A battling display was not enough for the Bucks County Darts team as they went down to a 23-13 defeat to Merseyside over the weekend.

Bucks travelled north for the two-day event which saw their men’s and women’s A and B teams take to the oche.

Julie James was the standout performer in the opening tie of the match as she won her clash with Joanne Oliver 3-1 in her side’s 4-2 defeat.

The men’s B team were being led by new team manager Gary Patterson and matched their opponents for the first eight ties of their match.

Wins for Mark Boardman, Steve Sherrock, Clive Wilford and Gary Price had them level at 4-4 but Bucks lost the following four games to go down 8-4 overall.

Sunday saw Bucks’ A teams get involved in the action but they were powerless to change the momentum of the match, despite more competitive showings.

Firstly, their women’s team drew 3-3 to make the overall score 15-9 going into the final match of the weekend.

Ann Wakefield, Kristy Gibbs and Fallon Sherrock all won their matches with Sherrock taking the player of the match award after averaging 23.12 against Ann Morrison.

The men’s A team had their work cut out to secure a win and couldn’t turn things around, despite Steve McLeod giving them the ideal start with a 4-0 victory.

Five losses on the trot put victory out of Bucks’ reach before Jason Knibbs, Paul Stefanovic and John Tarbox all secured consolation wins.