DARTS: Oxon fall to record defeat (From Oxford Mail)

DARTS: Oxon fall to record defeat

11:00am Tuesday 5th March 2013 in Sport

OXFORDSHIRE crashed to their heaviest ever defeat in the BDO Inter-County Championship at the hands of a star-studded Cheshire side at Bicester Ex-Service Men’s Club over the weekend.

Cheshire, with three-times BDO World Championship runner-up Tony O'Shea in their line-up, hammered their hosts 27-9 in a one-sided Premier Division contest.

The visitors were in ruthless form – and they did it without their women's world champion Anastasia Dobromylova, whose eagerly-awaited clash with Oxfordshire’s star woman player Deta Hedman never materialised.

Cheshire dominated from the start, winning the ladies B match 5-1, with the hosts’ only win coming from Belinda Grant In the men’s B clash, Che-shire recorded a 9-3 success to stretch their lead to 14-4 at the end of the first day.

The Oxfordshire winners were Josh McCarthy. Roger Haines and man-of-the-match Keith Bedding.

On Sunday, Oxfordshire ladies A lost their first two matches before England internationals Clare Bywaters and lady-of-the-match Hedman put the team's only two points on the board.

So Cheshire led 18-6 going into the anticipated men’s A clash, in which O’Shea shone along with rising BDO stars Stuart Kellett and David Pallet.

First up for Oxfordshire was Bedding, playing his second game of the weekend after deputising for the indisposed Dennis Smith.

Bedding had the unenviable task of facing O’Shea, who won 4-1 with a 32.54 average. This set the tone for the rest of the match with Oxfordshire losing the first four games.

The rot was halted by Jon Jukes, who took the Oxon man-of the match award with an average of 29.04.

There was a heartening win for Damien Kidd on his Ox-fordshire A team debut, while Lee Russell took the last match of the weekend.

An indication of the quality of the contest can be gauged by the fact that Oxon’s Stuart White averaged 30.33, but still lost 4-1.

The result leaves Oxon perilously placed one off the bottom, and they will need to turn their form around if they are to stay in the top flight.

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