Shropshire’s sixth fixture of the season in Division Three of the UKDA National League was a tough away game against Middlesex. Prior to the fixture, Middlesex were second in the promotional table on 114 points from only four games with Shropshire third on 111 points but from five games.
Sara Jones was first on for the ladies ‘B’ and she put Shropshire one up when she beat Vanessa Keen 3-1 only to see Michele Copas beat Ann Cooper 3-0 to level the game. Game number three saw the home side take the lead when Marlene Pope beat Joanne Meachin 3-1then for a second-time parity was restored as Shropshire’s Jayne Downey accounted for Jackie Walford with a 3-1 result.
Once again it was Middlesex who took the lead as their Vickie Kiely won 3-0 against Deana Sheldon to leave the result hinging on the last two players Jenny Sallans (Middlesex) and Michele Pritchard. Michele Pritchard pulled out all the stops winning not only her game with Jenny Sallans 3-1 but also winning the lady of the match award for her 15.10 average and at the same time earning a 3-3 draw for her teammates.
The men’s ‘B’ lost the opener when Steve Goddard won 3-1 against Rushpal Bhogal but the hosts lead was short-lived as Shropshire won four in a row thanks to Stuart Kendrick, Steve Lynch, Luke Wildman and Josh Pickett who in turn won playing against Luke Nelson (3-1), Adam Finch (3-0), Pat Gleghorn (3-2) and Chris Grannell (3-1). Pickett’s win together with his 27.78 average earned the team’s match award. At the halfway stage the score was 4-2 in favour of Shropshire after Frankie Collopy (Middlesex) won the last game of the half against Phil Mayo 3-0
Taking the score along to 5-2 was Shropshire’s Martin Price as he added his 3-1 win over Dan Wheatley to their account. George Rich momentarily reduced the arrears for the hosts as he beat Rob Pierce 3-0 but the away side then with three successive 3-1 wins romped to a winning 8-3 lead with wins from Dave Bayton, Chris Evans, and Paul Harrison who in turn defeated Terry Andrews, Terry Ough and Brian Green.
The last game of the day went to the home team as Scott Robertson won 3-1 against Chris Hill to give a final score of 8-4 to Shropshire and an 11-7 lead to take into Sunday’s games.
Middlesex won the first of the ladies ‘A’ games when Margaret Sutton won 3-0 against Jenna-Louise Ball but the away side were quick to respond as their lady of the match Kelly Haverson beat Leanne Palmer 3-2 with a 17.24 average and Annmarie Williams gave them the lead for the first time as she accounted for Lisa Brosnan with a 3-2 scoreline.
Unfortunately from leading 2-1 Shropshire then lost 4-2 as Louse Grannell beat Marie Riggs 3-0, Sindy Stiles won 3-1 against Dianne Newton, and securing the win for the hosts was Leah Nelson with her 3-0 win over Sophie Ward.
It was not a good opening half for the men’s ‘A’ as man of the match Richard Parker was their sole winner in the first six encounters. After Steve Dettmer beat Andy Jervis 4-1 to put Middlesex 1-0 up Parker then won 4-3 against Matty Finch with a 26.20 average. The next four games of the half went to the home team as John Scott won 4-1 against Sam Aitkens, James Betts beat John Simms 4-2, Joshua Burksfield beat Shane Passey 4-0 and Tony Andrew won 4-1 against Reece Cook Lucas.
The second half was better but not much better and certainly not good enough to win any points as Ian Bartlett took Middlesex to within an ace of victory when he won the first of the second half games against Chris Fox 4-3. Kevin Harris kept faint hopes of a draw alive when he won 4-3 against Jason Neville and those hopes were raised when Phil Clarke reduced the deficit even further to 6-3 when he won 4-2 against Chris Everley, but it only managed to delay the inevitable as in the tenth encounter Allen Bond chalked up the magical seventh win for the hosts when he beat Dan Downey 4-2.
Jamie Webb added his 4-3 win over Steve Rose to Shropshire’s tally but the final score was 8-4 to Middlesex after Tom Dallender won the last game against Simon Pritchard 4-1.
The overall score for the weekend saw Shropshire narrowly lose out 19-17 but they managed to hold on to their third place with 128 points, eight short of the hosts who take over in pole position with a game in hand on Shropshire and second-placed Northumberland who were held to an 18-18 draw at Pembrokeshire giving them a total of 134 points
—–ENDS—–
Alan Towe writes with the support of Red Dragon Darts
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