A Look Back In Time - 1st June 2010
West Midlands went into their penultimate fixture away to Hertfordshire in division tow of the Rileys BDO Inter Counties Championships knowing they required a good result to keep them in touch with leaders London and more importantly to maintain the push for promotion back to division one.
After impressive results in their previous outing away to Berkshire the ladies were hoping to continue in the same vein, and that’s exactly what they did. The ‘B’ side began well with two in a row from Liz Arnold and Gemma Poole, who in turn had a 3-1 win over Lorriane McKenna and a 3-0 success against Rita Brownless. Deborah Essam pulled one back for the hosts when she beat Heather Wright 3-0, but with a further two consecutive wins, West Midlands were home and dry. Kim Fellows (16.34) turned on a lady of the match show beating Helen Talbot 3-0 and Natalie Harrison then chalked up the fourth and vital win when she recorded a close 3-2 victory over Sharon Cowell.
Lynne Taylor took the final game by 3-0 against Jacqui Simmons to put the result at 4-2 for the Away side.
The ‘A’ team, after going 1-0 down when Jodie Varney won 3-1 against Sarah Robbins, then twice took the lead before finishing all square at 3-3. At number two Claire Hobbs won 3-2 in her tie with Joanne Brosnan and then Tammy Chance (17.82) took the match award with another 3-2 result against Kathleen Ovens. Jane Phillips took the match to 2-2 with her 3-0 success over Diane Tolley, before Kath Jenkins assured the West Midlands of a share of the points with her 3-0 win against Amanda Essam. The last game went to the home team’s Janet Driscol, who beat Lisa Astbury 3-1.
The men’s ‘B were without a win in the last three fixtures however, they hadn’t lost any of them, they all finished 6-6. Unfortunately after the first six games it looked on the cards as though they were about to record their second loss of the season as they trailed 5-1. Ian Hartland, at number five was their only winner, a close 3-2 win over Mark Woodhams. For Hertfordshire there were wins for Barry Currant, Alex Hogg, Jonathon Creed, Steve Currant and Daniel Mitchell.
The second half was a little better as the opening five games all went with the first throw advantage. Peter Edmonds, Neil Pointon and Richard Foster were West Midlands winners and for the hosts Steve Davis and Peter Brown to put the running total at 7-4 to Hertfordshire. Rounding off the day was Alf Smith and Danny Coyle, with Coyle chalking up an award winning 26.53 average and a 301 win give a final scoreline of 7-5 to the home side.
The men’s ‘A’ got off to a cracking start winning the first five games thanks to Chris Plumpton, Mark Rollinson, Andy Forrester, Jamie Hughes and Peter Wyse, Anthony Tarry pulling one back for Hertfordshire in the sixth game when he won 3-2 against Danny Coyle.
The second half of the match was a similar story to the first. West Midlands kicked off with the first three winners, Dean Stewart, Ian Jones and Nicky Bache to open up an unassailable 8-1 lead. Peter Kosmalski was the home teams second winner, a 3-2 win in the tenth encounter against Avtar Singh, but it was now immaterial as West Midlands added another win to their tally, Matt Dicken beating David Meader 3-1 and to round off the match long time West Midlands player Lol Frazer beat George Williamson 3-1 with a 28.81 average that gave him the man of the match award, his team a 10-2 victory and the squad an overall 22-14 success to keep them well on track for promotion.
West Midlands now went into their final game of the season 28 points adrift of leaders London, but seven ahead of third placed Suffolk and so a win at home to Devon would mean that promotion, although not a certainty was a very good bet indeed.
After two encouraging consecutive results from both of the ladies teams, this latest encounter was a dramatic bump back down to earth. The ‘B’ team went 2-0 down when Anette Lord and Marie Martin had respective wins over Jayne Stubbs and Gemma Poole and although Kim Fellows (15.99) reduced the arrears with her lady of the match 3-0 win over Moira Mortimer, they never really recovered from going two down.
Trisha Penberthy extended Devon’s lead to 3-1 when she accounted for Liz Arnold with a 3-1 result, Christine Harding, after trailing 1-0 to Jacqui Simmons, was another 3-1 winner and in the final tussle Susan Horne beat Heather Wright with yet another 3-1 verdict to give Devon a 5-1 success.
The ‘A’ side didn’t fare much better. Devon began with a straight 3-0 win from Michelle Andrews over Sarah Robbins, but the lead was short lived as Kath Jenkins went one up against Tracy Ware and despite then going behind 2-1 came back to win 3-2 and level the score.
