2009-11-01

Following their relegation from division one of the BDO Inter Counties Championships West Midlands kicked off their new season with an away fixture against Suffolk, who together with Devon were promoted from division three.
It was a relatively good weekend for the Midlanders with three of the four teams chalking up wins. The men’s ‘A’ team did not get off to the best of starts as Philip Westwood and Wayne Hammond accounted in turn for Matt Dicken and mark Rollinson. However, the visitors then moved up a gear and rattled off five wins in a row. Andy Forrester began the run with his straight 3-0 success against Andy Meikle in 17, 20 and 17 darts. Richard Foster levelled the score, he went 1-0 down to David Ballard-Flatt, but in 18, 19 and 18 darts he won 3-1. West Midlands got their noses in front thanks to long serving Ian Jones who had a 3-0 win against Carl Wilkins (19, 23 and 17 darts) and with two 3-1 wins from new signing Danny Coyle and Peter Wyse over their respective opponents Lee Topper and Lee Newson the away side were 5-2 up.
Nick Bloom stopped the rot for Suffolk momentarily as he beat Chris Plumpton in a five legs affair. Plumpton fought back from two down to level terms but then lost the decider. Another new signing for the West Midlands, Peter Edmonds got the team back on track with his 3-1 win against Thomas Howling and Nicky Bache made short work of his task when he won 3-0 against James Carter in 17, 22 and 17 darts to take the score beyond Suffolk’s reach as he increased the winning margin to 7-3.
In the penultimate encounter veteran Lol Frazer produced the game of the match against Andriy Baith. With 2×100 and 140 Frazer won the opening leg in 15 darts, he then recorded a 16 darts legs with top scores of 4×100 and rounded off his 3-0 win in 21 hitting 140 and 100 to earn the match award with an average of 28.90.
In the final clash Suffolk’s Nicky Wright won the first leg against Avtar Singh only to see his counterpart bounce back to snatch the next three legs and win 3-1 giving the ‘A’ side a convincing 9-3 victory.
The previous day the men’s ‘B’ did not have the same desired affect. The hosts again won the first two games through Paul Williams and Daniel Willmot at the expense of Martin Tibbetts and Ian Stanton, and similar to the ‘A’ game they fought back to level terms with Martin Angell beating Phil Reeve and Richard Platt winning against Lee Hammond, both with 3-1 verdicts.
Andrew Gilding restored Suffolk’s advantage with his 3-1 win over Ian Hartland and the two games cushion was also restored as Steve Turner after trailing 2-1 to Jason Gilbert ran out the 3-2 winner. Paul Price reduced the arrears when he got the better of Andrew Barker with a 3-1 verdict taking the running score along to 4-3 to the home team. Unfortunately for the West Midlands then came another two games run for Suffolk, this time it was Dean Barker’s 3-2 win over Viv Gould, who won the first two legs, and Daren Wood’s 3-1 success against Lance Hackett that put them into a more comfortable 6-3 lead with a least a share of the spoils guaranteed.
Man of the match Peter Edmonds (27.33) kept the away team in with a shout when he beat Ian Randles 3-0 in 14, 23 and 18 darts, but although Jack Routledge pushed Dan Tantum all the way he could not win the decider and went down 3-2 giving Suffolk an unassailable 7-7-4 lead. The final game saw Dean Stewart (West Midlands) win in straight legs against Wayne Squirrell to give a final result of 7-5 in the home teams favour.
Both ladies teams finished on the right side of a 4-2 scoreling. In Saturdays ‘B’ game Heather Wright got the ball rolling and set the pattern for the first four games when she beat Jean Prowett in three straight legs \and her 16.77 average won her the lady of the match in the process. Jemma Poole, Tammy Chance and Liz
Arnold all followed in similar fashion as they in turn won 3-0 against Tiff Scriven, Barbara Chenery and Leesa Woolard to give West Midlands an unbeatable 4-0 advantage, game won in the first four encounters.
In the fourth game Fiona Payne (Suffolk) went 1-0 down to Sarah Robbins but plugged away to take a 2-1 lead. Robbins levelled in the fourth but Payne won the fifth to give her team their first win of the match. Lisa Terrington followed her Suffolk team mates lead and despite going 2-1 down to Jacqui Simmons after winning the first leg she won the last two and finished the 3-2 winner.
The ladies ‘A’ side did not begin so convincingly as the ‘B’ Kim Fellows losing the first game to Rossy Scriven 3-1. Claire Hobbs was quick to erase Scriven’s win as she defeated Jan Turner 3-0. However, Nicky Doidge beat Kath Jenkins by the same margin to give Suffolk a 2-1 advantage, but as it turned out that was to be the last time the hosts had the lead. Long time West Midlands servant Diane Tolley won 3-1 against Sue Thompson, Jayne Stubbs then beat Laura Cooper 3-2 to leave the result hinging on the final game between Sue Talbot (Suffolk) and Leanne Jennings. The responsibility could not have been in better hands for the West Midlands as Leanne Jennings, winner of six of the nine ‘A’ team match awards last season began this season with another rounding off her 3-0 win with a fine 18 darts leg and a 21.80 average.
The overall result for the weekend was a 22-14 victory for the West Midlands and with results like this a quick return to division one is well and truly on the cards.