2005-03-01

In the midway match of the season in the Kaliber BDO Inter Counties Championships the West Midlands played a home game at Gilberts Bar, Willenhall, against Clwyd. Despite opening the season with three promising draws the ladies ‘B’, in this their fifth fixture, were still seeking their first win.
Claire Hobbs gave them a promising start when she beat Eluneid Wright 3-2 in the first game of the weekend. The joy was short lived as Ruth Pritchard cancelled out the hosts lead with her straight 3-0 win over Ann Jones. Clwyd then went ahead when Sarah Roberts got the better of Teresa Johnston, beating her 3-1 and with a further victory by Glad Davis, 3-0 against Chris Banks, the visitors went 3-1 up.
Claire Downing stemmed the tide as she accounted for Hayley Street. Claire was in outstanding finishing form as she won the opener with a 127 game shoe, followed that with a 113 checkout and won the match with, by her own standard on the day, a modest 63 finish. Claire averaged 20.04, which earned her the lady of the match award. Her efforts though turned out to be somewhat in vain as the final game went to Clwyd’s Paula Collins. Sue Smith won the first leg, Hayley the second. Sue then took the lead once more in the third, only to see her counterpart draw level yet again. The deciding leg could easily have gone to the home player as she had three separate visits to the oche for throws at a finishing double before her opponent reached a double. Nevertheless, it was Collins who hit the required double twelve for a 3-2 win and an overall 4-2 success for her team mates.
The men’s ‘B’ were looking to make it three consecutive wins, but the signs were there from the off that it may not be. Martin McCauley after going 1-0 up against Steve Gierke lost the next two legs and although he clawed his way back to 2-2 lost out in the decider. Ian Hartland (West Midlands) was in fine form and produced a man of the match performance to prove it. In three straight legs he defeated Dafydd Edwards, checking out in 20-20 and 16 darts for a 26.84 average.
Phil Ford edged the visitors into the lead again when he accounted for Alan Cockayne with a 3-1 scoreline and his team mate Gerwyn Birch looked dead set to increase that lead when he moved to within an ace of victory against Darren Williams, but full marks to Darren he fought hard to draw back to square the match and then went on to win 3-2 with a super 106 game shot. So level pegging again, but as before it was short lived. Steve Cookson (Clwyd) after twice taking the lead over David Arnold was taken to a fifth and final leg, nevertheless he held his nerve and came up with a 3-2 win and with a further 3-1 success from Keith Billingsley at the expense of Dave Pugh, Clwyd went into the break with a 4-2 advantage.
Frank Johnson pulled one back for the home side despite being taken the full distance by Mark Mason, only to see Lee Chadwick (Clwyd) beat his namesake Lee Jones 3-1 to restore his teams two games cushion. A 3-1 win from Dave Roberts over Peter Wyse move Clwyd into a 6-3 lead, ensuring a draw and leaving them requiring just one more win for victory.
Stuart Kendrick made the away team wait for the win as he took out Paul Gillam 3-1, but waiting that one game was all they had to do as Craig Billingsley chalked up the vital seventh win when he came from trailing 2-0 to Eddie Price to win 3-2. Dave Robbins made the final scoreline as respectable as he could when his 301 win over Jamie Harmes put the result at 7-5 to Clwyd.
So the weekend had not got off to a very good start as after the first day the Midlanders were trailing 11-7 and with everything to do. Kath Jenkins got the ball rolling for the ladies ‘B’ team, she fell behind twice to Lol Abley but still came back to win 3-2. Janet Hubbard made it 2-0 by beating Melanie Armitage 3-1 and then with a similar margin Sara Jukes defeated Jan Beck and West Midlands were in the driving seat leading 3-0.
Tricia Bertram stemmed the tide by winning 302 against Debbie Hackett, but only momentarily as the West Midlands once more stepped up a gear, this time in the form of Kim Fellows, who had a straight legs win over Liz Jones to seal victory at 4-1. The icing was then put on the cake by lady of the match Angie Perry (20.62). Angie dropped the first leg to Sue Harmes and after winning the second fell behind again as Harmes won the third. The penultimate leg went to Angie and then she took the decider with a 40 game shot to give a magnificent 5-1 win, their best win since December 2003 when they won at home against Montgomeryshire / Radnor 6-0.
Now from what was an uphill task at the start of the day, trailing 11-7, the hosts were in a much better position all square at twelve each, both sides now looking for a win from their men’s ‘A’ sides to secure an overall victory for the weekend.
Clwyd took first blood in the men’s match, Paul Reilly getting the better of Lol Frazer after Frazer had twice taken the lead. Then it was the turn of West Midlands “Mr Reliable” Ian Jones. Jones began the home teams crusade with a 3-1 win against Perry Harley, which sparked team mates Gary Taylor and Dave Evans as they in turn had a 3-1 win over Les Street and a 3-2 win against Phil Ford to open up a 3-1 lead.
Andy Hopwood reduced the arrears for Clwyd, in just three legs he beat Adrian Arnold, with Arnold unable to reach a double in any of the legs. Then to round off the half it was back to winning ways as Richie Foster (West Midlands) finished on the right side of a 3-2 result against Dave Harrold to go into the break with a 4-2 advantage.
Frank Johnson hit 2×140 and a ton in his opening leg with Derek Williams (Clwyd), but failed on his outshot and Williams stepped in to claim the leg. From there on in Johnson struggled to hit the big scores and Williams took full advantage to romp to a 3-0 win. With a similar scoreline Midlands man Mick James beat Mark Webster to take the running score to 5-3, setting up Chris Hickman to register the sixth win and a guaranteed draw not only for the men’s ‘A’ but also the West Midlands squad. Chris, man of the match for the previous two outings, was on the ball again as he raced to a 3-1 win over Tony Clarke recording a 28.34 average to make it three consecutive match awards.
Viv Gould and Avatr Singh carried on the good work by beating in turn Steve Jones and Simon Roberts, both of them by 3-1. The final game of the fixture was between Daryl Thorpe and Glyn Carlis (Clwyd). Daryl won in convincing style beating his opponent 3-0 and only allowing him a throw at a finishing double in the second leg.
The result was a much needed and well deserved 21-15 to the West Midlands. Who knows, perhaps if they can carry this sort of form throughout the second half of the season perhaps they will still get promotion.