Alan Towe - A Look Back In Time - 1st June 2006

The West Midlands penultimate encounter of their 2005-2006 campaign in division three of the Kaliber BDO Inter Counties Championships was an away game against Bedfordshire. With promotion still within their grasp it was vital to chalk up as many points as possible to keep in touch with Oxfordshire and Derbyshire, two teams that West Midlands had already beaten 19-17.

The ladies ‘B’ were given the perfect start by Angie Perry (201.31) when her lady of the match performance in beating namesake Angie Cooke put them one up. Sylvia Critcher levelled for the hosts before Chris Banks and Claire Ford put West Midlands within an ace of victory. However, it was not to be and the away side had to be content with a 3-3 draw after Betty Tompkins and Kirsty Hayfield won the last two games for Bedfordshire.

By their own standards the men’s ‘B’ side had a disastrous weekend. With Seven out of seven wins to date they went down in big style, 10-2. Trailing 7-0 award winner Robert Carr (25.30) was their first winner and the only player to add to that scoreline was Andy Busby in the penultimate game.

The ladies were unable to get their noses in front in Sunday’s match, lady of the match Leanne Jennings (21.16) squared the match at one each and Sara Jukes made it 2-2, but wins from Sue Blay and Julie Newman gave the home team a 4-2 verdict.

The men’s ‘A@ stormed into a 5-0 lead thanks to Ian Jones, Darrell Thorpe, Dave Robbins (man of the match 28.34), Stuart Kendrick and Mick James. By the ninth game Peter Wyse and Garry Taylor had pushed the scoreline along to 7-2 and guaranteed a win for their team. Despite another win from Richard Foster giving an 8-4 victory it was not enough for an overall win and the 21-15 verdict went in favour of Bedfordshire and put a large dent in the West Midlands promotional hopes.

Going into the final match at home to Northamptonshire there was still an outside chance of promotion and therefore still everything to play for by all four teams. Saturday saw the ladies go 3-0 down when Trina Elliott, Nicola Coleman and Shellie Ruthven in turn defeated Claire Ford, Chris Banks and Ann Jones. A match award display by Teresa Woakes (17.89) in her 3-0 straight legs win over Tina Slough pulled one back for the Midlands team, but a further win for Northamptonshire in the shape of Sylvia Jones against Sue Smith put the scoreline beyond the hosts reach. Julie Aston grabbed the a win in the last game against Tracy Prowse, her 3-1 success moving the final score along to 4-2 to the visitors.

The men’s ‘B’ were eager to bounce back after their defeat at the hands of the Bedfordshire team. Emlyn Edwards drew first blood for Northants as he came back from 2-1 down to Jack Routledge. For the second consecutive fixture Robert Carr got the man of the match award. On this occasion he trailed 2-1 to Ian Evans but fought back in style to win 3-2 , checking out on 85 and 94 in the last two legs to give him a 23.95 average. 3-2 wins from Andy Forrester and Mark Lloyd over respective opponents Si Almey and Richard Appleby gave West Midlands a 3-1 lead, but it did not last long. Graham Roberts beat Mick Noakes in a straight 3-0 legs game and Dave Parkinson had a carbon copy of that result in his encounter with Steve Penwright to level the match a 3-3.

The Away side continued their comeback as the second half got underway. Dave Brown won 3-1 against Andy Busby and a Ricky Evans 3-0 success over Paul Simmons left the home team 5-3 down. Gareth Johnston and David Arnold handed out 3-2 defeats to Dave Corstin and Tony Lawrence to keep West Midlands in the game at 5-5, only to see the opposition forge ahead yet again when Mark Bruce beat Colin Wood 3-1 to leave the result hinging on the final encounter between Viv Gould (West Midlands) and Mark Whitney. With eight three figure scores the result was never in doubt, Gould winning 3-0 to finish the match all square at 6-6.

The ‘A’ teams went into Sunday’s games trailing 10-8 and needed to pull out all the stops if they were to have any chance of promotion to division two. Leanne Jennings (18.22) made it two match awards in a row with her 3-2 defeat of Karen Roberts and Sara Jukes doubled the lead with a 3-0 win over Mandy Ireson.

