Stevie B
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Duke of Seaham v Vic Report 11/08/2008The Vic dominoes team overcame the loss of the late withdrawal of The General Les Graham, laid low by a bad back having carried the rest of the lads for the opening games of the season, to roar back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2.
The darts team seemed to get a particularly good draw in the opening legs only to suffer an early hammering before eventually going down tamely by 5 legs to 2.
The darts team included Craig Greenfield after 2 weeks on tour playing the lead role in the human version of Kung Fu Panda. Norman McKenna returned to the dominoes line up to replace Les Graham who has taken over from Craig.
Tommy Cummings got the match underway in the darts and Tin Ribs started off well with a ton followed by an 80 with a bounce out. Willis played equally well and a close game followed but another bounce out by Tommy proved to be costly as Willis stole the opener in fine style to leave Tommy counting the cost of not sharpening his arras.
George Jennings who had managed to get to Spain and back without dying was up against J Harvey and the throw in leg 2. George played an average leg and lost out to some accurate darts from Harvey as the home team went 2-0 ahead.
Kev Cunningham played A Davison in the next leg with the Vic desperate to get a leg on the board. Once again, both players threw a mixture of good and bad darts to keep the leg evenly matched. Davison had 6 darts at a double before Kev had a shot at double top which he narrowly missed. WIth his next turn at the oche, Kev decided to go back to double top even though he needed double 10 - a costly mistake which saw Davison take out his double on the next throw.
Ian Graham played the next leg against M Bell and both players found scoring hard. Bell threw an opening 85 which was the highlight of the leg and a dour battle followed. Bell missed a number of opportunities to win the match which allowed Ian back into it and he made no mistake with his favourite finish on double 1.
Stevie Kell took on J Squire in leg 5 and by the skipper followed Ian's example of not putting too much in the scoring but take the double out at the end of the match. Stevie followed the script to perfection and managed to close the gap to 3-2 down.
Hopes were high that The Vic would do a reverse of last week when we turned a 3-0 lead into a 4-3 defeat and Action Man McKenna played T Eggleston in the penultimate leg. Once more, both players struggled to get going and scoring was almost impossible. The first treble went in after both players had thrown 30 or so darts but it proved decisive as Egglestone followed up a throw of 95 with a 94 before taking out double top at the first attempt.
Craig Greenfield played Gillibrand in the last leg and Craigs opening throw of 45 was well beaten by the home lads' 140. Craig went on to hit a ton and an 85 to keep up the pressure but Gillibrand held on to the lead and took the final leg on double 6 with Craig waiting to go for double 10.
The dominoes started off badly as Stevie Burton lost the down in the opening leg before eventually going down by 3 legs to 1 to K Miller. 1 leg in the last 9 chalks for Burton is a worrying downturn in form which has also included an amazing 7 successive losses on the count.
Norman McKenna, back by public demand, was up next but Nonka was edged out on the down and suffered a 3-2 reverse.
Bobby Balls, skippering for the absent Les Graham, continued his excellent early season form as he routed G Steel who buckled under Balls' onslaught.
Ian Graham played J Squire in the 4th leg and Ian completed his own double win on the night by sending Squire to his 2nd loss of the evening.
The last match was missed by the majority of the Vic lads who has to get the minibus back but I'm reliably informed that Tucker Muncaster took out A Davison by 3 legs to nil to compete a famous comeback for the Vic. A fitting send off for the Benidorm bound pensioner.
The 4 a side 1001 team game played on Friday night saw the Vic take an excellent win at the expense of The Albion. The Vic lined up with George Jennings, Martyn Cooke, Ian Graham and Kevin Cunningham who overcame the loss of the opening leg to come back to take a 3-1 victory in the preliminary round. This Friday (15th) will be an away game to the winners of the game between Seaham Lord Byron and Dawdon Welfare. No team news as yet but it will probably depend upon who turns out on the night.
Next week the Vic will be missing Tucker Muncaster from the dominoes as he'll be playing bingo and drinking cheap beer in Benidorm while Stevie Kell will be entertaining the locals of Albufeira in his broken English. 
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