Report by Oliver Nunn
With the new season of the Franchise League now in full swing, this week saw the ten teams battling for the title play the reverse fixtures against their opponents from seven days’ prior. It was the Railwaymen, Mouses, Warriors, Academicals, and Vintage who had picked up the first wins of the season the week before. Now it would be seen whether they could follow up on their good starts, or if the other five teams would be able to get one back.
At Aughton, the Raging Bull played host to the Station Railwaymen. The home side got off to a promising start, with Mark Thomson going 2-0 up, with a 19 darter, against G Higgs. From there, Higgs responded with 21 and 18 darters before taking the fifth and final leg to complete the comeback and win 3-2. Another close game followed, with Pete Roebuck for Station and Adam Chadwick for the Raging Bull trading legs until Roebuck clinched the fifth to secure a 3-2 victory. Ryan Goffin then pressed home the Railwaymen’s advantage, beating Matty Pierce 3-0 with 17 and 12 darters along the way.
The Raging Bull’s hopes were kept alive as Brian Jones beat Gav Piling in the fourth singles, and the hosts also won the fifth game by virtue of a walkover. In the doubles, however, the Railwaymen pressed ahead and got the job done, with the pairs of Goffin and Roebuck and Piling and Higgs winning their games 2-1 and 2-0. So the night ended in a comfortable 5-2 for the Railwaymen, in a performance that featured low legs, high checkouts (a 124 for Higgs), and 180s (hit by both Goffin and Roebuck).
Elsewhere in the league, Foxhill and District As played Woodbourne Vintage at home. In this tie it was Vintage who came out on top, as although Martin Bridge won the first game 3-1 for Foxhill, Chris Keane, Rich Brown, Dave Cliffe, and Russ Simons won the next four matches to ensure that Vintage had the win wrapped up before the doubles. And in the doubles Vintage kept up the pressure, with Brown and Cliffe and then Simons and Hulley securing two further wins to end the fixture 6-1 for the Woodbourne side. It is a shift that Vintage will no doubt be pleased with, not least because, after the first game, they only dropped a single leg.
The other Woodbourne team, Mouses, won by the same margin of victory as they hosted Swallownest Miners. Jimmy Haslam got the Mouses off to a winning start by taking the first game 3-0 and finishing all three legs under 21 darts, with a sequence of 16, 17, and 21. Timothy Whiting took one back for Swallownest by winning the second singles 3-0, after which Glynn Harris and James ‘Tank’ Thomas won their games for the Mouses to put their team one game away from the win. John Cartledge stepped up next and took his singles 3-1 to get the Mouses over the line, with 21 and 17 darters and a 180. Speaking after the game, Captain Tank singled out Haslam and Cartledge’s games as standout from his team’s performance. In the pairs, Harris and Caley and Cartledge and Thomas secured two further wins for the Mouses to produce the final scoreline of 6-1.
At the University Arms, the Academicals welcomed Thorncliffe’s Finest. First up for the Accy D’s was Jack Lewis, who took advantage of double trouble for the Thorns’ Logan Higgins to lead 2-1, before firing in a 22 darter to take the fourth leg and win 3-1. Captain Luke Davies would then take the second game for the Accy D’s, starting with a 19 darter and missing only two darts at double the whole game en route to a 3-0 win over Jack Pink. The third game also went the way of the Accy D's, as Adam Warner checked out in 19, 18, and 21 darts, with a 100% checkout rate, to seal a commanding 3-0 victory over Josh Hall. And the win would be clinched for the Accy D’s by Tom Jepson in the fourth game, who sealed a 3-1 win a treble 16, double 8 checkout.
The Thorns did end the singles games with a win, as Dylan Farmer beat Joe Hopkins 3-2, during which Farmer almost produced a unique ‘treble double’ checkout, going double 7, double 18, but wiring double 11. From there it was onto the pairs, where the Accy D’s bagged two further wins, from Warner and Olly Nunn (I’d like to think I played my part here – Warner provided the scoring while I hit the two doubles!) and Davies and Dan Booth (in the second pairs there were 180s from Davies and Farmer). Reflecting on the Accy D’s 6-1 victory, Captain Davies was pleased with his team’s ‘comfortable win against a decent side’, and said that ‘everyone played well’, with Warner being his man of the match.
The closest game of the night was at the Riverside, where the Warriors played at home against the Uni Arms Understudies. A week earlier the Warriors had denied the Understudies a maiden win, and this week seemed to be going the same way, as Ian Webster beat Jack Quinn and Barry Brittle beat Jack Stoddard to put the hosts 2-0 up. The visitors rebounded, however, with 3-1 and 3-0 victories for Adam Butcher and Cory Van Tongeren making things level. Paul Brittle put the Warriors ahead again with a win over Damien Reed in the final singles, and from there Van Tongeren and Butcher won the first doubles for the Understudies to take the tie to a last game decider. And it was here that Quinn and Reed secured a 2-0 win over Paul and Nicola Brittle to give the Understudies their first victory. The night therefore ended with a final score of Understudies 4, Riverside 3.
So ends this recap of the second
week of action in the Franchise League. It is still all to play for, as can be
seen from the league table – the top four teams (Mouses, Railwaymen, Academicals,
and Vintage) are separated by a single point. No doubt there will be further
quality tungsten to come in week three.
