give an overall 28-11 victory.