Alan Towe - A Look Back in Time 01-09-2018
The C’s Club, Chelmsley Wood was the setting for a charity event on behalf of the late Dave Duncan in aid of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Skin Cancer Unit and taking on all-comers was professional darts player Andy “Pie Man” Smith.
The evening was a huge success and raised a tremendous amount of £355 with the Journeys End Flights darts team swelling the funds by donating their £290 prize money for winning the Forest of Arden Winter League title.
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It appears to have been the season of finals for many of our local leagues and it begins with the South Birmingham League who with all of the domestic fixtures completed have been very busy with the finals of their various knockout cups the first of which saw Banbury Arrows beat The Raven 7-2 to lift the Roy Parry Cup. The final of the Roy Parry Consolation Cup also finished with a 7-2 scoreline with division two outfit Chelmsley Conservative Club losing out to their division one opponents Coleshill Social.
Banbury Arrows were unable to make it a double celebration when in the final of the Knockout Cup they finished on the wrong side of a 6-3 result against Coleshill Social.
Taking the Jimmy Walker Cup title were The Gate representative team who had a very close 5-4 win over Crown Jewels
An 18-8 result against C’s Arrows gave division two champions Iron Horse the Mini League title and in the divisional cups Erdington Members Club added the division one cup title to their already won division one league title when they won 7-2 against Crown at Shard End.
In the final of the division two cup C’s Arrows got revenge for their defeat in the Mini League when they somewhat surprisingly beat Iron Horse 5-4.
The Captains Cup title went to Adam Cooksey who had a straight 2-0 win over Chris Cooke in the final while the Secretary’s Cup was won by Jake Webster who despite being taken to a deciding leg by Chris Millward ran out the 2-1 winner.
The Captains and Secretary’s Doubles Knockout was another of the league finals that went to a deciding leg as Chris Cooke and Gavin Jones defeated Nigel Groves and Phil Jones 2-1.
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The Small Heath League played off their Singles Knockout and in the quarter finals there were 2-0 wins for T.White and T.Webster over respective opponents J.Evans and N.Davis while C.Wyatt won 2-1 against J.Frost and G.McCormack had a bye.
The last four play-off’s both went to a decider with T.White and C.Wyatt in turn beating G.McCormack and T.Webster 2-1, the title eventually going to T.White after he won 2-0 against C.Wyatt in the final.
In the quarter finals of the John Young Plate Knockout A.Cheshire and M.Atkins lost 2-0 in turn to I.Jones and A.Pearson and joining them in the semis were C.Murphy with a 2-1 win over M.Cain and L.Wyatt who had a bye, both of the last four games had 2-0 scorelines with Murphy and Jones progressing to the final at the expense of Pearson and Wyatt. The final went to a deciding leg with I.Jones getting the result against C.Murphy.
In the league’s End of Season 501 Knockout a final 2-0 win over N.Davis gave J.Fisher the title, both finalists won their last four games 2-0, Fisher beating S.McCarthy and Davis winning against R.Pikey.
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The Forest of Arden Summer League have also been involved in cup finals in fact five of them as they played off their Secretary’s Cup which was won 2-0 by Jake Webster over Dan Cooper while the Captains Cup title went to Nathan Wykes who had a close 2-1 success against Jason Jennings.
Sue Kingdon and Simon Edwards won the Mixed Doubles Knockout with Jake Webster and Chloe the 2-0 losing finalists. Simon Edwards was on the winning side again in the Captains and Secretaries Doubles Cup as he and his partner Andy Hutchings beat Terry Clinton and Rob Jelly 2-0.
The Singles Knockout attracted a very encouraging 40 entries and working his way through the various rounds to go on and lift the title was Bob Nixon.
Nixon began his challenge with a 2-0 win over Jake Webster and followed that with a similar straight legs win over John Sidwell. He then booked his final place with yet another 2-0 win including a tremendous THREE 180’s against John MacDonald.
From the other half of the draw Pete Yardley emerged as Nixon’s final opponent. After he had won 2-1 against Andy Hutchings (180) he then beat Sid Moran 2-0 and with a further 2-0 victory in the last four over Dave Tomlinson he had reached the last two.
The final saw Nixon drop his first leg of the night but it was insignificant as he beat Pete Yardley 2-1 hitting yet another TWO maximums in the final.
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The Singles Cup finals were on the fixture card for the Netherton Thursday Night League and once again for a second consecutive season the title went to Dudley Ex Serviceman’s Club man Phil Tonks. In the quarter finals Tonks squared up to his brother Antony and won 2-0, then with a 2-1 success against Rich Lenton (Townsend Social Club) in the semis he booked his final spot against Carl Hadlington from the White Horse.
The final saw Phil Tonks win 3-1 to conclude what was an excellent night of darts.
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With league fixtures fast running out the Pip Club League staged the finals of a couple of their cups and in the semi-finals of the Open Cup the league’s top two team Queens Head and The Office had wins over respective opponents Pip Club and Old Liberal House, the final then went in favour of Queens Head.
The last four games of the John Young Cup saw wins for Belgrave Club and Sports Bar ‘180’ who in turn accounted for Progressive Club and Wigginton Arms. With a final win over Sports Bar ‘180’ it was Belgrave Club who lifted the winner’s silverware.
In the penultimate fixtures of the season worthy of a note was the outshot by Progressive Club’s Duncan Campbell who in his game against Old Liberal House produced a 100 game shot, not much of a finish you may think but Duncan actually did it with two bulls.
With the fixtures all done and dusted winning not only the combined section but also the seeded one section of the league were Queens Head who finished two points to the good on The Office in both sections.
The seeded two section was won by Old Liberal House who with 20 points were four ahead of Red Lion and Pip Club.
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After many attempts to arrange their final fixture away to Clwyd the Warwickshire Youth team made the journey to Wales and with a slightly depleted team they completed an unbeaten eight games season with an 8-7 victory.
The Under 18’s 4-3 win made it a perfect eight wins for the season thanks to wins from Ben Liggins, Mackenzie Nixon, Courtney Hine and Will Rattigan with Courtney Hine taking the match award.
With wins from Lucy Keyte (lady of the match) and Skye Pickard the Ladies won 2-1 and rounding off the overall win were the Under 21’s who suffered a narrow 3-2 defeat, Jake Liggins their top player, Joe Pitchford-Morris their other winner.
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Congratulations to Richard Hosey on winning the latest Woodside Inn Brierley Hill Knockout. Hosey won his semi-final game against Steve Gillam 5-3 to set up a final against Matt Tedstone who had taken out Paul Homer with a 5-0 scoreline in the last four. The final saw Hosey win the top prize of £100 with a 6-4 result, Tedstone collected £60 and there was £25 for each of the losing semi-finalists.
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After the opening three fixtures in the West Midlands Men’s Super League Allen Sports Bar ‘A’ are the early pacesetters with an unbeaten 20 points. Close behind Allens are Brickmakers Arms who are also undefeated and are just one point off the top of the table with 19 points. Third placed Yeltz Bar have also won all three games and have one point less than Brickmakers.
The only other teams to have won all three games are Landywood and Bridgtown Social, Woodside are unbeaten but have only played two games.
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