Four Horses At The Races In Premier League
The race for the title in the Monday Premier League looks like a straight fight between four teams after just five outings.
Tradesmans still lead but only by a single point after their 9-2 win over the Bluebird A with Mike O'Brien the top marksman, notching thirteen throws of a ton of more.
O'Brien was backed up admirably by Luke Johnson and Fred Goldsmith who had ten and twelve each with Johnson also registering the highest finish of the contest; a fine 100 kill.
There was also maximums for Tradesmans' John Mann and Fred Goldsmith with Alan Masters, Jack McMinn and Keith Lemon firing for the Compton side to little avail.
Second placed Octagon A gained a point on their Stonehouse rivals with a 10-1 win over bottom side Firkin Scholar.
Paul Palmer (30.06) was the star man for the Octagon with winning legs of 14,18,18 in his 3-0 success, which was aided by eight of the thirteen three figure scores, including a maximum, Palmer plundered on the night.
Top scorer for the Stonehouse side was Jayden Dodd with fourteen tons with Kieran Burns also contributing thirteen of his own.
Lee Hellings (25.05) performance was bettered by Burns (27.83) whose 3-0 win kept his share of the lead in the individual table with five wins from five played so far.
Third placed Victory B also have two players who're still undefeated after wins from Scott Cook and Paul Gavican.
Their team are now four back from the Octagon after dropping four points against their stablemates, Victory A team.
There was as many as seven maximums in the contest with Cook bagging two, putting him top of the 180 league with six overall, Gavican one and teammates Dan Johnson and Paul Goundry also hitting one each.
Darren Collis and Tony Conn also fired for the A side, with Collis also ploughing in ten more tons to take his personal total to eleven.
However, this effort was bettered by Gavican who contributed twelve tons of his own and narrowly defeated Collis in the singles 3-2.
The B team were as many as 7-1 up before a mini collapse in the last three individual games with Quinton Taylor taking the final singles thanks to ten tons on the night; one of which was a 120 checkout.
The other unbeaten individual player in the league so far is Antony Hayman, who plies his trade at the King Billy.
The Billy Boys brought themselves into contention with a fine 10-1 win over the Union Inn with Hayman notching a 13 dart leg and a maximum.
However, Hayman's efforts were overshadowed by Scott Wapshott who fired no fewer than nineteen ton plusses on the night with a maximum being one.
Teammate Matt Abbott also hit a brace of 180s with Kevin Lofthouse hitting a 17 dart leg and the highest finish of the contest, a 104.
The Bluebird C team narrowly defeated the Indian Inn B on a last leg decider in a match where four players added their name to the maximum column.
The most prominent of these was Bluebird's Steve Brocklesby who had two with teammates Glen Austin and Glenn Halford hitting one and Guy Steere replying with one for the away side.
The Compton team led 4-2 and 5-3 before being pegged back by Indian's Paul Freeman, who had a 74 finish in the match, and John Goodall leaving the game tied at 5-5.
It was veteran Tony Teal who was the Bluebird's hero as he stepped up and held his nerve in the final leg decider to give the spoils to his team.
Bluebird stablemates, the B team, suffered a 6-5 defeat to the Octagon B in a reversal of their C team's fortunes; losing a last leg decider of their own.
No side ever led by more than one leg in this topsy-turvy battle, in which Ryan Stubbs finished from 81 in three, before Simon Washington was the hero for the away side with a 3-0 win.
