Match Report – Warwickshire v Black County 

With the new 2024/2025 season and being back into the Central Division, Warwickshire were keen to get the season going with a win under our belts.

With the match format increased from 13 games to 15 games to accommodate the new format of 3 ladies, 7 under 18’s and 5 under 21’s, this meant the introduction of new players to the team.

The team all looked very smart with their new county shirts, so thank you to all our sponsors Radford Social Club, BULL'S Darts, The White Hart Ufton, XL Motors, Coventry Signs, Darren Swords Digital Marketing, Marcus Lewis Coaches Ltd & Oraclehncuk that have supported us for the next two years to achieve this.

With 100 people in attendance, it was great to have the support as always from Kevin Dowling & Caroline Pike, was also great to have Martin Partridge there to support us along with most of the Cherry Tree team that Charlie & Zac are in.

The day started with the Ladies. First up was Maya, with confidence entering the stage. Maya played some amazing darts throughout the match, the match went to the final leg, where Maya’s opponent took out the match winning darts at the first attempt with Maya narrowly loosing 3-2. With a very respectable average of 16.58, Maya needs to hold her head high with the performance. Next up was our club Captain Isobel, on the back of high confidence from the past couple of week Isobel started off the match well, with a couple of legs with double trouble, her opponent took advantage of the opportunities to seal the match 3-1. Isobel’s average was 11.70. Finally, up for the ladies was Krystal, Krystal played well throughout the match, but like Isobel had trouble with doubles to seal the legs. Krystal fell short of sealing the match losing 3-1 and with a 13.93 average.
With the three loses within the ladies this gave Black Country a lead of 3-0 overall and took the section win as well. (Warwickshire losing 3-0 in the Ladies section, has not happened for a very long time)

Next up was the under 18’s, with a new format of the section increased from 5 to 7 matches. First up was Tom, with lots of confidence from the practice board. Tom was very nervous first leg, but after sealing the first leg in a short time, started to relax to seal a 3-0 win and a MOM performance with a 20.04 average, This was a great start for the section. Next up was Ben. Ben was full of confidence after hitting a big average in a competition the day before. Ben came up against a very solid opponent, who hit the right scores at the right time, plus never allowed Ben a chance to take advantage of any mistakes. Ben fell short of winning the match losing 3-1 with a 21.93 average. This squared up the section 1-1. Moving on to the third match was Luke, with his game face on stepped onto the stage to deliver a steady performance winning 3-0 and with a respectable 18.56 average. Fourth up was Charlie, bubbly as always enters the stage, Charlie produced a steady performance to win 3-0 with a 16.89 average, to give a 3-1 lead in the section and 4-3 to Black Country overall. Fifth up was Kacie who was moved to the under 18’s section due to recent performance within local & national competitions, Kacie played well, but struggled to seal the match and fell short to a 3-1 lose with a 16.83 average. Sixth up was Mitch, who has only lost 2 games over the last two season, always feels comfortable on the stage. Mitch did not disappoint again with a steady 3-0 win and a 17.48 average. This sealed the section win, to allow Henry to play the final match with no pressure. Finally, on his debut Henry took to the stage for the first time, Henry seemed to be quite relaxed on the stage for his first time. Henry’s performance was a solid 17.18 average but lost 3-1 to finish off the section 4-3 to Warwickshire, with Black Country leading 6-4 overall.

Moving on to the final section Under 21’s with two out of the five on debut. With Warwickshire now 6-4 down and needing 4 out of 5 to win the overall match.

The first player up also on his debut was Tom Day. Tom’s first time on the stage, he settled his nervous once he hit the 1st 180 of the season, unfortunately Tom could not get over the line losing 3-0 with a 15.96, with the first games nerves now out of the way, we know you will feel more comfortable as the season goes on. With now Warwickshire needing the final 4 matches to win the match, next stepped up was Alfie, Alfie was very relaxed and confident leading up to his match, this proved the case as he sealed a 3-1 win and 23.17 average. Next up was Harry the boy’s captain. Harry delivered a great match with a confident 3-0 win and MOM average of 25.47. With the match now at 7-6 and only two games left, the match was on a knife edge.

The section was now 2-1 to Warwickshire with only 1 game required to win the section and 2 matches to win overall. Next up Jason, making his return to county youth for 1 last season, Jason was very focused on his match, it showed how focused he was, winning his match 3-2 with 25.38 average. The game was nip and tuck, and with the pressure of winning the section and making the overall match all square. With one match remaining Zac stepped up to complete the days play and looking to win the match. Zac did what Zac does, very calm and collected, delivered the result that Warwickshire was all waiting for with a 3-0 win with 21.17 average to seal an amazing comeback win from 6- 4 down going into the under 21’s section.

On the off-stage board games, we like to congratulate Taylor and Tayla for their excellent performances, both winning their three games, with some very impressive averages, well done and welcome aboard the team. The Youngest Player Alfie Dunn showed how much he is improving and delivered some amazing darts throughout the day, plus Toby played well and won his final off-stage game to prove he is ready for under 21’s. Sam showed his passion for Warwickshire and performed well throughout the day, a great start to the new season.
With an increasing lady’s section, Lucy was a new member of the team and showcased some amazing darts / scoring. Finally, Emmie and Rosie played some steady darts and proved why they are part of an amazing Warwickshire team, keep up the hard work.

We missed Harley, Jenson, Kian, Owen & Tommy, and look forward to seeing you all soon. Hope to see DJ Ollie back in the DJ booth too

We would like to thank, Cliff, Sam, Zac and Ben for your MC roles throughout the day.

Thank you to Helen for keeping everyone fed all day, this is your 3rd season doing this now and we all really appreciate it

Thank you also to everyone who came early and helped set up and stayed late to help clear away. It was cleared away in record time, about a 1/4 of the time it normally takes us 

Our next match is away to Clywd on the 13th October, we look forward to seeing as many people there as possible