Darts: Woe for Andy Wall as semis are sorted (From Gazette & Herald)

Darts: Woe for Andy Wall as semis are sorted

3:13pm Wednesday 23rd January 2013 in Sport

ANDY WALL was the one to miss out as Steve Taylor and Geoff Atkinson booked places in the Pickering Rec Club Individual League top-four play-offs on the last night of the regular season.

Phil Bointon and Billy Hague were already certain of places in the semi-finals, with a three-horse race taking place for the other two spots.

Taylor secured his place by beating Roger Dawson 3-2, which meant Wall would need at least three wins from his four matches to overhaul Atkinson.

The night couldn’t have got off to a worse start for him as he lost 5-0 to Bointon but relegation-threatened Jon Rule did him a favour as he beat Atkinson 3-2.

Hague beat Steve Dawson 4-1, who also fell 3-2 to brother Roger, which sealed his relegation to the ‘B’ league.

Hague returned to further dent Wall’s hopes as he defeated him 4-1. Wall now needed two maximum wins and a bonus point, and he started in fine fashion against Atkinson, with ten 100-plus scores and a 102 checkout.

However, he also needed to beat Jon Rule 5-0 but Rule raced 2-0 up and Wall’s 3-2 win was in vain.

Cameron Spiller joined ‘B’ league winner John Bristow in achieving promotion to the ‘A’ league as the youngster hit 13 100-plus scores in his 5-0 thrashing of Stephen Temple.

Alan Dawson was close on Spiller’s tail but set himself too much to do despite a 4-1 win over Arthur Gibson and a 3-2 win over Dan Simpson.

Finals night takes place on Friday, February 1, and will see Bointon take on Atkinson and Hague face Steve Taylor in best-of-seven-legs semi-finals.

Meanwhile, New Inn hit form with a 9-1 demolition of Appletree Inn to move within two points of Moors League leaders White Swan.

New Inn captain Andy Waines recorded three 100 scores while team-mates Nie Monkman (140) and Ady Cook (73 checkout) supported well.

Appletree had to wait until the last game for Colin Pepler, Graham Kirk and Guy Kennedy to win the three-a-side.

Leaders White Swan came from 2-0 down to beat Buck Inn ‘A’ 6-4 with Tim Nichols (2x140) and Mark Eddon (140, 100) leading the recovery. Chas Atkinson, Mark Haines and Pop Ellerby gained singles points for Buck.

Richard Thompson and Damon Marley put Blacksmiths Hartoft 2-0 up at home to Blacksmiths ‘A’ Lastingham, but Matt and Adam Durrant, then Rich Sellars and Andy Biggins, turned the match around, and Lastingham added all three team games to win 7-3.

Tom Pickering (100) and Mick Barnes (140, 100) set Moors Inn on the way to a 6-4 win over Sun Inn but team-mate Keith Dickson managed to lose to Sun’s Bob Sellars despite scoring 135, 124, 121 and two 100s. Ian Robson (2x100) and Neil Robson (100) also bagged singles points for Sun.

Georgie Peirson starred for Buck Inn ‘B’, hitting 129, 120 and three 100s as her team edged out Crown Inn 6-4. Dave Cockerill, Col Ward (2x100) and Mike Peirson also won for Buck after Ken Hornby had given Crown an early lead.

Mike Dale and Jonny Gibson put Coach House 2-0 up at Blacksmiths ‘B’ Lastingham but the hosts dug deep to earn a 5-5 draw helped by debutant Jon Bointon beating House’s Laura Thompson (125, 100) and captain Vanessa Wilson getting the better of Bri Cook.