Salopian went into their final game of the season in Division Three of the UKDA National League, a home fixture against Middlesex, knowing that the winner would be promoted as champions and the losers would finish as runners-up.
Current leaders Northumberland, who were on 181 points had already completed all of their eight games and Salopian were just one point behind them on 180 with their opponent third with 179 points.
The weekend didn’t begin well for the hosts as the ladies ‘B’ slumped to a 5-1 defeat with first on Sue Lane their sole winner. Sue played against Marlene Pope, won 3-2 and being the only winner took the lady of the match award for her 15.57 average. After Sue’s win her team mates went down Karen Weston 3-2 to Tirion Vickery, Rachael Mooney lost 3-1 to Michele Copas, Jenny Sallans beat Hayley McGuinness 3-0, Hayleigh Shaw won 3-1 against Kate Titley and rounding off the win for Middlesex was Vickie Kiely with her 3-0 victory over Racheal Williams.
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The men’s ‘B’ had a good start as Martin Riggs won the opener against Harvey Wilkinson 3-1 and second on Shaun Pryce beat Craig De-Almeida 3-0. The third game went the full five legs distance with Chris Grannell just getting the edge on Ben Bevan to chalk up the first win for Middlesex. Glyn Thomas was quick to restore Salopian’s two games buffer as he won 3-2 against George Rich and although Dan Wheatley’s 3-1 win over Gary Crowther momentarily reduced the arrears for the away team Daniel Astbury ended the first half in style with a man of the match 3-0 win over Rich Ive with a 27.33 average and at the same time opened up a 4-2 lead for Salopian.
Although the outlook looked bright after the first six games by the eighth the scoreline was level as Tim Green beat James Mansell 3-2 and Scott Robertson won 3-1 against Ian Evans. The hosts lead was restored in the ninth when Paul Ashworth won 3-1 against Adam Finch only to see parity restored in the tenth when Brian Green beat Darren Lane 3-0. Mark Jones (Salopian) had a straight 3-0 win over Luke Nelson in the penultimate encounter and with a 3-1 win for Jamie Kynaston over Steve Goddard in the final game the result was a 7-5 victory for the hosts.
Going into Sunday’s ‘A’ games the overall score stood at 10-8 in favour of Middlesex but both teams still had everything to play for.
Steph Clarke was first on for the ladies ‘A’ and her 3-0 win over Sindy Stiles gave the home team the early lead. With a similar 3-0 result Margaret Sutton cancelled out Clarke’s win as she won against Claire Boyle. Salopian went ahead for a second time when their lady of the match Evonne Taylor, with a straight 3-0 win and a superb 21.17 average accounted for Lisa Brosnan, then with a further 3-0 win for Tracey Dean over Louise Grannell, Salopian were in an unbeatable 3-1 position. The last two games both went to the wire with the Middlesex pair Leah Nelson and Leanne Palmer winning 3-2 in turn against Sarah Roberts and Julie Griffiths to put the final score level at 3-3.
The men’s ‘A’ now required an 8-4 win to ensure they were promoted as champions and all began well as Jon Mansell won 4-1 against Ian Bartlett and making it 2-0 for the home team was Paul Rowley who had a 4-0 win over Steve Rose. Despite the early lead it was level-pegging by the fourth as Jason Neville and Tony Andrews replied for Middlesex with respective 4-1 and 4-0 wins against Steven Ritchie and Scott Dockerty and by the midway point the visitors had opened up a 4-2 lead as Allen Bond and Matty Finch added their 4-3 and 4-0 wins over Mark Crutchley and Ben Morgan to the Middlesex tally.
It got worse as the second half kicked off with Joshua Burksfield beating Kacey Jones 4-1 before Salopian had their best run of the game winning four-in-a-row which all began with a 4-1 win from Eddie Price over Pat Cleghorn and was followed up with a similar 4-1 win from Terry Nash against Steve Dettmer, then a 4-3 win from Ash Hilditch over George Wilkinson and making up the quartet of wins was man of the match John Roberts who had a 28.03 average in his 4-1 win against Tom Dallender. The final game of the weekend saw Chris Everley win 4-3 against Matt Esley to put the result for the men’s ‘A’ level at 6-6.
The overall result for the weekend was a very close 19-17 win for Middlesex which gave them the division three title with a total points for the season of 201, Salopian finishing as runners-up with 197 points but more importantly promotion to division two next season.
—–ENDS—–
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