We start with some very sad news of the recent passing of former London player Robbie Beaton. Robbie played 64 times for London, winning 40 of them.
Robbie has been very fondly remembered on social media, I also spoke with two of his contemporaries (Nicky Turner and Dave Harris) who were unanimous in their comments that not only was he a very fine player that meant his opponent had to be on their “A” game otherwise they would have been on the wrong end of the scoreline.but more importantly he earned great respect throughout the darting fraternity as a decent, honest and likeable person.
On behalf of all at Darts World we would like to extend our sincere condolences.
London began their darting year with a home fixture against Oxfordshire. They started well, with the Ladies B taking a 4-2 sectional win. The first two games went to the visitors before Lauren Burgess, Kelly Livett, Carly Townsend and Nikki Patten all chalked up fine wins.
The Men’s B carried on the good work by running up a four win sequence of their own to start the second session. Danny Brown, Jamie Tilley, Alan Reeves and Ben West all departed the stage with a point safely secured. Oxfordshire hit back with three wins of their own, although two of them required all seven legs to be played. The two teams then traded the final five matches of the day, London claimed three of them courtesy of John Walters, Dean Buckland and Gene Hill. The 7-5 sectional win put London 11-7 ahead going into the following day’s play.
The Ladies A were really tested by their counterparts. Oxfordshire opened the stanza with the first two points, but Mandy Solomons stepped up to open the account for the day. Tammy Mackenzie deserved to add her name to the roll of honour, but couldn’t quite finish off the many openings she carved out and Deta Hedman was more than relieved to come away with the win for the visitors in a tense final leg. Felicia Blay and Lauren Bloomfield did get over the winning line and on reflection a 3 all draw in the section was probably a fair result.
The Men’s A went into the final session with the four point overall lead still intact. That quickly evaporated with Chris Holt the only victor in the first seven matches. The game had now turned on its head, Oxfordshire were now in the ascendancy with a 16-15 lead and it was the Londoners who now had to dig deep. Graham Rackstraw and Matt Wood were the ideal players to come next, and proved why dropping only one leg between them to get London back ahead.
The see-saw nature continued, Oxfordshire then took the next two matches to ensure a bonus point at the very least. Could London fight back one more time? The answer was in the affirmative as Lee Cocks won in the sixth leg to ensure that the overall spoils were shared.
London remained at the top, but it was their turn in February to draw the divisional bye and consequently Hertfordshire have now edged a single point ahead. A tense and exciting climax to the season seems assured, and London will be looking to pile on the pressure as they travel to Derbyshire during the first weekend in March.
London’s youth have also been busy. They gave Surrey a tough time before eventually losing 9-6, and this past weekend were on the wrong end of a 10-5 scoreline against Berkshire, but in both games acquitted themselves well and never gave up.
Both Super League look like they are going to go right down to the wire.
Welling B and Vauxhall A are slugging it out in the Men’s Super League with the reigning National Champions holding a slender 2 point lead. Welling A are clear in third, ahead of Greenwich B and Bethnal Green. Greenwich A and Vauxhall B are some distance back, and Not The Guys round out the table.
The Ladies Super League finds the London Shrapnels at the head of affairs with the Boozy Booshes hot on their heels with only a three point deficit to try and make up. Wanderers, Wonky Booshes and Daredevils are embroiled in a three-way battle for the bronze medal, with The Thirsty Booshes bringing up the rear.
—–ENDS—–
“The Pearly King”
Supported by The Horseshoe Pub, Clerkenwell and Darts GB