Salopian open season with a derby success

The clash took place at Albrighton and Salopian included 14 debutants in their line up.

And one of those, Whitchurch’s Hayley McGuiness, was first on for Salopian and could consider herself unfortunate to go down to a 3-1 defeat to Sophie Fawcett

Shropshire took the next two games before Salopian responded taking the remaining three Ladies’ B games through Claire Boyle (13.52), Tracey Dean (12.96) and Alison Gallagher (15.34) to make it 3-3.

The Men’s B match saw Steve O Callaghan (19.27) put Salopian ahead only for Shropshire’s Brian Hickman (21.76) to level.

Eric Ryan (20.04) restored the lead for Salopian before Shropshire’s Luke Wildman (24.62) defeating Mark Crutchley, who landed two maximums.

Mark Jones (23.20) responded for Salopian who crucially took the following two games through Paul Ashworth (22.85) and Adrian Logsdale (22.81) to gain an overall lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Darren Lane (21.27) and Shaun Pryce (21.52) secured further wins for Salopian who took the Men’s B game 7-5 to lead 10-8 overnight.

The Ladies’ A side extended that advantage to 15-9 thanks to wins from Rachel Williams, Sarah Roberts, Steph Clarke, Evonne Taylor and Sue Lane.

That lead was reduced after Phil Clarke took the first Men’s A match for Shropshire, but Salopian replied with back-to-back 4-0 wins for Eddie Price and Jon Mansell, who both averaged over 25 per dart.

Steve Lynch hit back for Shropshire but Matt Elsey (23.96), Kacey Jones (26.51)and Paul Rowley then secured the overall victory for Salopian.

Shropshire took the next three games before Salopian duo Terry Nash and John Roberts won to secure a 22-14 success.