West Midlands last home fixture of the season in the Premier Division of the BDO Inter County Championship was never going to be an easy task as they had to take on second in the table Lancashire, but to have any chance of maintaining the Premier status a win was crucially what they required.
In their previous seven games the ladies ‘B’ had not done too badly at all with three wins, three draws and just the one defeat to Hampshire, however against Lancashire they didn’t produce the form they had shown in those earlier games. Anne-Marie Millership was the visitors first winner, a 3-2 success against Kath Jenkins after Jenkins had twice taken the lead. Audrey Underwood and Debbie Baxter took the away side’s lead to 3-0 with 3-0 wins in turn over Shellbie Simmons and Heather Wright before Sue Corry came from one down against Stella Sims to win 3-1 and put the score beyond West Midlands reach as Lancashire were then 4-0 up.
The penultimate game produced not only the hosts lady of the match but also their sole winner as Sophie Singh, after leading 1-0 trailed 2-1 and then won 3-2 against Sharon Seed with a 19.48 average.
The final game saw Marie Fitton take Lancashire’s win to 5-1 with her 3-1 win over Shannon Hall after Shannon had gone 1-0 up with a superb 114 game shot.
With checkouts of 103 and 122 Allan Fitzpatrick gave the visiting men’s ‘B’ side the early lead when he won 4-3 against Matthew Dicken. The lead only lasted until the next game as Gareth Johnston cancelled it out with his similar 4-3 win over Michael Sexton.
From one each Lancashire then strung together a run of three wins Martin Barratt the first of the three with his 4-0 success over Gareth Watts, and then with 4-3 wins Barry Kerfoot and James Caton in turn defeated Jonathan Platt and Paul Wells. Going into the first half break Alfie Jacques temporarily reduced the arrears with his 4-1 win against Dave Adshead only to see Michael Harrison kick off the second half with a 4-3 win over Neil Pointon after Pointon had twice taken the lead.
Moving the score along to 5-3 was Mick Baker, Mick reducing the deficit with his 4-1 success over Sam Cromwell, before Steve Maish assured the visitors of at the worst a share of the points when he beat Avtar Singh 4-1.
Trevor Brennon kept West Midlands hopes alive of a draw as he fought back from 1-0 down to Terry Hey to go on and win 4-2. Then with a man of the match showing from Stephen Jones (West Midlands) who won 4-1 against Gary Davey in 20,15,16 and 21 darts, including a 130 finish in the third the home team were just one more win away from securing a draw. Stephen Jones won the team’s award for his 27.32 average.
The final game of the day was contested by Shane Price (West Midlands) and Christopher O’Connor. Price won the opening leg in 17 darts only to see O’Connor go 2-1 up with two 20 darts legs. Price levelled in 20 and then went 3-2 up with a fantastic eleven darts leg hitting 180,100,180 and finishing on 41, however he was then unable to capitalise on his lead and O’Connor won the last two legs in 21 and 13 darts to win 4-3 and give his team mates a 7-5 victory.
Unlike the ‘B’ side the ladies ‘A’ have not had a single win this season having recorded two draws and five defeats. Their game began with Lancashire taking the early 2-0 lead with wins from Sue Cuson’s over Kat McLean (3-0) and Ally Smith’s 3-2 win against Sarah Roberts, Sarah having gone ahead twice before losing.
After winning the first leg against Tracey Cunningham, Jacqueline Maiden then trailed 2-1 but stayed calm and went on to win 3-2 to halve Lancashire’s lead. Amy Eden moved the away side into an unassailable position when she won 3-1 against Gemma Barrett but an award winning performance from Cheryl Alcock kept chances of a draw alive, Cheryl beating Maria Ronson 3-1 with a fine 22.21 average.
With the outcome now resting on the final game West Midlands Lisa Badger opened leads of 1-0 and 2-1 against Jo Clements but was unable to seal the win as Clements took the last two legs in 22 and 17 darts for her personal 3-2 win and her team’s 4-2 victory.
John Morris (West Midlands) took Mick Oversby to a deciding leg in the first of the men’s ‘A’ game but then lost the decider. Carl Sneyd and Andrew Johnson in turn won 3-2 against Matthew Coleman and Adam Edgar to open up a 3-0 lead for the away side.
Stalwart Ian Jones returned to the sort of form he has become renowned for, he reduced the visitors lead when he beat Kev Garcia 4-1 in 17,18,16 and 18 darts giving him a man of the match average of 29.63.
The win from Jones proved to be a minor interruption to the Lancashire charge as they went into the end of the first half leading 5-1 with further wins from Dave Evans over Scott Baker (4-3) and Dave Airey against Stephen Jones (4-0).
Nick Fullwell looked to be on the way to chalking up the home team’s second win when he went 2-0 up against Wez Newton. He lost the next three legs but levelled in the sixth only to see Newton check out in 18 darts in the decider.
The very next game number eight did see West Midlands get their second winner as Shaun Carroll accounted for Ian Lever in a straight legs 4-0 victory.
Game number nine put the score beyond West Midlands reach as Martin Atkins beat Gavin Baker 4-3 to give his team a 7-2 lead. With a similar 4-3 scoreline Robert Rickwood beat Mark Craddock and taking the score to 9-2 was Simon Preston with his 4-0 win over Glen McGrandle.
The final score was 9-3 to Lancashire, Owen Maiden winning the last game of the weekend against Lee Shewan 4-0.
The overall result saw West Midlands suffer their biggest defeat of the campaign 25-11 with all four teams losing. The last time all four teams lost was in January 2017 when they went down 27-9 away to Dorset when they were in Division One.
The defeat leaves West Midlands in the relegation zone, next to bottom of the table on 120 points, seven ahead of bottom team Cheshire and a similar seven points behind the team above them Northamptonshire. Neighbours Warwickshire could hand West Midlands a lifeline if they could chalk up a big win in their last game which is a home tie with Northamptonshire, but to avoid relegation it means West Midlands would require a huge result from their final game which is a tough away fixture against fourth in the table Glamorgan.
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