The University of Gloucestershire darts team strolled past Swansea University in a UDUK Challenge Cup clash to reach the second round of the cup.
The Gloucestershire team made their way across the bridge to face Swansea at the heart of city on Wednesday in hopes of getting to the next round after failing to do so in a close clash with Lincoln last year.
The two sides have never met before, with The Swans playing their first UDUK season in the South West league and UOG playing in the Central West League.
A different format, saw the game start with nine 1v1 games with a best of five which is different to the usual 3v3 start in the league.
The away side got off to a flying start taking a 7 – 2 lead once the first set of singles games had concluded with club president Billy Maple and club captain Alfie Element failing to lose a leg.
Matt Sutcliffe and Callum Reynolds had a big clash with each player throwing a 21 dart leg, although the visitor took the 3-1 win. Henry Shuttleworth and Samuel Lodge took the two points for the home side.
Next was four 2v2 games, with B team captain Ethan Price missing out for Glos and Max Williams sitting out for the games.
Maple and James Pryer continued great form taking both legs in their match and alumni player Alfie Ryan failing to concede a leg alongside Sutcliffe.
The English side took all four doubles games to take a commanding 11-2 with just one win needed to secure the win.
Celebrations were almost underway for Gloucestershire looking for their last win to seal the victory in the final nine singles matches, although the home side came out fighting.
Sutcliffe and Element both took 3-1 defeats to a dangerous looking Swansea side, all eyes were on Maple to deny the comeback in a last leg decider with Charlie Aldridge. But nerves of steel saw Maple pin double 16 to take his side into the next round.
Four more wins for the away side gave UOG a statement win 16-6 to give them a joyful trip back across the border.
“It was a fantastic team performance, came here on a long car journey and really stuck in as a team and to get a convincing win” said Maple, praising his team.
Gloucestershire take another long trip up to Loughborough in two weeks time.
“Notoriously a big university, big sporting university so it’s going to be hard…
Hopefully we can let the dartboard do the talking”.
It’s a trip to Portsmouth in the next round of the cup, who whitewashed Exeter in a demanding 22-0 win.
“In a cup it’s going to be tough, different format, so we’ll see how we get on and hopefully it’s all the best”.
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