Week 7 Recap

Report by Olly Nunn

Our review of week seven starts at the Foxhill and District Club, where the Uni Arms Academicals were the visiting team. First game of the night went to Foxhill, with Ben Cooper securing a straight-legs win against Jack Newton. The Accy D’s responded in the second game, as Adam Warner put in a class performance, with 18 and 19 darters, on the way to a 3-0 victory over Jack Walker. Two further 3-0 wins followed, with Jack Lewis and Luke Davies both delivering for the Accy D’s. A 3-2 comeback from Foxhill’s Dale Blackwell (with a 111 checkout in the fourth leg) against Joe Hopkins kept the game alive going into the pairs, but a 2-0 win for Warner and Joe Burniston clinched the tie for the visitors. Foxhill got some consolation as Cooper and Martin Schimeld took the second pairs against Tom Jepson and Olly Nunn, yet overall the score was 4-3 to the Accy D’s.

At the Station Hotel, the Railwaymen welcomed Woodbourne Vintage. The first game was closely fought between Station’s Geoff Higgs and Vintage’s Chris Keane, with both holding their throws up until the fifth leg, where Higgs put in a 20 darter to break and take the match 3-2. In the second game Pete Roebuck, playing for Station, looked to be in the ascendancy, throwing 21 and 20 darters to go 2-0 up. Russ Simmons fought back, checking out 86 and then producing an 18 darter (with a 108 outshot) to force a decider. Roebuck, however, was able to stop the comeback with a 21 darter, sealing the match 3-2 and putting Station 2-0 up. The Railwaymen then pressed on, with 3-0 victories for Ryan Goffin (who hit 17 and 21 darters) and Glen Payne, followed by a walkover for Gav Pilling. Two further wins in the pairs, for Roebuck and Higgs against Keane and Mick Hulley and Pilling and Goffin against Simmons and Rich Brown, meant the home side completed the whitewash. 7-0 to Station, then, as the reigning champions continue their title defence.

It was an important week for the Swallownest Miners as the last team without a win looked to end that as they played the Riverside Warriors. Initially it was the visitors who had the better start, as Riverside’s Ian Webster beat the Miners’ Tom Tingle 3-1. Tim Whiting got the hosts up and running, beating Angie Brittle 3-0, yet the Riverside moved ahead again as Barry Brittle came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against Matt Spanky. However, 3-0 and 3-1 victories for Kev Hatfield and Kev Allison (who hit a 21 darter along the way) put the Miners in a good position going into the pairs, as they only required one to take the win. In fact, they won both, with Whiting and Hatfield beating Webster and Paul Brittle 2-0 and Allison and Ian Gilmartin beating Barry Brittle and Colin Johnson 2-1. A final result of 5-2 therefore gave the Miners their first win of the season.

The Uni Arms Understudies were at home against Thorncliffe’s Finest in what would prove to be a close tie. The first game, between the Understudies’ Nathan Okeeffe and the Thorns’ Dan Ashton, went all the way to a decider as the two traded legs. In the end, it was Ashton who won out, producing a 17 darter to take the fifth and final leg. A 3-0 win for Cory Van Tongeren against Lewis Wroe got the Understudies on the board, yet the Thorns replied with two 3-0 victories of their own, with Oliver Parfrement beating Jimmy Knott and Josh Hall beating Adam Butcher. The Thorns could have wrapped things up in the last singles, and looked set to do so as Logan Higgins went 2-0 up against Jack Quinn. Yet Quinn replied with three consecutive legs to win 3-2, and carried over his good form to the pairs. There, Quinn and Damien Reed hit a 24-dart leg, from a 701 start, en route to a 2-1 win over Higgins and Ashton, meaning it would all come down to the final pairs. Here it was Jack Stoddard and Elliot Hopkins against Parfrement and Hall, and it was the Thorns duo who held their nerve to win 2-0. By a score of 4-3, the visitors had come out on top.

Our review ends at the Woodbourne, where the Mouses were at home against the Raging Bull. The Mouses were looking to get back in the winners’ circle after their defeats to Station, and they started with a win, as Steve Caley edged out Adam Chadwick 3-2, with an 18 darter to seal it. Up next was James Thomas for the Mouses versus Mark Thomson for the Raging Bull, and although Tank took the first leg, Thomson fired in an 18 darter before taking the third and fourth legs to win 3-1. The Mouses’ Jimmy Haslam was on top form as he produced an 18 and two 17-dart legs to beat Liam Kent 3-1. Two 3-0 wins for the Mouses followed from Glynn Harris and John Cartledge, who hit some low-dart legs of their own (a 19 for Harris and a 21 and 16 for Cartledge). In the pairs the Mouses added another game to their tally, as Haslam and Jordan Caley beat Chadwick and Steve Griffiths 2-1. A 2-0 win for the pairing of Matty Pierce and Thomson over Cartledge and Tom Wright meant the Raging Bull ended on a high, but overall, the tie went to the Mouses. Along with their five wins, the home side also hit several 180s – two from Haslam and one from Cartledge.

Their win also means that the Mouses move back above the Raging Bull, with 30 points to their 28. The Railwaymen and Accy D’s remain first and second, on 41 and 31 points respectively. Their second win of the season has promoted the Thorns to seventh with 17 points, while after their maiden victory the Miners are tied with the Riverside on 16. There is a lot to play for, then, going into week eight.