Team Knockout Week 1

Report by Olly Nunn

Before recapping this week’s Franchise League action, we have to go back to last week, when the Academicals and the Understudies played their game in hand and fought out the second leg of the Uni Arms derby. Jack Lewis won the first game for the Accy D’s with a 3-0 win against Tom Graham. The Understudies’ Patrick Hopkins then responded in kind with a 3-0 versus Joe Hopkins. Up next was Adam Warner for the Accy D’s versus Nathan Okeeffe for the Understudies. Okeeffe put in a strong first leg with an 18 darter, but from there Warner took the second before hitting 20 and 17 darters to win 3-1. Tom Jepson put the Accy D’s one away from the overall in the fourth game through his 3-0 victory against Adam Butcher, but Jack Quinn kept things going with a 3-1 win for the Understudies against Lewis Forrest in the last singles. In the first pairs game, Warner and Luke Davies got the job done for the Accy D’s, securing the overall win by beating Quinn and Damien Reed 2-0. Olly Nunn and Jack Newton then capped off the Accy D’s night with a 2-0 win over Patrick Hopkins and Elliot Hopkins, making the final score 5-2 to the Academicals.

Moving on, this week saw the first games of the Team Knockout. There were two matches in Group A, as the Swallownest Miners played the Riverside Warriors and the Accy D’s hosted the Raging Bull, and one in Group B, where Thorncliffe’s Finest faced off against the Understudies.

It didn’t take long for the Miners to take control of their tie, as Matt Spank, Kev Hatfield, Tim Whiting (who had a successful night with a 110 checkout), and Kev Allison all won their games 3-0. They were against Ian Webster, Paul Brittle, Barry Brittle, and Angie Brittle respectively. Such a performance guaranteed that the Miners had the night won with three games to spare, but Colin Johnson ensured the Warriors would not be going home empty-handed as he won a 3-0 of his own in the last singles. From there, the teams split the pairs games between them, with Whiting and Hatfield taking the first singles against Angie and Nicola Brittle, while Paul and Barry Brittle beat Rich Tingle and Sam Weston to give the Warriors their second win of the night. An overall score of 5-2 to the Miners, then, was how proceedings finished.

At the Uni Arms, Luke Davies (Accy D’s) and Liam Kent (Raging Bull) traded legs in the first game, which would go all the way to a decider. In that final leg, Davies missed tops for a 102 checkout and Kent stepped in with a 90 checkout (bull-tops) to take the win. The game between the Accy D’s Jack Newton and the Raging Bull’s Bri Jones also went the distance, with 21 and 17 darters in the fourth and fifth legs from Jones giving the Bulls their second 3-2 win. Game of the night was surely the match between Adam Warner and Mark Thompson. With every leg being won in 21 darts or less, by the time it reached a fifth leg Warner had taken two 18 darters, while Mark Thomson had in turn 16 and 17 darters, and a 180. And in that pivotal last leg, it was Thomson who won out, with a 21 darter, to put the Bulls 3-0 up. The fourth game saw the Accy D’s get a win on the sheet, as Joe Hopkins returned to form to beat Adam Chadwick 3-1. In the last singles, Tom Jepson won the first two legs for the Accy D’s (the first with a 21 darter). But the Raging Bull’s Matty Pierce, who had hit a 180 in the first leg, came back to win 3-2 and guarantee the away side the overall win. The Accy D’s had some consolation in the pairs, as wins for Hopkins and Jack Newton and Jack Lewis and Olly Nunn brought the home side’s tally to three wins to Raging Bull’s four.

The tie between the Thorns and Understudies began with Nathan Okeeffe hitting a 20 darter and a 180 against Dan Ashton before taking the next leg to go 2-0 up. Ashton rallied, winning legs three and four to force a decider, but Okeeffe held his nerve to win 3-2 and put the visitors one up. The home side responded, with Josh Hall and Oliver Parfrement both delivering 3-0 victories for the Thorns, against Damien Reed and Jack Stoddard respectively, with Parfrement capping his win off with a 19 darter. The Understudies came close to making things level in the fourth singles, as Elliot Hopkins and Lewis Wroe fought all the way to a fifth leg. In the end, it was Wroe who took it, winning 3-2 and putting the Thorns 3-1 up. The winning line was now in sight for the hosts, but Jack Quinn produced a straight legs win versus Logan Higgins, sealed with a 21 darter, to keep the Understudies in the tie. At the second time of asking, though, the Thorns got the job done, with Ashton and Higgins clinching it with a 2-0 victory against Okeeffe and Hopkins. With no time left to complete the last game, the tie ended here, meaning the final score was 4-2 to the Thorns.