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Away Win Brings Apylee Home

A World Championship frenzy seems to have taken hold of a host of players & supporters with connections to Surrey. In the past month e-mails, texts (& even sometimes the odd old-fashioned phone call) have been flying back and forth in an effort to procure tickets for Lakeside in January.

Perhaps it’s the prospect of witnessing the first Lakeside step of what will obviously be a glittering Professional career for Michael van Gerwen, or maybe the chance to see Jelle Klaasen defend his Title this year?

No, no, no, don’t be silly! Surrey aren’t interested in the minor sideshow of the Mens Competition, it’s the Ladies that we want to see, and in particular Apylee Jones, as she takes her place amongst the elite with a First Round match against Holland’s Karen Krappen on January 7th. Surrey supporters have been imaginative in their efforts to be there on the day (some have even managed to get tickets from sources other than eBay!) & I’m sure that with the venue being in Surrey, Apylee will have the lion’s share of support … apart from the 800,000 Dutch fans that will be there to cheer on her opponent of course!

Apylee’s progress is interesting for the fact that she had to travel to Bridlington for the qualifiers … to reach the Finals that are being played just up the road of her own County. The last Surrey-based player to do this was John Ferrell who, in 2002, became the first from our County to reach the Lakeside stage since Ritchie Gardner 11 years previously (fortunately for Ferrell, he didn’t subsequently appear on Bullseye so that re-runs on Challenge could torment him for decades to come).

Qualification for our Ap wasn’t straightforward though, as she is included by being the stand-by after losing to Swede Carina Ekberg in the last match before the TV stages. Her place was assured at World Masters Semi-Finals stage with all players remaining already being qualified for Lakeside. It was this aspect of qualification for the Mens Competition that saw Pro Life pull out his keyboard, crack his knuckles & open Microsoft Word last month. Had he expanded his criticism to the (more important, obviously) Ladies showpiece, he could have been assured of the Surrey equivalent of a ‘Glasgow Kiss’ … the terrifying ‘Guildford Mild Admonishment’, which normally starts with “Now look here old chap …” and ends with Golf Club membership being revoked for a fortnight. You have been warned PL!

So what would Surrey supporters say if Apylee were to meet Carina Ekberg again after having lost to her in the qualifiers? Well, I think we’d react in the right manner … we’d be screaming our lungs out as she’d be in the Final!

Best of luck to Apylee & roll on the 7th Jan when Surrey fans travel to … errr … Surrey to invade Dutch territory for a day … or hopefully longer!

Something Missing v Lincs

Surrey’s promising start to the Inter-County season suffered a set-back with a 17-19 reverse at home to Lincolnshire despite a spirited Sunday comeback. In last month’s Surrey Column, it was pointed out that we had been getting scary with our opponents of late, but unfortunately, the age old problem of missing crucial doubles came back to haunt us & a 7-11 deficit on the Saturday was not so much scary as ‘come in, sit down, would you like a cup of tea?’ at the most unfortunate moments.

Mel Henry (17.87) took her second Lady of the Match in her second Surrey appearance to further her claims for an A place as the Ladies B went down 2-4, whilst the Mens B also lost out in a 5-7 defeat after losing the last three (very keenly contested) matches. Terry Dersley (26.32) was Man of the Match for the B, with Sean Ryan (25.91) chipping in a game of which we know he is well capable, to support.

The excellent Surrey Ladies A were again faced with the job of getting the County back in the match & again didn’t disappoint, racing to a 3-0 set lead without dropping a leg. Apylee Jones (24.64) took her first Lady of the Match of the season against stiff opposition from Laura Power (21.17) as the Ladies won 4-2 to protect their 4 point lead at the top of the Ladies A table & hand the weekend baton to the Mens A in a decent position.

It was looking like another weekend that would yield bonus points as the men took a 4-1 lead, featuring 156 checkouts from both Man of the Match Spike Harris (31.98) and Aaron Turner (22.48) but a 5 game salvo from Lincs (coinciding with the start of the Chelsea/Spurs match funnily enough) ensured a win for the away side before Roger Kitching (24.84) & Carl Ramsey (24.64 & a rabid Chelsea fan that missed the match in favour of practising, God bless his little blue cotton socks!) made the weekend scoreline close.

It’s on to Herts next month & Surrey will be hoping to be Diamonds, scoring in Spades which hurt the opponents as hard as Clubs (yes, it’s a lame set of puns, but it was either that or something about Alice in Wonderland, so live with it!).

The Lion Plays Grand

I don’t know about you, but I still can’t read the words ‘Grand Prix’ without remembering the classic ‘It’ll Be All Right on the Night’ footage of the Eastenders actress that played Michelle Fowler pronouncing the ‘Prix’ bit exactly as it is spelt.

There weren’t many of those at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin though as the PDC event, partly due to its unique ‘double start’ format, served up a plethora of shocks to keep us all guessing, especially in the First Round. And there in the thick of it was Kingston’s Lionel Sams, who opened proceedings in the very first match by putting out former World & reigning Vegas Champion John Part 2-1. The Lion bowed out in the next round to Peter Manley, Boo! Hiss! (isn’t that obligatory?) but I’m sure he will have been quietly satisfied with his display in Ireland.

Lionel has since returned to the Surrey Mens Super League to play our very own Grand Prix (I’ll leave it up to you how to pronounce that!).

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