Dartsmen look to another title

THE Oldham men’s darts team took a giant step towards retaining their premier division title in the Lancashire GMC Super League following their 10-0 victory against Eccleston.

They demolished third-placed Eccleston to move 19 points clear at the top with one game left at Lune Valley on Sunday, May 24.

Second-placed Rochdale Borough have two games left so Oldham’s fifth title in six years is not a foregone conclusion and they will possibly have to pick up five points from their last match.

Dave Rawstron edged out Lancashire captain and England international Doug Smith 3-2. Rawstron averaged 82.40 every three darts and included a 134 checkout in his victory.

Pete Connolly (3-0) was man of the match, averaging 93.18 every three darts, while Stuart Holden came from 2-0 down to snatch a 3-2 victory averaging 74.37.

The other Oldham victories were registered by Lee Williams (3-0, 82.11), Peter Day snr (3-1, 75.45), Ian Walters (3-0, 79.15), John Moreton (3-1, 86.67), Dave Yates (3-1, 83.88), John Downs (3-0, 91.41) and Geoff Tucker (3-2, 75.94).

Yates, Downs, Holden and Day all hit 180s while the Oldham players also scored 85 hundreds.

Oldham women were 5–3 winners at Southport in the premier division of the Lancashire GMC Super League.

Mandy McKenzie (3-1), Janet Fox (3-0), Carol Geddes (3-1), Tracy Hindle (3-1) and Shereen Downs (3-1) were the winners for Oldham, who have a rearranged league game at Blackpool tomorrow afternoon.