Week 18

Games played Wednesday 7th September

The Swan A were crowned Premier champions as they just pipped The Gladiators Club A by one point in one of the closest finishes for many years. Gladiators beat The Six Bells A 3-0, 25-21, 29-22, 31-12, with Geoff Townsend top scoring with thirteen dolls. This meant that The Swan with a one doll handicap advantage had to get two points from their final game against The New Club A. In a nervous night New Club set the opening leg with 26 and in reply Swan struggled early on leaving their last two men Terry Stuart & Keith Powell ten to win. Stuart produced the throw of the night by clanging off all six and then Powell followed that up by whipping off the four dolls needed, hitting the winning doll with his last stick to give The Swan a 1-0 lead. New Club set the next leg with 25 and in reply there was a bit of a mixture of throwing but they left anchor man Powell only needing three to win the leg and with it the title, however he could only hit two to tie the leg. The Swan set in the three stick shoot out with an impressive 16 which was enough to give them victory and the league title. Final and deciding leg was just as exciting with The Swan setting with 30. In reply New Club could only hit eleven with their first four players leaving their last four needing twenty to win and they were up for the challenge. Jimmy Kent hit four, Tony Bradford hit five, Mark Washington hit five leaving anchor man Pete Shepherd needing a six to win the tie and he did just that whipping off all six to give them a well deserved point. Lee Hazell (5-4-4) and Terry Stuart (6-3-4) top scored for The Swan while Jimmy Kent (5-3-5), Mark Washington (4-4-5) and Pete Shepherd (3-4-6) all hit thirteen for The New Club.
Kevin Stuart signed off in style for The George as he bagged himself a six in his fourteen dolls haul (5-3-6) in their 2-1 win at The Black Prince. Team mate James Morrison chipped in with a bakers dozen (4-4-5) in the leg scores of 26-24, 21-32, 29-22. Ian Grant was top dog for The Prince with thirteen dolls (4-4-5).
There will be a play off for the Section One title as Garsington Sports A and Yarnton British Legion both recorded 3-0 wins to leave them level at the top. Garsington at home to The Bullnose A stormed to a 2-0 lead winning the first two legs in style 30-23, 35-22 but almost came unstuck in the third leg. Bullnose set with 18 and what should have been a formality almost turned into disaster. They struggled all the way through the leg and could only tie the leg when anchor man Trevor Greenaway hit the three dolls needed to tie. Garsington won the leg on a three stick shoot out.
The Swan B made it a double for the pub by winning the Section 2 title by two points after beating the New Club B 2-1. Their closest rivals The Six Bells D could only beat their A 2-1. They won the opener 23-13 but lost the next leg 17-15. They rallied in the final leg winning it 19-12. This meant that The Swan needed just one point and they made sure in the first leg winning it 26-18 at The New Club B. The Swan got even better in the next leg winning it 27-20 before The New Club grabbed a point in the final leg 18-16.

Section Three will have a three way play off between Florence Park A, Vikings A and The Chequers A. Florence Park A beat Tiddington Cricket Club 2-1 in the leg scores of 19-18, 20-15, 15-19 while Vikings A lost to their B team 2-1. It was looking good for the A team when they won the opener 19-8 but the B team recovered well to win the next two legs 24-21, 24-18 to stop their A team from winning the section outright.
The Chequers A sneaked the first leg on three sticks after it was tied 17-17 away at The King & Queen, but that was to be their only success as The King & Queen fought back to win the next two legs 16-13, 20-17.

Northway Club A were crowned Section 7 champions despite losing to their B team 2-1. Tension seemed to get the better of them as they lost the first two legs 13-10, 12-10 but got the all important point they needed in the final leg 17-11.
Their nearest rivals The Bullnose B lost to The Original Swan A 2-1 which left them one point short of forcing a play off.

With three teams all fighting for the Section 8 title it was The Black Horse that came out on top. Needing maximum points against Kidlington F.C. to make sure, they won the opening leg 14-10 but lost the next 17-7. The final leg they won 15-12, which proved to be the winning leg as The Cricketers dropped a leg against The Golden Ball.
The Cricketers came a close second after defeating The Golden Ball B 2-1. The opening leg was tied 13-13 with Golden Ball winning it on three sticks. The second leg was also tied this time 15-15 with The Cricketers winning it on three sticks. The final and deciding leg went to The Cricketers 19-12. Lee Worral for the Ball (3-4-3) and David Nelms (3-5-2) for The Cricketers both threw well.

In Section 9 after trailing in second place for all of the season Bletchingdon Sports Club pipped The Golden Ball A at the post at the final hurdle. Golden Ball had played all their games and led by one point. Bletchingdon knowing they needed at least two points for the crown threw their best score of the season winning all three legs 17-6, 19-10, 17-14.

The top dolls scorer wasn’t decided until the very last throw of the night. Going into the final games Jon Townsend (The Swan A) led Roger Goodall (The New Club A) and Kevin Giles (Gladiators A) by one and two dolls respectively. Giles blew his chance in the first leg only scoring one, while Townsend and Goodall who were playing against each other, Goodall hit 4 while Townsend could only hit 2, putting Goodall one in front. The next leg they both hit four apiece and in the final leg Townsend hit 2. Goodall knowing he needed just 2 to top the scores hit 3 dolls and retained the title for the second season running.

The Section 1 playoff will be at The Gladiators Club & the Section 3 play off will be at Littlemore British Legion, both on Wednesday 14th September.

Finals night will be on Friday 14th October at The Kassam Stadium. Tickets £3.00 each.

Can all teams or players that hold trophies from last season please return them asap to either The Gladiators club or Kevin Giles at 27 Rosamund Road, Wolvercote.
SIXERS: T.Stuart, K.Powell, (Swan A) P.Shepherd (New Club A) K.Maunder (Garsington Sports A) L.Purcell (Geroge A) P.Austin (Black Prince)

BLOBBERS: J.Milligan (Vikings Sports C) C.Gibbs (Democrats B) C.Gibbs (Democarats Club B) K.Downer (Original Swan B)
R.Chambers, B.Locke (Gladiators C)

TOP DOLL SCORERS:
14: K.Stuart (The George A)
13: T.Stuart, K.Powell, L.Hazell (Swan A) P.Shepherd, J.Kent, M.Washington (New Club A) D.Sellar (The Crown) G.Townsend (Gladiators A)
J.Morrison (The George A) I.Grant (Black Prince) D.Sellar (The Crown)

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