Oxfordshire pulled off a magnificent victory over Somerset to keep their Rileys Inter-Counties Champion ship Division 1 promotion drive firmly on track.

They triumphed 30-9 at Rileys SC, picking up three bonus points to stay top of the table.

With two fixtures left, they have a great chance to seal their place in the top flight of British darts.

The ladies B team got the ball rolling with a 4-2 victory, lady-of-the-match Sandra Cox (19.84 average) getting the side off to a good start and Kim Ledbury, Cath Birch, and Jane Jenkins cementing the win.

The men’s B suffered an early defeat, but county under 21 captain Dean Lockyer levelled the scores and further wins followed from Lee Russell, Stuart White, Phil Addison, Ade Larner and Graham Manning.

This was followed by the battle of the youngsters as 16-year -old Stephen Wright, making his debut for Oxon, took on Somerset’s 13-year-old George Gardner.

Both players averaged more than 20, with Wright running out a 3-1 winner, including a 180. Both received a standing ovation from the crowd.

Olly Varney and Dan Butler put two more wins on the board to give Oxon a 13-5 lead going into the second day.

Somerset captured the first two ladies A games before Leanne Jennings stopped the rot, followed by victories from Karen Williams and England international Deta Hedman (28.36).

Somerset took the last game for a 3-3 draw, which made the overall score 16-8.

Oxon’s men’s A team then produced a stunning display, rattling off the first 11 games via Kirk Shepherd, man-of-the-match Nick Cobb (30.22), Kevin Wilkins, Preben Krab-ben, Jon Jukes, Pete Hall, Andy Thomas, Mark Thomson, Dennis Smith, Ian Moss, and Stuart Dutton.

The visitors took the last game, but it proved little more than a consolation.