Christine Kinnaird restored Devon’s advantage, a 3-2 win over Lisa Astbury and with a 3-1 win by Merryl Dennis against Tammy Chance the visitors were then 3-1 up with two to play. Long serving West Midlands player Diane Tolley made it 3-2 when she added her 3-0 win over Jane Wiltshire to the tally, her 16.16 average also earning her the ‘A’ teams match award.
So with the score at 3-2 to Devon there was everything to play for in the final game between Claire Hobbs (West Midlands) and Karen Atkinson. Unfortunately finishing doubles for Hobbs were at a premium and Atkinson stepped in to take the first three legs and give her team a 4-2 win.
The men’s ‘B’ began in style with two straight 3-0 wins from Paul Wright and Martin Angell at the expense of Trevor Perry and Paul Davis. They were followed by Neil Pointon and Richard Platt who each had 3-1 wins in their respective games against Terence Ashton and Graham Roberts. Trevor Carter moved the scoreline along to 5-0 with another three legs win against his opponent Paul Godbeer, Carter claiming the match award with a 26.37 average. Making it a clean sweep for the first half a dozen game was Ian Stanton who beat Jason Hill 3-1.
It turned out to be lucky seven for the Devon team as their number seven Chris Hunt registered their first win of the game. Hunt went one up against Peter Edmonds, who then reversed the advantage and took a 2-1 lead. Edmonds and Hunt then both failed to find their doubles, but it was the latter who finally came through to win the game 3-2. Danny Coyle chalked up the all important seventh winning leg when he beat Ian Knight 3-1. Then came Devon’s best run of the match they claimed their second winner of the day, this time it was Brian Hodge with a 3-1 result over Ian Hartland and he was followed by Liam Goyne who had a 3-2 win in his tie with Mark Watkiss.
West Midlands now had a lead of 7-3 with two to play. Viv Gould beat Flynn Jones 3-1 and taking the result to 10-2 was Paul Price who despite being pushed all the way by Darren Tilley won 3-2.
With four wins and two draws in their eight fixtures West Midlands ‘A’ team were leading their group and looking all set to win it, but sadly nothing is ever that clear cut.
After the first three games they appeared to be well on the way to the title as Andy Forrester (27.83), Ian Jones (30.68 Man of the Match) and Jamie Hughes (25.85) in turn took out Lee Watts, John Lakeman and Matthew Dickinson to open up a 3-0 lead. There was a setback in the fourth game when Andrew Steed beat Nicky Bache 3-1, but normal service was resumed when Chris Plumpton beat Peter Rice 3-1 and Dean Stewart won in straight legs against Roger Wright for a 5-1 lead.
This game was then completely turned on it’s head and it was certainly a game of two halves as the West Midlands from a strong 5-1 lead crashed to a 7-5 defeat. Richard Foster lost 3-0 to Andrew Taylor, Peter Wyse lost 3-1 to Richard Dennis, Mark Rollinson lost 3-0 to Mike Beal, Matt Dicken lost 3-1 to Ryan Searle, Avtar Singh lost 3-0 to Andrew Jackson and to complete the rout Lol Frazer went down 3-2 to Paul Milford.
The result meant that the ‘A’ side lost the men’s ‘A’ divisional title by just one point to Berkshire. However, Berkshire did do the Midlanders a good turn insomuch as they beat their nearest rivals Suffolk 22-17 to maintain their number two spot and finish as runners up on 187 points, London going up as champions on 224 points. Suffolk and Devon both ended the season on 180 points.
So it’s congratulations to the West Midlands players, officials and supporters on a very successful season and promotion to division one.
“Sad to report this month the passing away of Reg Bunn, a Sheldon and District League official from 1975 to 2010. Reg brought the Marlborough , Small Heath team into the winter league in the 1074-75 season and made an immediate impact winning the division two title and the division two Turner Cup.
He joined the winter league management committee in the 1075-76 season becoming vice chairman from 1982to 2008. In the 1084-85 season he brought the Journeys End team into the league for which he became team secretary. Reg was chairman for two seasons 1995-96 and 1996-97, moving back to vice chairman in the 1997-98 season. In the 2007-08 he moved to vice president.
