2011-03-01

With only two wins in their previous four outings West Midlands were hoping that their home fixture against County Durham would be one to help lift them up the division one table in the Riley’s BDO Inter County Championships.
Saturday’s games were a mixed bag of results as the ladies, after chalking up their first win of the season in the previous game against Somerset, went down 5-1, their third such result in five games. The contest began with promise as long serving West Midlands player Diane Tolley (16.12) recorded a 3-2 win over Angela McDonald. Unfortunately the rest of Diane’s team mates, Jenna Couch, Doreen Kaye, Gemma Poole, Jacqueline Maiden and Jackie Simmons in turn lost out to Michelle Downs, Allison Wells, Bryanna Downs, Sharon Haywood and Kathleen Renwick.
The men’s ‘B’ were looking to make it three wins in a row and Matthew Dicken got them off to the right start when he, after twice coming from behind to Stephen Knight went on to win 3-2. The lead was short lived as Mark Kidman beat Paul Price 3-0 and Stephen Annan won 3-2 against Mark Watkiss after being pegged back to 2-2 when he had opened up a 2-0 advantage.
Viv Gould (West Midlands) with the first maximum of the match levelled the score line when he accounted for Eric Sandwick in three straight legs and then for the second time in the game the hosts went ahead when Mark Lloyd beat David Brown 3-1, Brown having won the opening leg. At the midpoint of the game the scores were squared at three each, Stephen Hayers beating Ian Stanton 3-1, once again the loser winning the first leg.
With six games down and six to play there was still everything to play for as Richard Platt raced into a 2-0 lead over his Durham opponent Paul Clark. However Clark was undeterred as he won the following three legs for his 3-2 victory. The eighth and ninth encounters were somewhat unusual in that the two West Midland players, Chris Stanley and Lance Hackett both won 3-0 and both finished with exactly the same average of 27.33 to share the man of the match award. Stanley beat John Dowd and Hackett accounted for Ian Adamson.
Greg Parkes guaranteed at the worst a share of the spoils for the Midlanders when he got the better of Graham Hutchinson with a 3-1 verdict, but David Gill (County Durham) made sure the result would go to the wire by beating Martin Angell 3-2 after trailing 2-0 to take the score along to 6-5 in West Midlands favour with just one remaining game.
It was the County Durham man Gareth Peat who drew first blood as he won the opener against Danny Coyle. Danny responded in the best possible way by winning the next three legs before his opponent got down to a finishing double and so Danny’s 3-1 win gave the ‘B’ side a 7-5 victory.
The ladies ‘A with a 4-2 and three 6-0 defeats were not having the best of seasons so far and still looking for their first points. Sarah Robbins, after winning the first two legs against Cheryl Wooff was unable to wrap up her win and saw Wooff go on to win 3-2. Tammy Chance squared the match, she won the opening two legs against Dawn Winn, but was taken to a decider when she lost the next two. The fifth leg was a long drawn out affair which either player could have won, but it was Tammy Chance who got the vital winning double to secure a 3-2 success. The next game had a similar pattern but the roles were reversed, it was the County Durham lady, Margaret Stewart who went 2-0 up against Heather Wright, Heather then won the next two and the decider went to Margaret Stewart.
Game four and this time it took a lady of the match performance from Kath Jenkins (17.27) to restore parity. Playing against Louise Simpson Kath found herself 2-1 behind after she had won the first leg, however, in another leg that could have gone either way she found the all important double sixteen to clinch a 3-2 win and move the score along to 2-2.
Jennifer Summerson (County Durham) forced a deciding game when she beat Kim Fellows 3-1, but a 3-3 draw was the end result when Lisa Astbury won 3-2 against Kirsty Hutchinson after Hutchinson had twice cancelled out her lead.
Anything above an 8-4 win for the men’s ‘A’ would be enough to secure an overall victory and they certainly began in the right vein to achieve that as Andy Forrester with 2×180,2×140,123,100 and a 120 checkout had a straight 3-0 win over John Cairns. Peter Wyse, also with a maximum trailed from a 122 game shot by Phillip Nixon in the first leg, went 2-1 up and won 3-2 and then in the third game Jamie Hughes twice came from behind to beat George Davison 3-2 and open a healthy 3-0 lead.
At number seven was the usually “Mr Reliable” Ian Jones, but on this occasion he came up against an in form Kevin Naunton who with ten scores of a ton or more won the tie 3-1. Durham’s man of the match Gerry Hall (29.44) reduced the deficit even further to 5-3 when he beat Avtar Singh 3-1. Neil Pointon extended West Midlands lead once more with a 3-1 success over John Donnelly, but that proved to be the hosts only win in the second half of the game as Keith Gowland beat Lol Frazer 3-0, David Prins had a similar 3-0 win over Chris Hickman and making it three in a row John Hardman won in straight legs against Chris Plumpton.
The final score was 6-6, with the overall result 19-17 in favour of County Durham.