It was a wholly victorious day of darts for University of Gloucestershire Darts on Wednesday, as the A and B teams both secured vital victories versus the University of Birmingham.
The two sides were separated by just six legs difference at the top of the league going into the matches, with the hosts, Gloucestershire, the ones on top.
The fixture kicked off with UoG’s B team facing off against UoB’s A’s, in a pretty comprehensive victory for the A’s, coming out 10-1 victors.
Welshman, Tom Purnell, secured the B’s only point, with a 2-1 victory over Sam Pledger – much to the delight of the onlooking support from UoG.
The B’s turned next to their more winnable target of UoB’s B team, in what turned out to be an incredibly close affair.
UoG found themselves 2-0 down after the trebles matches, but doubles wins for Oscar Hegarty and Ethan Price, as well as Purnell and Carl Springer, saw UoG claw back to 3-2 going into the singles matches.
The first batch of three singles matches featured 2-0 wins for both Price and Hegarty, whilst Tyler Callender lost 2-0 to David Blitz, tying the scores at 4-4, with three games to go.
A swift win for Springer and loss for Jack Buchanan kept the scores tied, as the entirety of both universities’ cohorts converged on Purnell, whose game had entered a deciding leg.
After some nervous misses at doubles, Purnell took out eight to secure the B’s second win of the 2025/26 season, cueing pandemonium for the side.
The A’s then stepped up to attempt to complete the same feat of beating UoB’s B’s, and succeeded.
A whitewash 11-0 victory, which featured a 180 from James Pryer, gave the side ample confidence to take with them into their big fixture versus Birmingham’s A team.
The A vs A match started well for UoG, with 2-0 wins from both trebles and the only doubles loss coming from Pryer and Billy Maple, seeing UoG 4-1 up.
Needing just two wins from six singles matches, wins from Maple and Stephen ‘Sponge’ Davies secured a huge victory for the men in blue.
UoB rallied back and won their other four singles matches, despite a 180 from Matt Sutcliffe. It was, however, too little, too late for them as the game ended 6-5 to UoG.
Gloucestershire A’s perfect record of seven wins from seven games sees them sit atop the UDUK Central West League, with three games left until the winter break – Warwick A’s, B’s and C’s.
Next up, they travel to the University of Portsmouth for a Challenge Cup Round of 16 clash.
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