Week 8 Recap

Report by Olly Nunn

Week eight began a day early as the Riverside Warriors played their home game against the Swallownest Miners on Wednesday. It was the visitors who got off to the better start, with wins for Matt Spank against Ian Webster, Kev Hatfield (whose 3-0 win featured a 21 darter and two 180s) against Colin Johnson, Kev Allison against Angie Brittle, and Tim Whiting against Barry Brittle. This ensured the Miners had the tie secured with a game to spare. Paul Brittle was able to get one back for the Riverside with a win over Ian Gilmartin in the fifth singles, but in the doubles the Miners added to their tally with victories for the pairings of Hatfield and Tom Tingle and Sam Weston and Rich Tingle. So, at the end of the night, the Miners had their second win of the season, by a margin of 6-1.

Moving on to Thursday’s action, perhaps the biggest surprise came from the Raging Bull, who hosted the Woodbourne Mouses. Liam Kent got the Raging Bull on the sheet with a 3-1 win, featuring a 19 darter, against Steve Caley, and Mark Thomson doubled the hosts’ advantage, beating Tom Wright 3-0, with 19 and 21 darters along the way. Glynn Harris won 3-1 for the Mouses in the third game, against Adam Chadwick, with a 19 darter to seal it. The visitors’ hopes were still alive, then, going into the fourth game, but a close 3-2 win for the Raging Bull’s Bri Jones against the Mouses’ John Cartledge put the hosts one away. And it was the Bull’s captain, Matty Pierce, who clinched the win, beating James Thomas 3-1 in a game where all legs were won with 21 darts or less (a 20 darter for Tank and 17, 21, and 19 darters for Pierce). Two further wins for the Raging Bull in the pairs, by Jones and Kent and Pierce and Thomson, brought the tie to a close with a scoreline of 6-1 to the home side. As well as the low-dart legs, the tie also saw a 108 checkout from Thomson and a 180 from Cartledge, so overall it was a high-quality night at Aughton.

After a closely-fought 4-3 match last week, Thorncliffe’s Finest were quicker to start against the Uni Arms Understudies in the reverse fixture, with 3-1 wins for Josh Hall and Dan Ashton against Elliot Hopkins and Damien Reed, and a close 3-2 win for Lewis Wroe against Cory Van Tongeren. Two 3-0 victories for the Understudies, courtesy of Nathan Okeeffe and Jack Quinn, meant the tie was still to be won going into the pairs. Yet it was here that the Thorns pressed on, with a 2-0 win for Ashton and Logan Higgins over Quinn and Van Tongeren guaranteeing them their third win of the season. The final pairs also went to the Thorns, with Oliver Parfrement and Hall seeing off Jack Stoddard and Adam Butcher (who hit a 171), bringing the home side’s win tally to 5 against the Understudies’ 2.

In the Uni Arms Academicals’ home game against Foxhill and District As, Adam Warner got the Accy D’s off with 18, 15, and 20 darters to beat Ben Cooper 3-1. Luke Davies and Jack Lewis then took 3-0 and 3-1 wins for the Accy D’s against Martin Schimeld and Martin Bridge, although Foxhill stopped the rot as Jack Walker saw off Jack Newton in a close 3-2 game. Tom Jepson arguably put in the performance of the night, overcoming a wrist injury to beat Foxhill’s Dale Blackwell 3-0, sealing the win for the Accy D’s with a 21 darter and 106 checkout. In the pairs, wins for Cooper and Karl Howden, against Warner and Joe Hopkins, and Walker and Morgan Mullins, against Joe Burniston and Olly Nunn, meant that Foxhill went home on a high. It also ensured a repeat of last week’s score, 4-3 to the Accy D’s.

Finally, at the Woodbourne, it was Vintage against Station Railwaymen. The Railwaymen kicked off with two 3-0 wins, first from Geoff Higgs against Chris Keane and then from Pete Roebuck against Rich Brown. Vintage then secured a straight-legs victory of their own in the third game, as Dave Cliffe beat Lee MacDonald, with a 19 darter in the second leg. Yet a strong performance from Ryan Goffin, with two 17 darters and a 21 darter to see off Mick Hulley 3-0 put the Railwaymen in the ascendancy, and Gav Pilling secured the win for the away side, beating Russ Simons 3-1 in the last singles. Two close pairs games followed, with Higgs and Goffin taking the first 2-1 versus Cliffe and Simons and Roebuck and Pilling winning the second by the same scoreline against Hulley and Brown. 6-1 to the Railwaymen, and another impressive display by the defending champions.

Finishing with a look at the table, the climbers this week are the Miners, as the team’s upturn in results has put them up to seventh, and the Raging Bull, who have regained third. The Railwaymen and Accy D’s are still first and second, while four points separate the Woodbourne teams, with the Mouses in fourth and Vintage in fifth. Around the Miners are Foxhill in sixth and the Thorns in seventh, followed by the Riverside and the Understudies. Such is the state of play going into week nine.