West Mids Sally Fourth

West Midlands County Darts Organisation’s revival continued in their penultimate fixture of the season a home game against Somerset. Prior to the fixture West Midlands were placed fourth in the L-Style Division One table and their opponents fifth with thirteen points between them.

Saturday saw the Midlands team have a great start as the ladies won 4-2 with wins from Jodie Rowlands, Debbie Davies, Tara Simmons-Fullwood and Gemma Barrett with anchor player and also the player chalking up the winning fourth game Gemma Barrett the lady of the match with a 19.27 average.

The men’s ‘B’ got off to a cracking start with Mark Maiden and Ben Johnson giving them a 2-0 lead with wins over respective opponents Russell Lippett (3-2) and Kieran Spurdle (3-1). Chris Turner pulled one back for Somerset with his 3-0 success over Adam Johnson but a man-of-the-match performance from John Morris, who beat Dave Russell 3-0 with a 26.84 average, restored the home side’s two games lead. By the break that lead was increased to 5-1 with further wins from Neil Pointon and Kieran O’Mahoney who in turn defeated Ade Beale (3-1) and Steve Johnson (3-0).

Somerset got their second winner as the second half began Lee Gregory beating Chris Stanley 3-2 but that turned out to be their final winner as the hosts romped to a 10-2 victory with Karl Hughes winning 3-2 against Rob Lovell, Dean Simmons-Fullwood having a 3-1 win over Dave Williams, Mark Craddock won 3-2 against Jody Matthews, Ian Stanton had a 3-1 success against Adrian Wood and Jack Aldridge accounted for Sean Nichol with a final 3-2 result.

The ladies ‘A’ side like the men’s ‘B’ also opened up a 2-0 lead when first on Katherine Jenkins won 3-1 against Tracey Stiling and Jacqueline Maiden doubled the lead with a 3-2 win over Kate Hulme, Jacqueline named lady of the match with an 18.70 average. A 3-0 win from Donna Gullock against Claire Hobbs reduced the arrears for the visitors only to see Gemma Barrett’s 3-0 win against Lisa Hughes to guarantee the home team at least a share of the spoils and as it turned out a share was all they got as Somerset’s Becky Taylor and Karen Little in won 3-2 and 3-0 against Kat McLean and Jacqueline Simmons.

With the men’s ‘A’ score still to be added the running total saw West Midlands requiring just two more wins for an overall victory for the weekend as they held a 17-7 lead. They didn’t just get two they took the lot a massive 12-0 victory for the men’s ‘A’ thanks to wins from Darren Williams, Jon Platt, Michael Baker, Ian Jones, Shaun Carroll, Ash Khayat, Owen Maiden, Rob Thompson, Scott Baker, Richard Platt, Kevin Bambrick and Ryan O’Connor who had respective wins over Bailey White (4-1), Sam Hoddinott (4-2), Leigh Taylor (4-3), Mike Harper (4-3), Mervyn Adams (4-1), Adi Acott (4-1), Michael Fenton (4-1), Dave Williams (4-0), Rob Lovell (4-0), Chris Turner (4-0), Tony Snook (4-0) and Michael Church (4-2). Man of the match was Richard Platt who had a superb 31.81 average.

Despite the huge 29-7 win West Midlands remain in fourth place but they are now level on 172 points with third in the table Buckinghamshire. With only one more fixture to play West Midlands’ final game will be at home against fifth-in-the-table Merseyside while Buckinghamshire will play at home against bottom-of-the-division County Durham and with the top two teams Derbyshire and Suffolk playing each other promotion for the Midlanders does look to be out of their reach this season.

—–ENDS—–

Alan Towe writes with the support of Red Dragon Darts

Images:

Grab a copy of the 50th Anniversary Darts World 581 here (while stock lasts) or the new Issue 582 here :