Reg was a founder member of the summer league in 1975, who got together at the request of the winter league teams to fill the gap between the end of the winter season to the start of the next one - so in the summer of 1976 the summer league took off with 30 teams forming five groups of six in each . Reg was chairman and treasurer from the very first season. In 1986=5 he relinquished the treasurer’s role but remained as chairman until the 2006 season when he passed the reins to Ron Crawford. Reg though retained the role of vice chairman when in 2009 he was made the first ever president of the summer league.
Reg was also a key figure as manager of the league’s charity squad, playing in Blackpool, Hereford, Kettering Town F.C, Chesterfield to name a few and helped to raise over £55,000 between 1984 and 1999 for the Birmingham Accident Hospital Burns Unit and Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
Reg was often reminded of the comment made by John Gwynne when he played a series of games against Phil Taylor, as Reg took the oche John said Reg thinks this game will be a piece off cake for him, referring to his surname “Bunn”.
His other hobbies apart from darts were fishinf and building model steam engines , which he showed off at rallies and fete’s.
Reg Bunn will be sadly missed for his experience and expertise when dealing with any darts match problems within the league. He leaves behind his wife Jill and daughters Elaine and Wendy.
Thanks go to Alan Blythe for supplying this report.
Congratulations to West Midland County players Dean Stewart and Nicky Bache, who from an original entry of 171 players won through from Rileys Snooker Hall and Darts Zone, Wolverhampton to the next round of the UK Open to be played off at Bolton.
Both players were involved in very close final rounds as Stewart beat Gareth Pass 3-2 and Bache, by the same margin took out fellow county player Ian Jones.
As the Forest of Arden Winter League came to the end of its season cup games were on the agenda. Taking the men’s doubles title were Bob Nixon and Tony Randell who beat Andy Hawkins and Jim Gilfoyle in the final.
Pat Holmes and Ruth Gwilliams were the couple in form in the ladies event, clinching their victory with a final win over Dawn Duffy and Debbie Flynn.
The Sheldon and District Winter League is also rounding off its season, Saltley Amateur Gardeners have won the premier division title with 44 points, with Olton RBL runners up on 36. The first division title went to Old Bill and Bull who finished two points ahead of their nearest rivals Kingshurst Labour Club. Yardley Arms, with 32 points won division two, four points to the good of second placed Custard House.
The league’s singles knockout was staged at Olton RBL. The hosts had four representatives, Andy Hutchings, Mark Wall, Dave Duncan and Jim Norris remaining in the quarter finals, but by the final they had all made their exits and it turned out to be an all Saltley Amateur Gardeners affair with Terry Webster squaring up to Tony Randell. The match went the full three legs distance with Randell getting the 2-1 verdict.
The Raven, Hodge Hill was the setting for the Dougie Bowen Memorial Trophy. The competition attracted a very respectable 32 entries, the winner being Alan Blythe. Alan won 2-1 against Sean O’Donnell in the semi’s, despite a 180 from O’Donnell, from the other side of the draw Keith Hollis, after beating Lee Beech 2-1 in the last four lost 2-0 to Blythe.
In addition to the main event there was a junior knockout, which saw Arron Bowen retain his title with a final win over Corey Taylor.
The evening raised a total of £200, which was donated to Cancer Research.
The Four Oaks and District League have played off various finals the first was the Richard Winslow Pairs, sponsored by Central Container Services. Boldmere Sports duo P.Newman and A.Jarvie won the title with a straight 3-0 success against T.Frost and M.Willetts (The Fox).
In the final of the Coronation Shield the Fox had a comfortable 11-4 victory over Old Oscott Arrows, while Deer’s Leap recorded a very close 8-7 win over Drakes Drum in the final of the Norman Day Cup.
The Derek Masters Trophy, also sponsored by Central Container Services was won by Sutton Sports representative L.Harris (3x100) who had a 3-1 win against runner up T.Colley (Red Lion Flights).
Winners of the Brian Goodman Cup were Sutton Sports, a 7-2 final success against Pint Pot Flights, and with a similar scoreline the Fox beat Boldmere Flights in the final of the Ken Rust Cup.
The their end of season Cricket Knockout was staged by the Small Heath League and taking the honours was the “Ken Dodd’s Dad’s Dog’s Dead” team comprising of Arthur Forde, Terry Constable (Devils), Eddie Bullock (Red Hill Tavern), Peter Hopkins and Roy Congrave (Emerald Club). Runners up were the ”Rings Around Uranus” side of Joe Fox, Mark Fisher, Neil Parsonage (Emerald Club), John McCaffrey (Devils) and Mick Fowle from the Mitre.
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