Since Week One, the college teams have been battling it out in the inter-college pool and darts league. Six weeks have passed and neither pool nor darts have been without drama and shock.
Pool
Men’s A With regards to the A team league, Lonsdale seem the strongest prospects for the Men’s A league, having a team which is predominately third years and strong throughout, proving this by winning all their games so far. The biggest victory being against Grizedale, beating them 9-0. The following week Grizedale reversed their fortunes with a 9-0 victory themselves against Pendle.
Graduate College cannot be discounted following their league victory last year and – still managing to retain some of their strongest players – their only loss so far coming against Lonsdale 5-4. Bowland currently sit at the top of the league but both Graduate and Lonsdale have a game in hand, with Fylde close by.
Men’s B – Fylde seem to have the edge in the Men’s B league, closely followed by Bowland who have a game in hand and are equal on points with Pendle. This league seems a battle between this trio, unless Lonsdale can close the gap with some big wins. Fylde recently lost their unbeaten run against Cartmel with a 5-4 defeat; consistency will have to be maintained for them to remain at the top.
Women’s – Bowland lead the way with in the women’s pool league with Cartmel and Lonsdale close behind, both having a game in hand against the leaders. Furness cannot be discounted; they are not far behind and a decent victory would see them close in. Cartmel were already pushing their way towards the top of the table, before a 9-0 walkover was handed to them, as Grad could only get three players down on the night, helping Cartmel cement their top three position. This came about as a result of the league’s requirement that a team needs at least five players present to play a match. This is a situation that Grad continue to struggle with, as they have only six players in their squad for a nine player team, seeing Grad having to forfeit frames in every match so far as well as having to give away two 9-0 losses due to insufficient numbers. The Graduate Women’s dart team is also struggling with the same situtation.
Darts
Men’s – This men’s league has traditionally always been a hard fought and close battle between all the colleges, but Bowland have always remained consistent and can never be disregarded. However, Graduate seem to be the main contenders this year, and have put together a string of early wins and are yet to suffer defeat. Pendle and Cartmel sit close by, but they will need to remain consistent and beat leaders Graduate to knock them off the top. Pendle sit with Cartmel under leaders Bowland in the league, and have proved they are not a team to be discounted with an 8-1 victory over Grizedale. This was followed by a 5-4 victory against Lonsdale.
Women’s – The women’s league seems a battle between Pendle and Bowland, who both lead the way by quite a margin. Bowland, however, have played a game less and there is very little between them. Bowland showed their dominance with a resounding 6-1 victory over Grizedale. Lonsdale demonstrated their inconsistency with a 5-2 defeat to league leaders Pendle, following a 5-2 win against Grizedale.
Dominoes
Fylde are the team to beat in the dominoes league having yet to suffer a defeat; they currently sit just below Bowland having played a game less. Pendle are close by, but Fylde seem to have had the right tactics so far, most recently defeating Cartmel 3-0 following two 2-1 victories in all other games. Bowland seem the only current challengers who last week won against Grizedale 3-0, with their only defeat coming from Fylde.
Bowland look in prime position to add to their many George Wyatt wins, based on their current positions in every league. However, with only a quarter of matches played and with all leagues having at least three main challengers, there is a lot that could change and it will be a while before any celebrations are heard.
Having read this article i believe there has been a massive under representation of the current situation regarding grad college women’s darts and pool team. Cartmel did not have an impressive or perfect victory which proved their power in a 9-0 victory over grad women’s pool, it was a forfeited game in which neither team played. Grad college is really struggling to recruit players this year and have had to forfeit frames in every game and the past two weeks had to forfeit the whole match due to players being unavailable.
You have in posting this over stated cartmels abilities and have understated those of the grad team. The only reason grad has not had a victory so far this year is that we only have 6 players in the pool team, and 2 in the darts with others being drafted in from the bar or bribed with offers of free alcohol.
Thankyou for drawing my attention to this.
I will edit the article to make it more reflective of the current situation with the two Grad Women’s teams. The article was based on our writers pre-existing knowledge of the circumstances in some George Wyatt leagues, and in others that he knew less about, based on the results page of LUSU activities website. So he had simply picked out a few of the stand-out results, not knowing fully the circumstances in which the result came about.
Cheers Nick
How can you understate the abilities of a team, if there is a lack of a basic skeleton of a team in the first place!
The real issue here is that Grad are once again unable to recruit enough female players, whereas the men have not had this problem. What’s the point in Grad women even being in a league if you can’t even get a full team out; it’s unfair to opposition teams who are able to field a full strength squad and practice for matches, only to be told they can’t play a match because you can’t field the required number of people.
Something for Grad to think about…