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Posted:
Monday 2nd February 2009
Source: Stephen Birley
Ross Acton, Gary Newall and Luke Wrightson, collectively lifted
the cricket club darts team from certain defeat to set up a
magnificent fight back that sadly ended in glorious failure,
albeit in the final set of a thrilling contest against
Cullompton Royal British Legion.
After Alan Dowrick, Eddie Andress and Steve Birley, had all
succumbed to 2-0 leg defeats – ‘Biggles’ going down to a member
of the fairer sex. Up stepped the skipper, Ross Acton, now fully
recovered from nasty bug that had denied him action on the oche
for each of the previous Fridays.
Acton was superb, averaging 80 with each three darts as he
claimed a memorable victory. However he was almost denied his
marvellous success though by ‘Biggles’ who, in his customary
role of marker, inexplicably chalked up the 1st leg as going to
the Legion thrower, despite the fact that the smooth and
calculated Acton left hand, had nailed the required double 8!
Acton quickly claimed the 2nd leg and suddenly there was a
glimmer of hope for the club side. Up stepped Gary ‘Mr
Consistency’ Newall but he was surprisingly well below his best
but still had enough to first hang in his match and then, when
his opponent spurned the chance to claim a leg, dealt the major
blow of securing a 2-0 win and cementing the fact that the club
were right back in the contest.
At 2-3 this brought Luke ‘Dead Eye’ Wrightson to the oche and he
was up against a young lad who plays county darts for Devon.
Wrightson lost the first leg but then charged back to first
level things up at 1-1 and then take out the talented teenage
opponent and the match was balanced at 3-3 after the six
singles.
Eddie ‘Eagle’ Andress and Alan ‘Mr Reliable’ Dowrick took on the
Mr and Mrs combination who had seen off both Mr Reliable and
Biggles in 2-0 singles wins, and the pair so nearly pulled off a
huge shock, taking their opponents to a 3rd leg before being
edged out 1-2.
This brought the two youngest members of the side to the oche
and these days Ross ‘Exocet’ Acton and ‘Dead Eye’ are a match
for any combination and they cruised to a superb 2-0 win to take
the match to the final game.
So for the second week running ‘Biggles’ was cast in the role of
anchor man to seal a 5-4 win. Sadly though a word rhyming with
anchor probably applies as the big man missed a crucial dart at
his favourite double tops and, despite another superb set of
darts from his partner Mr Consistency, the club pair lost 2-1
and so the match was lost 5-4.
But make no mistake, the cricket club darts team is becoming
quite a force.
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