The final games of 2022 brought together the top two teams in the Cosmo Darts Premier Division. Prior to the fixture, Lancashire were in pole position with just three more points than their nearest rivals Hampshire.
With home advantage Hampshire got the weekend off to a good start when their ladies ‘B’ won 5-1 but at the end of the day, they had their lead reduced to 10-8 as the men’s ‘B’ finished on the wrong side of a 7-5 result.
The Hampshire ladies pulled out the stops once again on Sunday as the ‘A’ side won 4-2 and with a 6-6 draw from the men’s ‘A’ the home side had a 20-16 victory to take them top of the division with 101 points, four more than Lancashire who dropped to second place.
Yorkshire had a 24-12 home win over London while Essex won their home game with Cheshire 22-14 and Warwickshire, who also had a home tie beat Cornwall 23-13, the three winning teams all in turn hold on to their third, fourth and fifth places. At the other end of the division the bottom three remain the same with Cheshire bottom, then Kent and two off the bottom Glamorgan, after Cheshire lost at Essex, Kent lost 21-15 at Staffordshire and Glamorgan went down 22-14 at Lincolnshire.
Dorset top the Andy Wheeler Fisheries Championship Division even though they were held to an 18-18 draw at home by Oxfordshire. Berkshire lost their number two position after losing 21-15 at Sussex.
Taking over in the second place is Cleveland, following their 23-13 home win over Gwynedd, they are just two behind Dorset with Hertfordshire third a further one point adrift after they won 25-11 at home against Humberside.
Cambridgeshire, with a game in hand, remains at the foot of the table, their 22-14 home win over Devon taking their points tally to 53, twelve behind Gwynedd who have dropped one place to next to bottom. Northamptonshire moves up from the next-to-bottom position with a 20-16 win at Gwent giving them one more point than Gwynedd and a game in hand.
L-Style Division One sees Derbyshire remain at the top of the table but have had their eight points lead reduced to seven after a surprisingly close 19-17 win at Surrey who are just two places off the foot of the table.
County Durham dropped from second to seventh after going down 20-16 at West Midlands who are ninth in the ten-teams division. Suffolk’s 24-12 win at Leicestershire has seen them move up three places to second, seven short of Derbyshire with third-placed Buckinghamshire losing ground in the promotion race after their 20-16 loss at Somerset.
Despite their win, West Midlands drop to a next-to-bottom of the table position with 62 points just five more than Worcestershire who are bottom after they suffered a 22-14 defeat at Merseyside. Second and third from bottom Surrey and County Durham are both on 66 points and with the two teams below them having played one game fewer they are in danger of dropping into the relegation zone.
A narrow 19-17 defeat at Wiltshire has seen West of England lose their number one spot in Division Two to Black Country who following their 24-12 home win over Bedfordshire top the table nine ahead of West of England who drop to second place. Tyne and Wear move up three places into third, their 19-17 home win over Clwyd.
Gloucestershire’s season gets no better as they fell to a 24-12 defeat at Cumbria to leave them at the foot of the table with 55 points, seventeen short of the team just above them Bedfordshire and twenty short of Wiltshire and safety.
The good start to the season continues for Middlesex in division three adding a convincing 28-8 win at Pembrokeshire to their account to give them 114 points and a huge lead of 27 over Shropshire who have taken over from local rivals Salopian (who had a bye), in second place after their 26-12 win at Isle of Wight. Northumberland hold on to their third place with 83 points, two more than fourth in the division and their hosts Breconshire.
The Isle of Wight are stranded at the foot of the table with just 25 points, 24 short of Pembrokeshire who drop one place to next to bottom following their defeat away to the leaders. Wirral gained an important 24-12 win at Montgomery and Radnor to lift them up two places from their next-to-the-bottom position with their hosts dropping just below them two places off the bottom of the division.
—–ENDS—–
Alan Towe writes with the support of Red Dragon Darts
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