Salopian went into their penultimate fixture away to lowly Pembrokeshire in division three of the UKDA National League in a very strong second position in the promotional table just eight points behind leaders Northumberland and with a game in hand.
The weekend went really well as Saturday’s ladies ‘B’ stormed to a 5-1 victory all begun by Rachael Mooney who won 3-1 against Nevita McConalogue and although the match was levelled in the second game when Stacey Davies beat Racheal Williams 3-1 the lead was restored in the third with a 3-0 success for Hayley McGuinness who defeated Caroline Wilcox 3-0. The lead was extended to 3-1 when Karen Weston added her 3-1 win over Jacqui Phoenix and the win was secured by lady of the match Claire Boyle who won 3-1 against Ffion Davies and averaged 17.14. A similar 3-1 win for Sue Lane in the final game against Siobhan Blake took the result to 5-1.
A 3-1 win for Mark Jones and Jamie Kynaston over Gordon Summers and Jay Picton gave the men’s ‘B’ the early 2-0 lead but it didn’t last long as Ben Mathias, Peter Wilcox and Joe Lewis replied for Pembrokeshire beating in turn Andy Kynaston (3-0), Ian Evans (3-1) and Darren Lane (3-0). However the first half ended on a high as Salopian’s man of the match Gary Crowther beat Craig Oag 3-1 with a 27.33 average to make it all-square at the hallway point.
The second half was all one way traffic and all in Salopian’s favour with six successive wins from Paul Ashworth, Martin Riggs, James Mansell, Shaun Pryce, Adrian Logsdail and Ben Bevan who defeated respective opponents John Phillips (3-0), Andrew Smith (3-2), Tom Blair (3-2), Taz Halliday (3-1), Paul Babb (3-2) and Brandon Brown (3-1) to give the visitors a 9-3 win.
Going into Sunday’s ‘A’ games Salopian had a 14-4 lead and taking that to 18-6 were the ladies with their 4-2 success over their counterparts and it all began with a lady of the match win for Sarah Roberts who with a tremendous 23.62 average and 3-1 win over Rhian Evans put the visitors one up. That lead was quickly increased to 3-0 as Claire Boyle beat Jess Rees 3-2 and Steph Clarke won 3-0 against Angharad Bessant.
Pembrokeshire got their first winner in the fourth when Tina Phillips won 3-0 against Tracey Dean and the arrears were reduced even further when Sophie Davies won 3-1 against Julie Griffiths to leave the outcome resting on the final game between Tracey Hawkins-Greene (Pembrokeshire) and Evonne Taylor, a 3-1 win for the latter giving Salopian the 4-2 verdict.
Kelvin O’Keefe’s 4-0 result over Eddie Price saw the hosts win the opening encounter of the men’s ‘A’ match but 4-3 and 4-1 wins from John Roberts and Paul Rowley over respective opponents Ryan Jones and Steve Castle saw the advantage reversed in the visitors favour. Chris Webber (Pembrokeshire) levelled the game when he beat Ben Morgan 4-3 only to see Kacey Jones win 4-1 against Christian Woodford and Mark Crutchley beat Nathan Burdett 4-3 to give the away team the 4-2 advantage at the break.
Taking the score along to 5-2 was Matt Elsey with his 4-1 success over Daniel Castle and although Llew Bevan’s 4-2 win over Ash Hilditch reduced the deficit to 5-3, Salopian’s three games buffer was restored in the ninth when Scott Dockerty won 4-2 against Korie Powell. In the tenth game, Kieran Harris got what turned out to be Pembrokeshire’s final winner as he defeated Terry Nash 4-3 before the match-winning seventh game was added to Salopina’s tally by their man of the match Jon Mansell who had a very creditable 31.81 average in his 4-0 defeat of Stuart Davies.
Taking the final score to 8-4 to the visitors was Steven Ritchie, a 4-3 win over Steve Smith giving an overall 26-10 win for Salopian and putting them within just one point of leaders Northumberland who finished their campaign with a close 19-17 win at Shropshire.
Third-placed Middlesex are a further slender one point behind Salopian and with Salopian playing hosts to Middlesex in the final game of the season the title will be decided by whoever wins that game.
—–ENDS—–
Alan Towe writes with the support of Red Dragon Darts
Images: As described
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