Team Knockout Week 4

Report by Olly Nunn

With the Uni Lads back home for Christmas, there were only two fixtures played this week – Raging Bull vs Riverside Warriors and Foxhill and District As vs Woodbourne Mouses.

Starting with the former, 17 and 20 darters got Mark Thomson off to a good start against Colin Johnson. The third leg soon followed, giving Thomson a 3-0 win and putting the home side one up. The second game saw the Bull’s Adam Chadwick face the Warriors’ Ian Webster. Legs one and two were split between them, but from there Chadwick held and then broke to take the match 3-1. 3-0 and 3-1 wins for Bri Jones and Matty Pierce (with an 18 dart leg for Jones to finish his game), versus Angie and Paul Brittle, were enough to clinch the win for the Raging Bull with three games to spare. A straight-legs victory for Jason Marsh in his game against Nicola Brittle then meant the Bulls had a clean sweep in the singles. The Warriors had some hope when Paul Brittle and Ian Webster went 1-0 up in the first pairs, but Thomson and Chadwick came back to claim a 2-1 win. This left Jones and Pierce to beat Angie and Nicola Brittle 2-0 in the last pairs, meaning the final score was 7-0 to the hosts.

Yet while it was a relatively drama-free night in Aughton, things were closer at Foxhill. Bottom of Group B after a loss to the Thorns last week, the home side were looking to get their Team Knockout campaign back on track. Ben Cooper got them off to a good start, winning the first game 3-0. But Mouses secured their own whitewash in the second game, as Steve Caley saw off Jack Walker. Two 3-1 wins for the away team followed, as Jordan Caley beat Morgan Mullins and Tom Wright beat Martin Schimelds, putting the Mouses on the brink of victory. However, a 3-1 win for Dale Blackwell against James Thomas kept the tie alive going into the pairs. At the second time of asking, though, the Mouses got over the line, with Glynn Harris and Jordan Caley taking the first pairs game 2-0. Despite this, Cooper and Blackwell managed to take their second wins of the night, and Foxhill’s third overall, in the last game, making the overall result 4-3 to the Mouses.

So, after a week that has seen Raging Bull and the Mouses consolidate their positions at the top of the groups, the Franchise League comes to its Christmas break. Play will resume on January 5^th, with many weeks of darting action set to come in the New Year!