Thursday Novemebr 22nd 2012 Away V Crooked Billet

With Harry Redknapp waiting in the wings for a top flight return this was the Darts equivilent of Manchester United V QPR as top of the table Crooked Billet take on bottom of the table Rose & Crown (arguably the divisions longest serving team) who find themselves in a relegation dog fight cut adrift now from those above them. If the trek to the title favourites and the runaway leaders wasn’t bad enough on a rainy Thursday night to Colney Heath things went from bad to worse as a bad accident at the Smallford roundabout added an extra three quarters of an hour to an already arduous trip into the country. The empty car park eventually greeted the visitors and perhaps was a sign that the home side were furnished with local villagers who had no need for mechanical devices other than those needed to work the land, but this was soon revealed to be a falsehood as the Crooked Billet far from being locals who enjoyed a game of arrows after a hard day in the fields were in fact townsfolk more a kin to driving white transit vans around the streets of Watford than that of the John Deere tractors through the pastures of Colney Heath. Skipper Alan Turner feeling the pressure decided tonight was the night to mix up the Rose & Crowns underperforming pairings and took the unusual step of splitting up Mulls and Neil Crosby who had previously lost only one match all season and his selection look vindicated as Skip who partnered Mulls went on to take the first leg with some ease but that was as good as it got and seemed the jinx of the first game continues as the Rose and Crown surrendered what should have been an easy victory, largely due to a lack lustre performance from Mulls who was way off the mark given several chances to wrap up the each of the next two legs. The Rose and Crown needed someone of the calibre of Harry Redknapp now to give them that motivation that they so seemed to be lacking but a quick look around the bar and apart from the darts players just one man and his dog sat in the saloon both appearing to be drinking curiously from the same vessel, it was therefore clear that this would have to come from within. Dude and Ian were up next and it has to be aid that Ian looks a different player away from his brother somewhat uninhibited. Nip 'n' tuck in the early stages then Ian rattles in 87 followed by Dude who leaves 42 against 116 Ian putting the home side out of their misery to go one leg up. Struggling to get off in the second leg surrendering 200 before eventually getting off but unable to make any inroads as the home side levelled the game. This habit repeated if’s self in the early stages of the second leg but Dude eventually gets off with 90 and Ian backs it up with a cool 81 to put them right back in the game. Both pairs then trading blows but it’s the dude with the knockout punch as he nailed 32 to level the scores 1-1. Ron and Kev now had a chance to give the Rose a surprise 2-1 lead. A slow start but they are soon off and running Kev hits 97 before Ron cracks in 101 giving the pairing a big lead in the first leg which Big Ron eventually wrapped up giving the pair an unlikely lead against their more illustrious opponents. A ton followed by 140 puts the Super league pairing for the Crooked Billet in the driving seat and with a 300 plus lead the pairing easily level the match. 18 darts and a 5 minute braak for ablutions later it was clear that the Rose and Crown were going quicker down the pan than Kevin Atkins could get to it. How crucial that first game now was and how Mulls must have been reflecting on it knowing that 2-1 down could easily have been 2-1 up. The honour of the first single fell at the feet of John Goode who put in a no nonsense performance with some solid scoring at the crucial times to produce a two leg victory and give the Rose, what Tony Scott (that other great” motivationalist”)would have described as a "sniff". It was up to Ian now to keep the momentum going for the visitors. This was going to prove to be a tall order against arguably the best player on the night and the tone was set as the home side got off to a flier with 120 away in reply to Ian's 20 from then on it was one way traffic as Ian was taken apart and putting paid to any reversal of the score line in the process. None the less the Rose were well and truly in this contest and most certainly not being put to shame by their more illustrious opponents and with the inform Kevin Atkins next to the oche anything could happen. If there was controversy tonight it revolved around Kev and the first leg was no exception with scores of 60,125 and 89 on his way to leaving 39 he then stepped forward to the oche and as the giraffe said "You don't get any leaves unless you stick your neck out a bit" hit 16, 9 and then checked out with double 8, the visitors thought that was it but on count back it was realised that in fact ex-school master now business manager had in fact miscounted and in fact required 39. This proved to be pivotal despite Kevin rattling in a 140 on his way to levelling the match the third leg was a leg to far all his efforts it seemed put into the first two legs. Despite being 2 legs down the Rose were still hopeful of pulling off an unlikely result especially as Mulls, Big Ron and the inform Neil Crosby were still to be play. It was down to Mulls to keep the St. Michaels outfit in the tie but right from the off Mulls was never in it. His opponent hitting the crucial scores at the crucial times whilst Mulls just simply went missing for parts of the game. Losing the first leg he managed to get back to level it but his darts were unusually wayward at times and his opponent took full advantage to wrap up a 2-1 win handing victory 5-2 to the league leaders. For the home side it was surely another two points as they march relentlessly towards the league title, for the visitors it’s back to the drawing board and perhaps a phone call to Harry!