2014-07-01

Despite winning two thirds of their fixtures in division two of the BDL Inter County Championships, West Midlands could only finish fourth in the table with a total of 188 points. Although fourth they were just eight points off a promotion place as second in the table Cleveland had 196 and third placed Derbyshire 192.
West Midlands final game of the scheduled nine was a home tie with Cleveland and with both teams still in with a chance of promotion it was never going to be an easy tie.
The ladies ‘B’ did extremely well recording their biggest win of the season. Jacqueline Maiden began the game with a 3-2 win over Molly Pywell and with a 3-1 win from Samantha Maiden over Vivien Bulmer and a further 3-2 success by Kim Fellows against Babs Evans, already after only three games the hosts were assured of at least a share of the points.
Game four saw Cleveland chalk up their first winner, Marlene Huby beating Roxanne Nicholls 3-0, which turns out to be their only winner as Gemma Barrett for the third consecutive fixture won the lady of the match award when she beat Vera Oliphant 3-0 and recorded an 18.56 average.
The result was taken to 5-1 in West Midlands favour when last on Claire Hobbs, after being pegged back to level terms in the second leg by Irene Simpson, kept her nerve and battled on for a 3-1 victory.
The men’s ‘B’ also got off to a good start as Robert Thompson beat Ian Watson 3-2, Thompson twice coming from behind to claim his win. Avatar Singh doubled the lead with his similar 3-2 win over Michael Seaton, Seaton having won the opening two legs.
The lead eroded quickly as Cleveland’s Chris Swales wiped out Mark Watkiss Allen’s 2-0 lead and go on to win 3-2 and Collin Poxton won in three straight legs against Jordan Singh.
The for the first time in the game the visitors took the lead. Jonathan Gardner twice had his lead cancelled by Adam Johnson before going on to win 3-2 and give the away side a 3-2 lead.
From 3-2 down West Midlands replied in the best possible way taking the next five games to clinch the win for the ‘B’ team. Gary Watts started the run when he accounted for Mark Muckian with a 3-1 result. Man of the match Nick Fullwell was on at number seven, a clinical 3-0 win over Anthony Luton in 19, 17 and 16 darts giving him a 28.90 average.
Martin Angell began his tie with David Hunter in style winning the first leg with a superb 136 checkout and following that with a further two wins another 3-0 win. Adding to the tally for the home side was Jamie Barrowman, his 31 win over David Scaum taking his team within an ace of victory. That victory was confirmed in the very next game when Karl Hughes beat Jim Dunlop 3-1 to give and advantage of 7-3.
The final two games both went to Cleveland, Michael Evans won 3-0 against Mark Craddock and taking the final score to 7-5 for West Midlands, Graham Parker (Cleveland) defeated John Mycock 3-1.
So Saturday was a good opening ay for the home and their supporters, but Sunday did not get off to a good start for the ladies. Kath Jenkins lost the first game to Kate Livermore 3-1 and although Diane Tolley came from 1-0 down to lead 2-1 against Zoe Holland she eventually lost 3-2.
Lisa Astbury halved the deficit when in the third game she won 3-1 against Patricia J Smith, Lisa’s 19.11 average earning her the match award.
Sarah Roberts, winner of the ‘A’ teams match award on seven of the previous eight occasions, actually recorded the ‘A’ teams best average 20.53, but unfortunately came up against an in form Claire Stainsby (20.88) and lost 3-0.
Jackie Crew kept West Midlands faint hopes of getting anything from the match when she beat Carla Boyes 3-0 in the penultimate game, but a 3-0 for Cleveland’s Shirley Witten against Heather Wright in the final game gave the away side a 4-2 win.
The first game of the men’s ‘A’ match was nip and tuck all the way, Allan Edwards (Cleveland) won the first, West Midlands Mark Rollinson the second. Edwards went ahead again in the third, but once again Rollinson wiped out his lead with a 118 outshot and actually went ahead in the fifth. Edwards drew back to level terms in the sixth leg but man of the match Rollinson (27.72) won the decider with double twenty for a 4-3 win.
The second game as another seven legs thriller and again it went in West Midlands favour when Sean Carroll (27.27) beat Scott Chatterton. Ian Jones made it 3-0 when he, with two three figure checkouts of 101 and 100 beat Simon Craven 4-2.
Richard Corner was Cleveland’s sole winner in the first half of the game he won 4-0 against Gavin Baker only to see his win emulated when Paul Price (West Midlands) beat Dennis Coleman. Michael Baker took the lead to 5-1 with a 4-2 win over Peter Prewer and with John Platt’s straight 4-0 success over Brian Henderson just one more win was to secure a victory.
Cleveland then recorded their best run of the game, four consecutive wins thanks to Glen Durrant, Tony Eccles, Glen Brooksbank and Lutz Leutzsch to put just one game behind with the running score at 6-5.
Matthew Dicken gave the West Midlands a huge lift as he chalked up a maximum with his very first visit to the oche and went on to win the leg in 18 darts. He followed that with a 14 darts leg to leave his opponent struggling at 2-0 down. Dicken then chalked up another two winning legs in 21 and 20 darts to give him a 4-0 win, a 27.45 average, a team 7-5 victory plus an overall win of 21.15.