No Bull From Harry
New Devon cap Harry Bull showed the credentials that allowed his selection to the county fold with no fewer than sixteen ton plusses in his Indian A team's 7-4 win over Octagon B in the Monday Premier League.
Another young star of the future, Simon Washington, put ten tons on the board and played out an epic contest with Bull that ended with a 3-2 to the latter.
Bull's teammates, Charlie Mitchell and Mike Whatley, both showed that there's still life in the old dogs with the only maximums of the contest.
The highest finish of the contest was chalked up by Octagon's Lee Wyatt who took out a cool 110 finish in his 3-2 individual win.
Another clash involving teams from the Indian and Octagon venues had roles reversed with the Octagon A running out 7-4 winners at Indian B.
Four 180s were scored for the visitors with Lewis Dare's brace being added to by Lee Hellings and Dave Pethick.
Dare also clinched legs in 14 and 18 in his 3-0 singles success but this was beaten by Pethick's 13 darter in his 3-1 defeat to Matt Nicholson who also bagged ten tons for himself.
That result left Octagon ten adrift in the exciting three horse title race, which took another dramatic twist this week as leaders Tradesmans made a huge statement when winning 10-1 at King Billy.
Luke Johnson and Mike O'Brien were top performers for the Stonehouse side when chipping in twelve and ten ton plusses respectively, whilst John Mann hit the only 180.
Johnson (27.83) also won his singles 3-0 when taking out two 17 darters and a finish of 115 in a match in which Tradesmans only dropped two legs.
Those legs were taken by Scott Wapshott and Matt Chegwin in a 2-1 doubles success, with the former hitting twelve tons much in vain to put up some resistance.
Second placed Victory B are now nine off the pace after they themselves dropped four points at home to a spirited Bluebird A who belied their mid-table league position.
The respectable defeat owed much to the form of Alan Masters, Shaune Kittle and Jack McMinn who all ploughed in maximums for the Compton side.
The latter of the trio also added a further nine tons on the night to make it to double figures individually, which enabled him to a 3-2 win over Paul Gavican who was joint individual leader at the time.
Gavican's teammate, Paul Goundry, produced the highest finish of the match and week with a fine 125 checkout whilst Steve Ebsworth also chalked up a 180 of his own.
The defeat for Gavican leaves Scott Cook with the outright net lead in the race for the singles crown thanks to his game in hand over Tradesmans Mike O'Brien; who is currently tied with Cook on 35 points.
Bluebird C now occupy fourth spot in the standings after they defeated Victory A 6-5 who themselves have dropped into the bottom half thanks to some poor form and games in hand.
Despite the result, it was the Honicknowle side who led the way in the scoring stakes with Darren Collis, Tony Tasker and Quinton Taylor all reaching eleven tons each.
Collis joined Bluebird's Lee Roberts and Glenn Halford in the 180 column whilst Collis' 84 checkout was beaten by an effort of 91 by Halford for the highest of the match.
The Compton team's Glenn Austin chalked up a 17 darter that was only beaten in the contest by a thirteen by Victory's Taylor who also followed this with an 18 darter in a 3-1 singles success.
The game itself ebbed and flowed with the lead changing hands four times before Nick Perring claimed a final leg to decide the contest in favour of his Bluebird team.
Bluebird C's neighbours, their B team, claimed a third win of the campaign in a basement clash with Union Inn which they won 7-4.
Shane Victor and Dale Halford both top scored with eleven and ten tons whilst Vince Scallan hit the only maximum of the game and Dan Hurley took a leg in 18 darts.
The Union may feel slightly hard done by with five of the eleven matches going down to last leg shootouts, which ultimately decided the result in the Bluebird's favour.
