A Royal occassion

9:37am Thursday 15th May 2008

DIVISION Five team Royal Scot upset the odds to make it a special homecoming.

Playing at their re-opened venue, they produced the shock of the Second Round in the Carlsberg UK Open Darts and Dominoes League Summer Team Knockout competition with an 8-7 aggregate success against Premier visitors Horseshoe.

Lance Richards, Rob Johnson and Mike Taylor surprisingly registered darts victories for the Scot against their lofty opponents which left Horseshoe with a slender 4-3 advantage.

As each team won three dominoes singles games, the Scot only needed to win one of the pairs games but scored victories in both thanks to Mike Taylor/Ray Cooper and John Crimes/Tony Timmis to give them their surprise appearance in round three.

Cup holders Pioneers strolled into the next round with an 8-5 victory over Amalgamated A.

The Pi's took the darts 5-2 with Tony Richardson on form, hitting an 18 darter including a 180 maximum.

Victory in three of the dominoes singles was enough to see them through.

Premier side Commercial also strolled into the next round beating Fourth Division visitors Sydney Arms 8-5 as did Vine A who won five of the six darts singles games.

Walter Boote was Division Five Imperial's only darts winner as the Vine then won three dominoes games to record a comfortable 8-6 aggregate home victory.

Delamere were helped by a Rob Paine 180 maximum as they built a 6-1 darts lead combined with dominoes wins by Clive Beech and Philip Taylor they ran out comfortable 8-5 aggregate winners against Queens Park Golf Club.

The other Premier team left in the competition was Rockwood who had a tougher match against Division Five opponents White Lion (Ford Lane).

Rockwood were greatly assisted by the efforts of Damien Weaver hitting a 15 darter finished with a 156 checkout and Dave Coyne winning in 18 darts with a 110 finish, enabling them to take the darts 4-3.

White Lion led 3-1 following victories by Dennis Fenna, Terry Lawton and Martin Dentith.

The Lion also won the first two dominoes games but Rockwood again hit back as the singles finished level at 3-3 leaving the tie to be decided on the final two dominoes pairs games.

The premier side proved too strong as the pairings of Liam Mullaney/George Davies and Stuart Horrell/Damien Weaver sealed a 9-6 aggregate win.

Cross Keys were again involved in a close game that went down to the wire.

Opponents Kings Arms A held a 4-3 darts advantage but the Keys fought back, leading the dominoes 4-2 which meant they had a 7-6 aggregate lead.

It all hinged on the dominoes pairs in which landlord Dave Cherrington and Paul Tomkinson won the decisive game to give the Cross Keys an 8-7 aggregate victory.

There was also a cliff-hanger between Vine B and Captain Webb A.

Bernard Porter won the first darts game for the Vine but Webb raced into a 5-1 lead winning the next two darts and the first three dominoes games.

Vine responded levelling at 6-6 thanks to Bernard Porter winning the last dominoes singles game and then went into a 7-6 lead.

Porter again, this time with Alan Charlesworth, won the final darts pairs game which meant that Vine had to win one of the doms pairs games while Webb required both.

Perhaps Vine should have looked for a Porter hartrick as Harold Billington/Bill Brereton and Andrew Lindop/Chris Billington lost to the Webb's pairings of Margaret Oakes/Tom Latham and Stuart Rowland/James Longley who secured an 8-7 aggregate victory.

Dave Bickerton 15 darts with a 160 checkout, Shaun Wilkinson 17 darts and Chris Volke a 180 maximum were on top form as LMR B trounced Cheshire Cheese 6-1 with Stuart Bloor their only darts success and with a 4-2 dominoes advantage completed an easy 10-3 aggregate victory.

Crown also completed a 6-1 rout of Bridge A with their only darts victor being Jamie Hawkins who also hit a 180 maximum whilst the Crown's Malc Day and Terry Akrigg recorded the necessary dominoes victories to win 8-5.

Bridge C and Raven A both had comfortable 9-6 away victories over respective opponents Foresters and North Ward B whilst Dishers (9-3), Nantwich Rd Aslef (10-2) and British Lion A (11-4) had even easier away victories against Kings Arms B, Hawk and Nantwich Rd Club.

The draw for round three on June 30 is as follows: Captain Webb A v Dishers South St; LMR B v British Lion A; Nantwich Rd Aslef v Commercial; Cross Keys v Crown; Bridge C v Pioneers; Royal Scot v Rockwood; Delamere v Raven A; Liberal v Vine A.