Rileys British Inter-County Championships

Former PDC World Championship runner-up Kirk Shepherd had a winning debut as Oxf-ordshire returned to the top of Division 1.

Shepherd helped Oxon’s men’s A team hammer Middlesex 10-2 at Rileys, Cowley and seal a 30-9 victory.

The 24-year-old, from Birmingham, who lost to John Part in the 2008 PDC final, averaged 29.33 to win his match.

Fellow professional Dennis Smith (30.75) was Oxon’s man-of-the-match, while Stuart Dutton (30.06) also passed 30.

Teammate Graham Manning explained how Shepherd came to play for Oxfordshire.

He said: “Quite a few of us know him because we see him around at competitions.

“He is quitely friendly with Dennis Smith and has been threatening to play for us for about 12 months.

“Now he has signed on, he said he is available for most of our games.

“He had to play well on his debut as the guy he beat averaged 28, but he averaged 29.”

Oxfordshire got off to a strong start against Middlesex with a 4-2 win from their ladies’ B team.

Victories came from Babs Manning (18.20), Kim Ledbury, Nicola Curzon, and debutant Janet Weedon.

The men’s B side took the first four games through Nigel Russell, Lee Russell, Kevin Wilkins, and man-of-the-match Ade Larner (27.83).

Further successes from Stuart White, Joe Palmer (26.81) John Russell and Antony Barrett saw Oxon go 12-6 up.

On Sunday, lady-of-the-match Deta Hedman (28.36) set a standard only three Oxfordshire men could beat as the ladies’ A team won 5-1.

Linda Jones (20.80), Leanne Jennings (19.93), Karen Will-iams (18.36) and Julie Newman (19.52) also won.

Then followed the best men’s A performance this season as they won six of the first seven matches, thanks to Ian Moss (25.89), Jon Jukes(26.97), Stuart Dutton (30.06), Nick Cobb (24.79), Andy Thomas (26.37) and Smith.

Olly Varney (23.80), Mark Thomson (26.42), Preben Krabben (22.77) and Shepherd (29.33) rounded off the 10-2 victory, which came with a team average of 26.38.

With Oxfordshire winning 30-9 and some other games called off due to the cold snap, all four teams also top their respective sections.