IN a dramatic end to the season, White House successfully retained the Premier title when they pipped New Club by one point, writes Andy Beal.
Going into the last games, New Club led by one point and in their opening leg at home to Black Horse A, set 24.
In reply, a maximum six from Pete Rampton got the Horse off to the perfect start and they galloped past with a score of 29 to secure the Section One title.
Meanwhile at White House, they set a beatable 22 in the opening leg against The Swan. However, Swan struggled in reply and left anchorman Lee Thompson six to win and he nearly pulled it off but fell one short with five, missing with his last stick, to send it to a three-sticker which White House won 13-12 to put them level at the top with New Club.
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Back at New Club, in the second leg they could only set 22 which proved no problem for Black Horse who hit 24 to go two up.
White House set and won their second leg 28-22, which put them one point clear of New Club, so it was all down to the final legs of the season.
New Club rallied and set a good score of 27 which Black Horse couldn’t match and hit 21 in reply to give New Club a precious point and move them back level top.
All White House had to do was win their final leg to be crowned champions and choosing to set, they started off impressively and had 15 on the board at the halfway stage, however the back half collapsed and could only hit eight between them to give a total of 23.
Some erratic throwing by Swan left their anchorman needing three to tie to send it to three-sticks, or four to win, and astonishingly he could only whip off the doll twice to fall one doll short with 22 and send the White House players into a frenzy for an unexpected win and to retain the title for the third time in succession.
The top dolls chase between holder Kevin Baker from Littlemore British Legion and Luke Purcell from New Club also went down to the wire.
Baker leading by one doll hit four in his first leg as did Purcell. Baker clanged off five dolls in the second leg, with Purcell only hitting three to fall three behind. They both hit four dolls in their final leg to give Baker the title with 207 dolls, while Purcell ended up with an impressive 204 dolls.
SIXERS: F Sawyer (Littlemore Legion A), P Rampton (Black Horse A).
BLOBBERS: P Wells (Queen’s Head B), K Percival (Kidlington FC), J Boyd (Vikings C), R Jackson (The Blackbird), I Lund (The Tandem).
TOP DOLL SCORERS: 13: K Baker (Littlemore Legion C), A Cross (White House), P Rampton (Black Horse A); 12: B Carter (Littlemore Legion C), D Simms (Ampleforth A), S Walton (Black Horse A), J Cleaton (New Club B).
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