2013-11-01

Played two, won two, a great start for the West Midlands in their quest for promotion from division two in the Riley’s BDO Inter County Championships.
Playing at home at the Gilberts Wine Bar, Willenhall, the ladies ‘B’ didn’t have the best of starts as Claire Hobbs went down 3-0 to Norfolk’s Thelma Gosling, finishing doubles once again proving to be the deciding factor on the outcome. Nevertheless, parity was soon restored as Shellbie Simmons handed out a similar 3-0 defeat to the visitors Marie Stopher before Samantha Maiden gave the hosts the lead for the first time when she handed out a similar 3-0 defeat to Susan Brittain.
Norfolk’s lady of the match Mandy Gray (14.69) levelled the game at 2-2 with her 3-1 win against Kim Fellows, after Fellows had won the opening leg, but from there on in it was West Midlands as Jacqueline Maiden won 3-0 against Claire Broom and to round off a second 4-2 victory, Heather Wright turned on a lady of the match performance to beat Mary Jolly 3-0 and take the award with an 18.33 average.
The men’s ‘B’ side after losing their game against Leicestershire were hoping to kick start their season and giving them a solid start was Mark Craddock, who beat Jimmy Warner 3-1, winning the third leg with a tremendous outshot of 157. Mark Watkiss-Allen looked all set to double the lead when he twice went ahead against Jack Holmes only to see Holmes go on and win the tie 3-2.
West Midlands went ahead again in the third game when Gary Watts beat Simon Rudling 3-1, but yet again Norfolk levelled, this time it was Peter Manning’s close 3-2 win against Jamie Barrowman that tied the scoreline at 2-2, Barrowman taking the lead in the first and third legs and missing his doubles in the fifth to win the game.
The sequence of winning against the first throw advantage continued in the fifth game between Avtar Singh and Neil Horn, the former beating his counterpart 3-1 to give the hosts a 3-2 lead. Robert Thompson opened up a two games cushion when he accounted for Peter Taylor with a 3-1 verdict and although Jason Cains reduced the arrears with his 3-2 win against Danny Coyle, an in form Sean Carrol beat David Dearing 3-1 to take the running tally to 5-3. Carrol won the first leg in 16 darts, lost the second in 15, but then won the next two in 16 and 23 for his 3-1 win plus an award winning average of 26.63.
Martin Sheldon kept the deficit to a minimum for Norfolk when he won a close affair with Jordan Singh 3-2, however, Karl Hughes guaranteed the home side at the worst a share of the points with his 30-1 win over Robert Ellis.
Julian Ray fell behind in the first and third legs to Martin Angell, but remained focussed to go on and win 3-2 to take the result to the final game between John Platt (West Midlands) and William Walpole. Walpole won the first leg in 21 darts after Platt had missed his finishing double, he doubled his lead in 18 darts, but then lost the next two as Platt chalked up winning legs of 18 and 20 darts. The final leg of the day went to Walpole to give him a 3-2 win and earn his team a 6-6 draw.
The ladies ‘A’ should have been filled with confidence after an opening 5-1 win against Leicestershire, unfortunately that confidence just wasn’t evident on the day. The game got underway with Dawn Standley (Norfolk) recording a 3-0 win over Diane Tolley, the same scoreline by which Sarah Roberts levelled the match in her game with Jan Butters. Sarah had previously earned the lady of the match award in the first fixture of the season and again her win, despite her average of 16.70 being far below her earlier game, was good enough to win the trophy again.
Although other averages were better than Sarah’s, she on the day was the sole winner, Lisa Astbury lost 3-1 to Nikki Goldsmith, Kath Jenkins went down 3-0 to Rosalyn Bulmer. Kerry Jonson’s 3-2 victory over Gemma Barrett was the match winner for Norfolk, but with Stephanie Mudd adding her 3-1 win against Jackie Crew the final result was a 5-1 win for the away side, a complete reversal of the result West Midlands ‘A’ team ladies recorded in their previous game.
The men’s ‘A’ side, were looking to add to their 7-5 win over Leicestershire in the season’s opening day and the fine form of Matthew Dennant, who twice came from behind against Wayne Wall to go on and win 4-2 gave them the best possible start. Doug Thompson found himself trailing 2-1 after winning the first leg against Vincent Mudd, but stuck to his task winning the final three legs in 15, 16 and 15 darts to double West Midlands lead and at the same time clinch the man of the match award with his 27.56 average.
The following two games saw Ian Stanton and Neil Pointon each record straight 4-0 wins against respective opponents Richard Waller and Hamish Varnon to open up a 4-0 lead.
Norfolk came to life in the fifth game when Paul Daniels produced a little magic to beat Christopher Mason 4-2 and chalk up their first win. However, the joy was short lived as Glen Cullen put the hosts back on track after trailing 3-1 to Charles Wilson he fought back to earn a 4-3 win. Peter Wyse appeared to be all set to increase the Midlander lead when he went 2-0 and 3-2 up against Mark Easter, but Easter won the last two legs for a 4-3 win.
Requiring just two more wins for their second successive victory Andrew Forrester halved that requirement when he beat Kevin Walpole in a straight four legs affair and taking the score along to 7-2 was Gavin Baker, who with a 4-1 result defeated Ian King.
With the result in the bag Michael baker eased to a 4-0 win over Adrian Siddle before Norfolk recorded their third winner of the day, Kevin Rudling, a 4-2 result against Paul Price.
Rounding off the proceedings was Ian Jones (West Midlands) and Jason Lovett. With the men’s ‘A’ result and the overall result already settled it was mainly pride the two players were playing for. Over the years Ian Jones has been more of a winner than loser for the West Midlands and on this occasion it was not going to any different to if he was playing a decider as he romped to a 4-1 victory to put the final score at 9-3 for the men’s ‘A’ and an overall 20-16 overall success.
This second win of the West Midlands has taken them into third place on 46 points, just six behind leaders Somerset and second placed Cleveland, who both have 52 points.