Black Country’s fifth game of the season, a home tie with Leicestershire, saw them lose 24-12 after recording  three wins and a draw in their opening four games. The weekend didn’t get off to the best of starts as the Ladies ‘B’ slumped to a 5-1 defeat with Doreen Hunt their sole winner, beating Sam Harris 3-0 with a 17.08 average.

Saturday’s woes continued as the men’s ‘B’ also lost going down 8-4 with John Green, Sam Bissell, Mark Jones and Carl Sparrow their only winners. Taking the match award for his 26.07 average and 3-2 win over Adam Marziano was Mark Jones.  

Sunday’s ladies ‘A’ game saw a slight improvement as they finished all-square at 3-3. Heather Wright got the ball rolling with her opening 3-2 win over Kirsty White only to see Leicestershire’s Angela Sheffield win 3-0 against Sarah-Jane Parker and then Kelly Welsh beat Maxine Prosser 4-3 to put the away team 2-1 up.

A lady of the match performance from Tammy Chance levelled the score at two each Tammy winning 3-2 against Shannon Reeve with a fine 21.71 average, and then with a 3-1 win for Amy-Leigh Tolley over Liz Brunt Black Country were in an unassailable position leading 3-2. The final game went to the wire with Leicestershire’s Julie Booth just getting the 3-2 edge on Chez Allcock to earn a share of the spoils with a 3-3 draw.  

The first two games of the men’s ‘A’ match went to a decider with the visitors Darren Tyler and Matthew Dickinson getting the respective 4-3 results over Jamie Rollinson and Jamie Barrowman. Paul Wells halved the deficit when in the third he won 4-1 against Michael Hibbert, but unfortunately that was to be the home team’s only win of the half as George Willetts lost 4-2 to Anthony Sutton, and Ricky Sudale and Paul Ablett in turn won 4-2 against Dan Nicholls and Wayne Hobday to give the away side 5-1 lead at the midway point of the match.

Things got worse as the second half began, Jason Lole extending Leicestershire’s lead to 6-1 with his 4-1 win over Tom Bissell. The eighth game saw Martin Price chalk up Black Country’s second win as he beat Jaikob Selby-Rivas 4-0 but a 4-2 success for Bradley Coltman over Shane Price put the result beyond the home team’s reach as their opponents were now in a match won position leading 7-2.

Then came the hosts best run of the game, two wins in a row as Trev Brennan won 4-2 against Grant Brown and man of the match Rich Bowen won 4-3 against Ben Quenby with a 27.09 average. The final game of the weekend went to the away side’s Andrew Hibbert who beat Rob Smith 4-0 to put the final score at 8-4 to Leicestershire and the overall result for the weekend 24-12, again to Leicestershire.

The defeat has seen Black Country drop from pole position to third on 105 points, some thirty-five short of new leaders Gwent, but with a game in hand.   

—–ENDS—–

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