Warwickshire started as they intended to go on in their fourth fixture of the Cosmo Darts Premier Division of the UKDA National League. The Bears were at home to Cornwall as the women’s ‘B’ kicked things off by chalking up a 4-2 win.
Nina Bolt got the ball rolling with her opening 3-0 success over Debbie Crocker and with Angela Jones coming from 1-0 down against Jacqui Champion and going on to win 3-1 the lead was doubled. Chloe McKivett looked all set to make it 3-0 when she went 2-0 up against Rachel Graves but the Cornish player fought back and went on to win 3-2 and give her team their first winner.
By the fourth game it was level pegging as Becky Curnow (Cornwall) went from 1-0 down against Melanie Jones to go on and win 3-1 but a 3-2 win for Courtney Hine over Emma Dow in the penultimate encounter restored the home side’s lead. With a lady-of-the-match performance and a 3-1 win for Hannah Meek over Laura Shepherd in the final game Warwickshire had won 4-2, Hannah’s average 20.20.
The men’s ‘B’ team didn’t have the best of starts as the opening four players were all taken to a deciding leg and lost 4-3 as Karl Reynolds, Martin Tonks, Mark Tomlinson and Adam Hancock in turn lost to Sam Hicks, Paul Ellis, Simon Furse and Joseph Yendle.
Game five saw Noah Rose go one down to Patrick Archibald but Rose held his nerve and went on to win 4-1 to give the hosts their first stripe on the board. By the halfway mark the scoreline was 4-2 to Cornwall as Nigel Heydon (Warwickshire) rounded off the half with a straight 4-0 win over Tyrone Stephen to reduce the arrears for his team.
The second half was a completely different story as Warwickshire romped home from 4-2 down to an 8-4 victory. Dave Hill began the six consecutive wins as he beat Richard Craddock 4-2, Ian McFarlane levelled the score at 4-4 with his similar 4-2 win over Josh Symons and giving the home side the lead for the first time in the game was Mark Strong with his straight 4-0 win over Mark Odgers. Taking the score along to 6-4 was Mark Carter whose 4-1 win against Jaden Whitting saw him register no fewer than eleven three-figure scores in winning legs of 18,14,15 and 21 darts for a man of the match average of 29.07.
Mark Martin was taken the full seven legs distance by Lee Agar but he followed up his winning legs of 14,17 and 17 with a superb game and match-winning 13 darts leg hitting 95,76,140,174 and checking out on double eight for a great 4-3 victory.
The final game of the day saw Scott Hope beat Carl Jeffery 4-1 to confirm an 8-4 win with a 12-6 lead to take into Sunday’s games.
Cornwall were first out of the blocks in the ladies ‘A’ game as Tracey Hancock put them one up with her 3-2 win over Caroline Pike and Maria O’Brien doubled the visitors lead with her 3-0 success against Marian Conway. Donna Pinch (Warwickshire) stopped the Cornish charge when in the third game she had a straight 3-0 win over Sarah Gill.
By the fourth game Cornwall were assured of at least a draw as Pauline Mead added her 3-0 win over Kat Spanswick to their account and with a further 3-1 success for Nikki Furse over Sue Gulliver the visitors had achieved their win.
The final game looked as though it would also go to the away team as Teresa Brookshaw went within an ace of victory when she opened up a 2-0 lead over Tammy Montgomery. However, Tammy, winner of the previous two match awards was in no mood not to make it three and she responded with winning legs of 21 and 19 darts to level the game and then with a win in the decider won 3-2 and claimed her third consecutive award for her 21.25 average and took the final score to 5-2 to Cornwall.
The first three players in the men’s ‘A’ game Kevin Dowling, Tom Martin and Gareth Braham all had to come from behind as Dowling trailed 1-0 and 2-1 to Michael Jones and won 4-2, Martin also went 1-0 and 2-1 down and then 3-2 down before beating Simon Rees 4-3 and Braham after trailing 2-0 to Paul Ellis went on to win 4-2.
Simon Knowles momentarily stopped the rot for Cornwall as he won 4-1 against Wayne Mynard but by the mid-point of the game the home team were 5-1 up after adding a 4-1 win from Matty Washbrooke over Jez Campe and a straight 4-0 win from Jamie Atkins over Neil Meneer. Atkins was in superb form beating Meneer in 14,18,19 and 14 darts to give him a tremendous award winning average of 30.83.
The second half kicked off in the same vein as the first ended with another straight 4-0 win provided this time by this season’s newcomer to Warwickshire darts Chris Wickenden (28.63) who accounted for Tex Thomas. Dennis Bryant reduce the deficit for the visitors as he won 4-2 against Jack Wareing after Wareing had opened up 1-0 and 2-1 leads but the match-winning leg was put up in the ninth when Noel Grant beat Kevin Dunstan 4-0 taking the score to 7-2.
Cornwall got their third winner on the tenth, Matt Knowles winning 4-2 against Jenson Walker, however that turned out to be their last winner as Jamie Hughes came from 2-0 down against Kevin Bray to win 4-2 and Steve Hine won 4-0 against Greg Hambly to give the men’s ‘A’ a 9-3 win and an overall victory for the weekend of 23-13.
—–ENDS—–
Alan Towe writes with the support of Red Dragon Darts
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