SURREY DARTS

February 2005 - by Martin Cullip (appears in March Darts World) 

Hopes Take a Dent from Kent

There’s a question that crops up every now & then in certain circles to which I’ve never known the answer & probably never will. What’s the difference between a Kentish Man & a Man of Kent? Whatever the cultural or geographical difference may be, it really doesn’t seem to matter as either seems able to win points against Surrey!

They call Kent ‘The Garden of England’. Well, we at Surrey consider the garden to be full of things that are infested with thorns or that possess a venomous bite, as our hopes took a nasty knock with the visit of the team of Kent (or should that be the Kentish team? I’m confused now!), as they enjoyed a 22-14 victory at Epsom Legion which brought our county back to Earth with a bump after a couple of good wins.

It was the visiting men that did the damage as both of the Surrey Mens sides, or is that Men of Surrey? (that’s enough – Ed) suffered 4-8 defeats, whilst the Ladies managed to hold their own with two draws.

The Ladies B picked up well after a disappointing first couple of points & gained a draw with wins from Helen Cullip (15.68) & Marie Barthrop (14.34) to add to a Lady of the Match point from “Angie Baby” Frewin (17.68).

The Mens B then started encouragingly for the hosts, and all was not well in the garden as it was Tom Eley (22.23) & Darren Everett (21.76) who were being prickly to give the home side a 2-0 lead, but Kent soon showed more fighting qualities to overwhelm the Surrey players. Chris Jupp (27.33) took a superb Man of the Match award to add to a win by Andy “Weeble” Evans (22.77), which was welcomed by all but the most curmudgeonly as it was electrician Andy who had fixed the stage electrics that had disastrously failed just as the match was about to begin!

It was a repeat performance on the Sunday as the Ladies A matched the result of the B side 24 hours previously by recording a 3-3 draw. Apylee Jones (25.91) not only took the Lady of the Match award, but finished with the best figures of any Surrey player on the Sunday, and the second best winning average of any home player for the whole weekend! If we were allowed, we’d Apylee let her play in the Mens team (sorry, perhaps too corny?). Billie Auzins (18.54) & Julie Austin (19.49) helped the side to the draw with two late wins after a defeat had seemed likely at 1-3 down.

So it was up to the Mens A to pull out a result to rescue the weekend, but again the team disintegrated after a solid start. Phil Smith (23.09) & Carl Ramsey (24.49) (pictured left), with his second successive Man of the Match, secured the first two points, but as with the B team on the Saturday, only Garry Bravery (23.40) & Terry Dersley (22.91) were able to add to the tally & Surrey’s brief unbeaten spell came to an abrupt end.

Surrey are now placed in mid-table but hoping to improve on that in the coming months, and after suffering defeat from the raiders from the East of us, the squad is now preparing to head West for a meeting with Dorset. The players will be hoping that after a defeat at the hands of ‘The Garden’ we won’t get beaten again by ‘The Front Porch’!

A New Mann In Town

Surrey has a proven pedigree over the years for bringing through players who can compete at the highest level & this column has highlighted some of the rising stars that have featured on the PDC circuit with varying success over the past couple of years.

However, there is one young player whose name is featuring on the PlanetDarts web-site more & more these days, which comes as no surprise to fans of the Surrey game as we had been expecting something special out of Sutton’s Jimmy Mann for quite a while.

From being a purely local league player a very short while ago, he captured a unique treble of Singles, Pairs & Triples Titles in only his third Super League campaign last year & seems able to hurdle any new obstacle that is laid in his path. Having excelled at County level, he made the decision to concentrate on the PDC Competitions this season & has proved he is more than able to compete with the best.

His latest adventure was a sparkling run in the Budweiser UK Open South West qualifier in Portsmouth, where he took out World Championship finalist Mark Dudbridge & followed that with a 160 checkout in the deciding leg against another World Champs participant, Wayne Jones, with the Midlander poised on 32. It seemed he was going to carry on in the same vein when he took a 3-0 lead against World No. 9 Andy Jenkins, but Rocky was able to retrieve the situation & Jimmy’s exploits came to an end.

With Jimmy’s current rate of improvement, it may not be long before the Surrey Greenkeeper joins Tony O’Shea, another who earns his living looking after golf courses, on the World stage. What exactly is it about keeping the fairways tidy that seems to encourage good darts players? They’ve probably seen their fair share of clubs, have an iron determination, maybe the game suits them to a tee … or perhaps they’ve just got a lot of balls! (Good Grief! – Ed)

Mark Gawley: An Obituary

I’m sad to report that the start of 2005 was a sad time for Surrey as we lost a valuable friend in Mark Gawley, who died on the morning of Wednesday 26th of January after a short illness at the age of 46.
Addlestone based Mark was a Surrey man through & through, having played 130 matches for our County & he will be greatly missed by everyone associated with Surrey Darts. All who knew Mark, nicknamed Tank, will agree that he was a very special person who was universally liked & respected. Our thoughts go out to his wife Zoe & his daughter Naomi.
Not only was he a superb darts player, but also a keen cricketer & football fan, whose particular passion was for Chelsea Football Club. It is a measure of his immense popularity that around 300 people from many different spheres of his life attended his Funeral service at St Anne’s Church in Chertsey on Friday 4th February. Goodbye Mark, we’ll all miss you.