OB in victorious England team which won Six Nations

ENGLAND ladies won their fourth title in succession and their seventh in 10 years when the Six Nations Cup 2019 was hosted at De Bonte Wever in Assen, Netherlands, over the weekend.

They made a good start when winning both their early matches on the opening day of competition to stake a place in the semi-final.

The weekend started though with the Six Nations Charity Singles but no player from the England Ladies’ team made it past the quarter-finals.

CHAMPIONS: The all-conquering England Ladies team who won the Six Nations Cup when beating Northern Ireland 5-0 in the final with a team average of 26.93. Left to right: Lorraine Winstanley, Fallon Sherrock and Maria O'Brien.

Lorraine Winstanley went the furthest in the ladies’ event before being beaten 4-3 by Ann-Marie Potts in the quarter’s, while in the men’s knockout, Devon’s Paul Milford put in a good showing before he went out in the semis.

The Exmouth marksman defeated his England team-mates Daniel Day and Scott Mitchell 4-2 and 4-3 respectively before ending the hopes of Holland’s Jeffrey Sparidaans 4-2.

Those three victories got him through to the semi-final, but he was denied a place in the final when beaten 4-0 by an in-form Neil Duff from Northern Ireland.

England ladies contested the first of their team matches against Northern Ireland, emerging 7-2 winners and repeated that score-line against Scotland to progress to the semi-finals.

Fallon Sherrock was undefeated throughout and also produced the best games when defeating Kayleigh O’Neill in 17 and Scotland’s Louise Hepburn in 19.

The Men’s side opened their account with a 13-9 defeat of Scotland and followed that success with a 13-6 win against Northern Ireland.

England ladies were drawn against Wales in their semi-final and Fallon Sherrock earned them the first point when, aided by a maximum 180, she checked out in 16.

Wales levelled only for Lorraine Winstanley to restore England’s advantage, but Wales won the fourth to level at 2-2.

Winstanley took the next in 18, followed by a win from Sherrock before Plymouth’s Maria O’Brien won their all-important fifth point to put England into the final.

England men’s side did not have the best of starts in their semi-final against Wales and were 3-0 down after the early exchanges.

Devon’s Paul Milford stopped the rot when winning in 14 against the darts and Martin Atkins made it 2-3 when winning the next in 16.

England then drew level at 3-3 through Scott Mitchell and the teams were still level at 4-4 before England edged in front for the first time at 5-4 through Daniel Day.

But Wales then won six on the bounce including a win in 12 from Jim Williams which he finished with a kill of 148 and a 15 darter from Nick Kenny when checking out from 145.

Nigel Heydon pulled one back when winning the next in 17 and England salvaged another when Mitchell defeated Kenny in 19. The next two legs were shared but Wales were in the driving seat with an 11-8 lead.

From this point Wales kicked on again and the match winner was achieved in 15 by Darren Bingham, who finished on the bull, to give Wales a 13-8 victory and their place in the final.

Northern Ireland were England’s surprise opponents in the ladies’ final after they had knocked out the Netherlands, but they could not replicate that form and were well beaten.

Sherrock again got England off to the perfect start when winning the opening leg in 14 before O’Brien won in 16, against the darts to put England 2-0 up.

That soon became 3-0 when Winstanley won in 21 and O’Brien followed in 22 for a 4-0 lead.

It was left for Winstanley to have the glory and aided by a top score of 180 she checked out in 20 for a comprehensive 5-0 victory and another Six Nations title.

The Men’s title was won by the Netherlands when they defeated Wales 13-5.

The Welsh did have some consolation though when they won both finals of the charity singles through Rhian Sullivan and Jim Williams.

Fallon Sherrock had the distinction of claiming the ladies’ player of the tournament award when she remained unbeaten throughout the three days of competition.

England’s winning trio will be joined by Trina Gulliver later in the year when they will contest the WDF World Cup in Cluj-Napoca, Romania from Monday, October 7 to Saturday October 12 inclusive.

The photo above shows England's men's team of (from left to right): Martin Atkins, Paul Milford, Scott Mitchell, Daniel Day and Nigel Heydon.