Northamptonshire recorded their first win in game three when Rachel Harris beat Kim Fellows 3-0, but that proved to be their only success as Angie Perry, Claire Hobbs and Kath Jenkins all won in turn against Teresa Corstin, Gail Fullthorpe and Rowena Watson to give a 5-1 win to the West Midlands.

Chris Doughty gave the away side first blood in the men’s ‘A’ game when he came from 2-0 down to Mick James to win 3-2. Then came three in a row for the hosts, Ian Jones won 3-0 against Adie Lewis, Richard Foster, who was in terrific form to beat Jamie Richardson 3-2 with an award winning 30.41 average and Darrel Thorpe, with a 3-1 scoreline accounted for John Elliott.

Jason Lovell reduced the arrears to 3-2 by beating Stuart Kendrick 3-2, only to see his team mate Stuart Gilmour lose out to Mark Rollinson 3-0 to give a 4-2 lead to West Midlands at the halfway stage.

Avtar Singh (West Midlands) began the second half with a 3-1 win over Al Prowse and although Gary Taylor and Eddie Price both lost 3-2 to John Harris and Curly Connelly to move the score along to 5-4 the remainder of the match went in favour of the home team. Wins from Dave Robbins, Peter Wyse and Lol Frazer at the expense of Derek Burnhope, Mick Kendrick and Chris Jones gave the West Midlands an 8-4 win. Unfortunately with both Oxfordshire and Derbyshire winning their games West Midlands finished up nine points adrift and and lost out on promotion.

On the local league front, the Sheldon and District Winter League have been engaged with the play off of their singles knockout. Winner of the event was Sheldon Dukes man Paul Sunner, but he was made to fight hard all the way to the title.

In the quarter finals Paul faced up to Dean Young from Mackadown Sports and Social and went through to the final four with a close 2-1 verdict. Dean Grainger (Fordbridge Social) was Paul’s next hurdle. Again the result was a close 2-1 affair, which proved to be the case in the final in which the champion accounted for Highwood’s Mark Wall to lift the winner’s trophy.

The Four Oaks and District League Coronation Shield and Norman Day Cup have been played off. In the Coronation Shield Hardy Spicer’s M.Austin was in form with scores of 2x100, breaks of 100 and 160 plus a 115 finish, however, it was not enough for his team to avoid a 10-5 defeat against Anvil Nomads.

P.Allen (2x100,125,105) and W.Chinn made it a terrific double for Anvil Nomads when they defeated Kingstanding Ex Servicemen’s duo T.Kelly and A.Whitehouse 2-1 in the final of the Chairman’s Pairs Doubles final.

The Norman Day Cup title went to Midland Red, who had a convincing 11-4 victory over Rose and Crown.

There was heartbreak for Good Hope Flights in the last week of the season in the Four Oaks and District League. Going into their fixture, an away game against sixth placed Hill Social, Good Hope were second in the table to Midland Red. The result was 5-4 in favour of the home team, who finished on 28 points in sixth place, but for Good Hope they, with 32 points dropped to fourth place behind Kingstanding Ex Servicemen’s and third placed Anvil Nomads, who were both on the same 32 points as Good Hope but with better averages. Kingstanding Ex Servicemen’s took the runners up spot by the narrowest of margins, just one leg of average to the good on Anvil Nomads

Midland Red completed their programme with an 8-1 success over Old Oscott Arrows and won the championship with a total of 36 points.

In the Brian Goodman knockout Kingstanding Ex Servicemen’s powered to an 8-1 victory over Old Oscott Arrows with B.Stephens recording a 160 break in the process. The Ken Rust Cup final was a much closer affair with league champions Midland Red just getting the edge on Hill Social with a 5-4 result.

Also on the agenda for the league was their singles competition, which turned out to be another success for the Midland Red. T.Lewis took the honours beating Kingstanding Ex Servicemen’s representative A.Stainfield in the final by 2-0, but the match was much closer than the scoreline suggests.

Neil Parsonage (Gunmakers Arms) is the new 501 Knockout champion of the Small Heath League. Neil beat Bromford Bridge Members Club ’A’ man Rob Wilson in the final. Losing semi finalists were, Raymond Fisher (Gunmakers Arms) and Matthew Cooper (Bromford Bridge Members Club ’A’).

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