Wots Ganin

With the Men’s A team pretty much out of contention for this year, all the emphasis was on the Men’s B who were 6 points clear of Northants B before this match started.

Aware of the significance of the result, the Selection committee had secured the services of Mark “Chappers” Chapman and Keith “The Mank” Garner to bolster up the side and enticed Scott Varden back from the A team and he’d obviously celebrated the news of his recall with a trip to TOPMAN’s “Brown section” – Knighty thought Scott was wearing his Step dad’s clothes! (See Pic)

Warks B made a good start, but were pegged back as Northants took the first section 6-5. Nothing much to chose between the teams either in the 2^nd section, which Northants won 6-5 again to take a 12-10 advantage at the halfway stage. A total disaster in the 3^rd section saw Warks lose 8-3 with only the “new boys” (Chappers, Mank and Matty Allen) getting wins leaving Warks staring defeat in the face as they went into the final section, trailing by 13 to 20 frames.

Northants made it 21-13, but then Warks B took 6 straight frames to pull it back to 19-21. Northants made it 19-22 only to see Chappers and Benji win and take the score to 21-22 leaving it resting on the final frame and Russ Harding. Russ cleared up brilliantly, but as the black fell into the pocket, the white ball came off the side cushion and knocked a red ball in behind it. Gutted ! I, of course, maintained my composure and called them all a “Lucky bunch of C***s” – tactful to the end me.

This now means that Northants are 1 point in front of us and Worcestershire are 1 point behind us. On paper you’d have to fancy Northants at this point as they have 2 relatively easy matches left to play whilst we travel to Worcester for our next match and face Gloucester in November. Either way, it promises to be an interesting finale to the season. An excellent 4 out of 4 from Keith “Mank” Garner earned him the Man of the match trophy whilst they were 3 out of 4’s from Dave Lea & Chappers and a 2 out of 2 from Matty Allen.

A couple of players missing for the B team provided openings for Steve Valentine and Dave Hegarty to get their first start in a county match as the team attempted to build on their 2 out of 2 winning start to the 2008 campaign.

Team: Russ Blinco, Roy Pontefract, Dave Easson, Dave Lea, Mank, Craig West, Matty Allen, Scott Varden, Chappers, Martin Groves, Russ Harding, Dave Collins, Howard Bailey, Neil Pincham, Chris Lowe and Gaz Calcott.....

They lead kept changing hands as Warks edged into a 20-19 lead, Northants pulling it back to 21-20 and Warks levelling again at 21-21 thanks to Craig Sturmey. Northants made it 22-21 and in the deciding frame, Steve Valentine won to earn Warwickshire A a draw.

The Warks A were up against the champions in waiting as Northants are sitting some 35 points clear at the top of the table. Warks lost the first section 5-6 and then completely lost their way in the 2^nd section as they caved in 3-8 to go 8-14 down overall. A much improved performance in the 3^rd section, which they won 8-3 to narrow the gap to 16-17 going into the final section.

Valley won Man of the match for his efforts with a 3 out of 4 and there were other 3 out of 4’s from Sam Mills, Rich Mills and Paul Willis.

Team: Karl Knight, Sam Mills, Andy West, Rich Mills, Paul Willis, Dave Hegarty, Baz Hinde, Rob Butterworth, Craig Sturmey, Ben Deeley and Steve Valentine.

Better days at last for the Warwickshire Ladies as they had players to spare for this “clash” with Northants Ladies …… and I mean CLASH!

The Girls were winning 2-0 to start with, but eventually lost the section 3-8. The 2^nd section also went the way of Northants 5-6 to give them a comfortable 13-9 advantage at the halfway mark. Another close section saw Northants just edge it 5-6 to take a 14-19 lead going into the last section. Northants went into a 22-17 lead, but wins from Katie, ali and Hazel dragged it back to 20-22.

However, Northnants took the final 2 frames to win 24-20.

Wendy Forde won 4 out of 4 to take the player of the match trophy whilst Ali Wilkins won 3 out of 4 and Skye Smith got 2 out of 2.

Team: Tracy Layfield, Wendy Forde, Skye Smith, Lorna Kernaghan, Vicky Moore, Charlie Scarff, Kat Jarvis, Katie Bonham, Ali Wilkins, Hazel Payne, Liz Cheetham and Julie Brittain.