2014-11-01

The majority of teams had begun their new season in the BDO Inter County Championships on the weekend of the 6th and 7th of September, West Midlands had their fixture with Nottinghamshire postponed and had to wait until the 4th and 5th October to get their season underway. Nevertheless it was a wait well worth waiting for as they returned from their trip to Merseyside with a win.
The weekend however, didn’t get off to a convincing start as Saturday’s ladies game kicked off with a 3-1 win for the home side’s Karen O’Connor at the expense of Jacqueline Maiden. Kim Fellows, despite twice being pegged back to level terms by Clare New went on to win 3-2 and level the score at one each.
Merseyside forged ahead again in the third, this time through Tracy Morrison, who after opening a 2-0 lead against Samantha Maiden lost the next two legs, but came back to win the deciding leg for another 3-2 result.
The home team then went within an ace of victory when Sandra James, in three straight legs beat Wendy Waine, and with a further 3-1 win from Emma Barlow over Claire Hobbs, Merseyside had sealed their win as they were then 4-1 up.
The final game saw Mary McGovern (Merseyside) take on Christine Banks, Christine making the result a little more respectable for the West Midlands, a 4-2 defeat, as she won 3-1, her 15.05 average earning her the team’s lady of the match award.
The men’s ‘B’ also had a bit of a rough start to the campaign Alan Kilroe giving the home team a 3-2 start after his opponent Justin Evans had won the first two legs. One of the West Midlands more mature players, John Mycock levelled the score as he beat Ian McNeill 3-1 and the Midlander’s then actually went 2-1 up as Mark Craddock won 3-2 against Raymond Fleming. Craddock won the first two legs in 21 and 18 darts, only to see Fleming respond with winning legs of 16 and 20 to square the match and take it to a deciding leg. Despite having first throw advantage Craddock had a bad start as he hit two scores of 26. Fleming meanwhile with top shots of 2×140 was first to a finish, throwing for 54 he missed his checkout and allowed Craddock in to throw for 52. Just two darts were all that was required for Cradock to win the leg and the game 3-2, his 25.08 average the West Midlands best of the day which earned him the match award.
Martin Angell looked all set to extend West Midlands lead when he went 2-0 up against Robert Gorst, but it then all went wrong and Gorst went on to win 3-2.
For the second time in the match Merseyside went ahead again in the fifth when David Harnick recorded a straight 3-0 win over Lee Ashe, but the hosts lead was short lived as Adam Johnson cancelled out their advantage with a win over Kevin McGrath after McGrath had come from 1-0 to lead 2-1 and finally lose 3-2.
The second half of the match began with the teams level at 3-3, but not for long as Shawn Kemp, twice trailing to Jamie Barrowman, won 3-2, Dave Richards won 3-0 against Mark Allen-Watkiss and Alan Magee beat Rushpal Bhogal 3-1 to give Merseyside a 6-3 lead, requiring just one more win for victory.
Robert Thompson (West Midlands) delayed that victory when he won 3-2 against Marc Lynam despite Lynam leading 1-0 and 2-1. But the penultimate game brought about what was likely to be the inevitable when Lee Hodson won 3-2 against Gary Watts, Watts putting up a brave fight to come back from 2-0 down to 2-2, but unable to stop his opponent taking the decider and giving the home team a commanding and unassailable 7-4 lead.
The final game of the day saw George Bell increase Merseyside’s margin of victory to 8-4 when he won 3-0 against Karl Hughes.
Sunday began really well for the West Midlands as the ladies ‘A’ side romped to a much needed 6-0 victory. Starting the rout was lady of the match Lisa Astbury. Lisa beat her counterpart Janet Hardman 3-0 without her reaching a double in any of the three legs and won her award with a respectable 20.04 average.
Heather Wright doubled the lead with a 3-1 success over Ann Morrison before Gemma Barrett made it 3-0 when she beat Vicki Evans with a straight 3-0 result.
Game number four saw Kath Jenkins (West Midlands) lose the first leg to Julie Whelan, then go 2-1 up. Whelan won the fourth, but missed her finish in the fifth and Jenkins took the game 3-2 to chalk up the all important fourth match winning game.
Moving the score along to 5-0 was Kim Fellows, Kim having a 3-1 win over Esther Owens and then to round off an impressive 6-0 win was Sarah Roberts, who won her game against Pamela Courts 3-0.
Neil Pointon was first on for the West Midlands men’s ‘A’ taking on the challenge of Mike Addison. Neil proved to be too strong for Addison as he ran out a clear cut 4-0 winner. Ian Stanton struggled with his finishing doubles and his opponent Philip Bennett won 4-1 to level the match. The away side went ahead again in the third when John Platt beat Michael Brooks 4-1 and with a 4-2 result by Matthew Dicken over Jason Povah, West Midlands had opened up a 3-1 lead.
Merseyside’s Robbie Green won the first two legs against Danny Coyle and although Coyle then took the following three legs it was Green who won the last two for a 4-3 win. Rounding off the first half Michael Baker restored the Midlanders two games advantage when he beat Ste Hall 4-3. Baker won the first two legs, Hall the next three and Baker the last two to put the running tally at 4-2 at the break.
The second half began with the first four games being shared Kevin Lloyd (Merseyside) won the first against Paul Price 4-2, Mark Rollinson (West Midlands) the second when he won 4-0 against Jamie Green. David Hughes kept the hosts in the match with his 4-2 win over Christopher Mason, but in the very next game Gavin Baker assured the West Midlands of at the worst a draw when he took the score to 6-4 with a 4-1 win over Brian McDonnell.
Looking to take the match to the final game Merseyside’s Peter Harnick won the first leg against Glen Cullen and then went 3-1 up, However Cullen stuck to his task and with three winning legs in a row won the game 4-3 to give an advantage of 7-4 to his team.
Saving the best till last, anchor man for the West Midlands was Ian Jones. Strangely Jones struggled a little in the opening legs and his opponent Dan Nuttie actually opened up a 2-1 lead. Then Jones moved up a gear winning the fourth leg in 13 darts with scores of 140, 120, 100, 101 and checked out on double twenty. He then went 3-2 up with a 17 darts leg and rounded off his 4-2 win with a 19 darts leg to give him an average of 26.34 and earn him another man of the match trophy to go with the many he has won over the years for the West Midlands.
An away game against Merseyside, never an easy task but West Midlands rose to the occasion and returned with a 20-16 win, which hopefully will set them on the road to a much needed promotion back to division one.