The final of the Dane Baskerville Memorial Trophy took place last week at North Dean Village Hall in a match that had a familiar feel to the Roly Sewell Final the week before. In that match premier division champions beat fourth from bottom Flackwell A after overcoming an 87 point handicap. In this final Wesley B who cruised to the second division title by 7 points and were attempting a double, faced Broomwade B who had been fighting to avoid relegation all season, sealed their survival in the last game and had an 87 point advantage going into the match.

The Dane Baskerville Competition is for all those teams who get knocked out in their first game of the Roly Sewell. In their first matches in that cup Broomwade had been narrowly defeated by four points by Union Baptist A and Wesley B went out to eventual winners Den by 34.

On paper Broomwade had the easier path to the final as they got past Telecom A by 198, Flackwell C by 85 and then in their closest match beat Division Three runeers Up St Andrews B by twenty. Wesley B had a fairly comfortabl;e run through to the semis as well seeing off Apollo E by 129 then Union Baptist by 37 and Apollo F by 49 until they came up against the B team from Apollo who they squeaked past by 6 points.

Wesley B had beaten Broomwade comfortably in both their league meetings and the 87 point start was thought to be quite generous to them. In a spooky coincidence the last time Den had won the Roly Sewell cup in 1991/92 season the winners of the Dane Baskerville had been Wesley B.

In the first game of the night Brian Armstrong of Broomwade faced off against Cliff Pearce for Wesley B. Armstrong and the rest of his teammates would have to score 9 points in every leg to win the match. But it didn’t look good after the first game as Armstrong couldn’t quite get his attacks going and lost the first leg 11-5. A better second and third leg saw Armstrong putting more pressure on without actually winning the legs, going down 11-9 11-8 and then finally in the last 11-7. In the second encounter of the night Pete Eldridge knew that he would have to produce some good play and make up some points against Wesley’s Martin Humphrey. A decent start from Humprhrey gave him the first leg 11-7 and then got even better to take the second 11-4. A brief comeback in the third gave Eldridge the win 11-9 but he could not stop Humphrey in the fourth going down 11-8. Things were already looking bad for Broomwade and Pete Stiborski made them even worse as he eased past Jim Lewis despite a blip in the second leg 2-11 10-11 4-11 5-11, to make the difference between the two teams just 37 points. Despite struglling with Pearce’s serves Eldridge got stuck in to the Wesley man in the first leg of their game going down 9-11 and then 7-11. He turned things around in the third 11-10 only for Pearce to go up a gear and beat him 11-2 in the fourth. With the gap at just 23 points Broomwade B needed some big games, and despite Armstrongs heroic efforts against Pete Stiborski as he lost by one point overall, they were only 22 points ahead at the halfway stage. Armstrong and Eldridge knew now that this doubles was make or break for their chances of the match against Pearce and Humphrey. But they found themselves behind from the off and after going down 11-6 and 11-5 in the first two legs they could do nothing to stop a Wesley victory in the doubles leaving the gap at just four points. Those four points were made up in just the first leg of Humphrey versus Lewis as Humphrey won the first 11-6 and then the second 11-6. Humphrey then put the first nail in the broomwade coffin winning the third leg without reply from Lewis. Lewis fought back in the fourth winning 11-10, but barring a miracle the game was over. Wesley were now 19 ahead with three to play when Stiborski made it 23 with two against a battling Eldridge. An excellent performance from Lewis against Pearce meant the gap was 25 and with their best playing Armstrong stepping up for the last game Broomwade had a small glimmer of hope. Armstrong now had to beat Humphrey by 26 points to take the game. But an excellent showing from Humphrey in the first leg secured the title as he beat Armstron 11-2. Playing for pride now, Armstrong won the next two legs and lost the fourth to give the victory and double to Wesley B by 23 points overall.