OXFORDSHIRE’S ladies were in good form but a thrashing for the men’s B team led to an overall defeat at home to Lancashire in the Premier Division.

The 20-16 loss meant the county remained in the bottom two, but they moved closer to safety with two fixures left.

The ladies B recovered from losing the opening game to win the next five.

Tasha Borton, lady-of-the-match Shirley Castle, Julie Newman, Cath Birch and Belinda Grant all finished on top to give the hosts an excellent start.

But the match swung decisively towards Lancashire during the one-sided men’s B matches.

Only man-of-the-match Dean Lockyer tasted victory as the visitors produced some high-quality darts to run out 11-1 winners.

Trailing 12-6, Oxfordshire needed something special to get back into the contest and the ladies A duly provided it.

Fiona Carmichael and Clare Bywaters got them away to a good start. Deta Hedman then avenged her world championship defeat to fellow international Lisa Ashton, averaging 28.90 in a 3-1 win which earned her the lady-of-the-match prize.

Rebecca Rose and Sandra Cox also won their games in a 5-1 win which narrowed the overall deficit to 13-11 heading into the men’s A matches.

Hopes of a victory were dented as Preben Krabben and Terry Davies were the only Oxon winners in the first eight games.

Pete Hall, Keith Bedding and Lee Russell rallied with victories to provide a strong finish, but Lancashire took it 7-5 to seal the win.