Late flurry is key to Welly win
ON Friday evening in the Widnes & District Darts League, the Mill Brow RTB League continued.
In Division One the Corpy at home to the Mill Brow SC took the first game through Ian Argent.
The Brow responded with wins for Paul Woodward, Alan Friar, Carl Hackney & Eric Peel.
The Corpy, not to be outdone, levelled the encounter with two victories from Neil Platt & Mike Ruane and Ian Argent & Mark O’Connor.
They then took a good lead to secure the match with two further successes from Jeff Thompson and Mark O’Connor.
Brian Spruce won the final game for the Mill Brow.
The Wellington at home to Simms Cross Institute conceded the first game to the Stute’s Brian Abbott. Karl Whitfield then levelled for the Wellington.
The Stute took the lead again via Paul Batty and again the Wellington levelled, this time through their opening pair Anthony Hall & Barry Highfield.
The Stute’s Glyn Owen & Tony Green (13 darts) secured the next game, whilst yet again the Wellington restored parity through Karl Whitfield & Ste Whitfield (16 darts).
The Wellington then went on to take the remaining three games and the match through Jimmy Holden, Ste Whitfield (13 darts) and Anthony Hall.
Widnes Bowling Club at home to the Millfield took a good early lead with victories for Joe Batty, Alex McGill, Tex Bowles (13 darts) and Tommy Robertson & Alex McGill to take a 4-0 lead.
The Millfield’s Ray Dutton & Keith Horabin recovered a point, but only to see a further two wins from Joe Batty & Scott Grady and Scott Grady ensure the Bowling Club’s victory.
Alan Sutton then claimed the penultimate game for the Millfield, whilst Mark Smith added the final game to Widnes Bowling Club’s already winning tally. ●
IT was a bad day at the office for Widnes as they slumped to a 28-11 defeat at the hands of Southport who now look set to overtake them in the league table in the coming weeks.
It was only their second home loss of the campaign, but it was by far their worst display of the season.
Southport, on the other hand, will be absolutely thrilled with their victory.
Not only did they go on to complete the double over their nearest and dearest, but the result was a clear indication of how far their team have progressed in this division since achieving promotion only last term.
For Widnes, it is back to the drawing board – or rather the training paddock – in preparation for this Saturday’s tough trip to Glossop.
As the game got underway – the first for three weeks after the festive break – optimism was high amongst the Widnes supporters at least that their home form would be good enough to secure the league points on offer.
They were also conscious that their side would be itching for revenge following the disappointing loss at Waterloo Road back in September.
Although the weather for the game was somewhat chilly, grey and overcast mixed in with some light rainfall throughout, the conditions weren’t half bad for a game of rugby in the depths of winter.
Widnes had long-term injury casualty Aaron Duggan back in the fold, whilst Gareth Whitfield was having his first outing at stand-off as the game got underway.
The opening exchanges, especially on the scoreboard, were all rather frantic.
The home side were able to make some early in-roads into the Southport half, but it was the visitors who got their noses in front first with a Charlie Attis penalty after just six minutes.
Three minutes later, Southport were penalised for a high tackle and Kevin Leadbetter stepped up to square things up at 3-3.
Not to be outdone, back came Southport, and when the home side infringed, Attis was again on hand to make it 6-3 to the Merseysiders.
Whitfield then made a surging run up the centre of the field for Widnes, from where the ball was swung out wide to get ‘try machine’ Antony Leadbetter in at the corner for a five-pointer to give his side the lead.
Minutes later, though, Widnes were made to pay for some slack work in defence which allowed livewire scrum-half Jack Mann to race clear and score a try which was again converted by Attis.
Kevin Leadbetter then converted another penalty for Widnes which reduced the deficit, before they coughed up more cheap possession in their own danger zone which enabled the big, well-drilled Southport pack, to get to work and rumble their way over the line for a Colin Fearns try.
The conversion attempt, however, was wide of the target.
With a score of 18-11 in favour of the visitors, it all meant that the scoreboard had been rattling along at the rate of over a point a minute.
Widnes then suffered an injury blow as hooker Charles Lang had to leave the field with a knock and he was replaced by Jacob Coole-Healey in the frontrow.
The remainder of the half continued to see the home side struggle to develop any sort of go-forward momentum with Southport maintaining their advantage.
Indeed, the visitors probably should have scored more points, but they bombed some opportunities as well as missing with a late penalty attempt as the half finally drew to a close.
Widnes got the second half underway with the coach’s words ringing in their ears and hoping for a rapid change in fortunes.
Southport, though, continued to have other ideas, and, with the home side continuing to mis-fire on all cylinders, it wasn’t long before the trusty boot of Attis edged his side a little further ahead with yet another three-pointer.
After 51 minutes, Widnes suffered a hammer blow to their hopes and aspirations, as Southport broke free from long range to score a try wide out through Tom Mill.
Attis converted in style to all but make things safe with almost half-an-hour still to go.
Kevin Leadbetter attempted to shake off the Widnes lethargy with a break down centre field, but even then the Southport defence was good enough to bundle his brother Antony into touch as he tried to squeeze over in the corner.
The last quarter of the game failed to contain any sort of real highlights, and whilst Widnes continued to stutter along to the