SMITHYS' CREAM SPOIL

THE finals night of the Greenall and Inn Partnership Darts League Thwaites O'Day competition will be staged tonight, Friday.

It takes place at Richmonds Club at 8pm and has a record £250 cash prize for the winner and a prize pool of £550.

A short priced favourite may well be Hawthorne's Ian Cunningham after he defeated teammate George McCormick in the last 16 stages, which also saw last year's winner Ronnie Cooke go out at the hands of Leo McDonnell, Howley.

The other quarter finalists are Geoff Bailey and Paul Dugdale, Hawthorne, Mick Abbott, Kings, Rob Woodhouse, Howley, Kenny Cooke, Richmonds and Peter Edwards, Spa Brook.

The draw will be made at 7.45pm.

The opening Greenall and Inn Partnership Darts League winter season matches got under way on Friday and in the clash between Richmonds and Rylands Clive John hit a Least Arrows qualifying nine-darter.

New Alliance won at Butchers with Archie Goodier, 14 and Ronnie Cooke, 15, in good form.

Royal Oak Branch succeeded at Gas Social and 12 from Dave Carey and 15 from Steve Whatman gave them the edge.

M. Street won in 14 for Rose but they still went down at Smithys.

Monday's matches produced a major shock when Hawthorne lost at Penketh Sports Club, a team predicted by some as potential dark horses.

Hawthorne led 3-2 with four star throwers to go on. Only John Bostock of these four won as Hawthorne stumbled to defeat.

Ken Waddell hit a 12 and John Haill, 16, as Smithy's won at Poplars for whom P. Gallop won in 16.

British Rail were glad of the GUARDIAN's assistance in recruitment before the start of the season and their new squad won at Prince of Wales with Dave Wooldridge, 11 and Denis Pucill, 14, on fine form. Dave Rawthorne hit 13 for the POWs.

Newly formed Salvesen will find it a hard learning curve as they had to be allotted the spare place in the top flight because of late entry but they showed plenty of enthusiasm even though they were well beaten by Red Lion.

Royal Oak Branch were unlucky to be a player short at New Alliance with the scores level. Ken Ryder with 13 for Branch was best on the night and Tom Gallop and Archie Goodier were 14 darts winners for the home side.

Rylands shocked Warrington Town with D. Rustage a 15 darts winner.

A hard fought match ended all square between Black Bear and Bulls Head. R. Thomas, with 13 for the Bear, was man of the match.

P. Monks and Dean Pindard hit 14 for Gas Social as they romped in at Blackburne Arms and a 19 darts draw between Ian Connolly and W. O'Neil provided the only solace for Blackburne.

T. Kropp hit 15 as Causeway opened with a win at British Rail B but Billy Warburton's 14 for Howley could not prevent Richmonds having a good win.

Kings Head had plenty of enthusiasm and Tex Barlow's 15 showed they also have some skill but Jolly Tanner were top dogs on the night.

Results:

Friday, Division One: British Rail 3.5 Hawthorne 5.5, Gas Social 3 RO Branch 6, Smithys 5 Rose 4, Butchers 3 New Alliance 6.

Friday, Division Two: Imperial 3.5 Red Lion 5.5, Richmonds 6 Rylands 3, Pierpoints 8 Kings 1.

Modnay, Division One: Gas Social A 6 Dog & Partridge 3, New Alliance 5 RO Branch 4, Poplars 2 Smithys 7, Penketh S &S 5 Hawthorne 4, Salvesen 2 Red Lion 7, PO Wales 2 British Rail A 7.

Monday, Division Two: Black Bear 4.5 Bulls Head 4.5, Warr Tn 4 Rylands 5, St. Benedicts 3 King & Queen 6, Penketh Cons 3 Spa Bk 6, Blackburne .5 Gas B 8.5.

Monday, Division Three: British Rail B 3.5 Causeway 5.5, Richmonds 6 Howley 3, Alford Sports 5 Adelphi 4, Penketh RBL 3 Marquis 6, Kings Head 3 Jolly Tanner 6, Seven Woods 8 Brickmakers 1.

Greenall and Inn Partnership Darts League Greenall Pairs competition best of five legs preliminary round to be played tomorrow, Saturday, 7.30pm:

At Royal Oak Branch: L. Paget (Gas) v M. Lake (Spa), W. B. Smallwood (Kings) v P. J. Eyres (Gas), S. Cunningham (Hawthorne) v A. E. Peel (Red Lion).

,At British Rail: P. Wright (Butchers) v T. Griffiths (Imperial), D. Carroll (D & P) v J. W. Tart (Kings), L. Wells (Hawthorne) v P. Bush (Butchers).

At Hawthorne: J. Heavey (Spa) v B. Watson (Gas), W. O'Neill (Greenwood) v D. Greenall (ROB), P. Forshaw (ROB) v M. Woods (D & P).

At Red Lion: J. McGhee (Butchers) v A. Clemo (Hawthorne), M. Abbott (Kings) v G. McLean (Pad Cons), S. Hayes (D & P) v P. Monks (Greenwood).

At Adelphi Vaults: S. Whatman (ROB) v T. Scott (D & P), G. Bailey (Hawthorne) v D. Billington (Butchers), K. Waddell (Pad Cons) v S. Smith (Kings).

At Kings Club: P. Jolley (Brit Rail) v J. Graves (Red Lion); B. Roblin (Imperial) v T.O'Brien (Butchers Arms), D. Carey (ROB) v M. Smalley (D & P).

The following prelim games have been re-arranged and will be played on Saturday, October 23 at venues to be announced, at 7pm.

M. Green (Gas) v I. Cunningham (Hawthorne), A. E. Goodier (NA) v B. Taylor (D & P), J. Wood (NA) v W. Blinston (Spa).

Byes into first round: D. Couzens (Greenwd), J. Dixon (Spa), K. Reynolds (Adelphi), T. Bullock (K & Q), M. Paget (Greenwd), K. Cunningham (Richmonds), M. Addison (Greenwd), P. Alford (Spa), J. Bostock (Hawthorne), C. Geering (Richmonds), B. Hearne (Greenwood).

All venues must phone results to 656585 as soon as games over.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.