A Look Back In Time - 1st February 2009
A few competitions have been staged in our area over the festive period. First the Wolverhampton Open, which was moved back to its original venue, the ECC Sports and Social Club and what a success it was. The 97 entries included five players who graced the Ally Pally stage plus numerous PDC and county players from around the country.
The preliminary round produced some interesting and top class encounters, Chris Mason going out 3-1 to West Midlands ace Ian Jones, PDC players Dave Nelson and Dickie Foster lost last leg deciders against respective opponents Lee Ashe and Steve James, while fellow PDC players Dave Honey, Pete Edmonds, Steve Hine, Kevin Dowling and Kevin Harris recorded comfortable wins along with county players Tom Aldridge, Mark Rollinson, Steve Ritchie, Robbie Green, Martin Angell and Mark Hylton.
The last 32 games saw a repeat of the Tipton Open semi final, Wayne Jones (Wolverhampton) versus Tony Randall (Birmingham). Randall, with a 3-0 result completed the double over Jones.
In the quarter finals Leicestershire’s Jamie Caven beat Andy Smith (Studley) 4-1, Tony Randall going through to the last four with a similar result against Pete Alsop (Derby), as did Dave Honey (Redditch) in his tie with Tom Aldridge (Tipton). The other quarter final game saw Robbie Green (Merseyside) book his semi final spot with a 4-2 win against Staffordshire’s Mark Hylton.
The semi finals saw Jamie Caven continue his superb form when he defeated Tony Randall 4-1, this being only the third leg that Caven had dropped throughout the competition. From the other half of the draw Robbie Green’s passage to the final was assured with a straight 5-0 victory over Dave Honey.
Caven’s highly impressive form for the day continued when he won the first leg of the final against Robbie Green in fifteen darts with a tremendous 160 game shot. In the second leg he narrowly missed the bull for a 161 finish before going out in 21 darts. Caven went 4-0 by winning the third and fourth legs, both in fourteen darts and notching a maximum in the third.
To go within an ace of victory Caven won leg five in fifteen darts which included a score of 177, he then went on to wrap up the title with a fantastic twelve darts leg finishing it in style with a 132 outshot on the bull.
Prize money was, Jamie Caven (Champion) £500, Robbie Green (Runner up) £200, losing semi finalists Dave Honey and Tont Randall each received £100 and losing quarter finalists Andy Smith, Pete Alsop, Tom Aldridge and Mark Hylton collected £25 each.
The lady who progressed the furthest on the day was Liverpool’s Zoe Nettleship.
The next Wolverhampton Open is scheduled for the 21st February 2009.
The Brook Meadow was the setting for the Brook Meadow and Castle Bromwich Roofing Knockout. Despite the low attendance the competition provided some first class darts. Tony Randall was in great form throughout and chalked up in excess of ten maximums, booking his final place with a 4-1 win over Trevor Frost in the semi finals. The other last four game was a much closer affair with Ian McFarlane just getting the edge on Carl Winters with a 4-3 verdict.
Randall was first to settle in the final and worked his way up to a 3-2 lead before McFarlane stepped up a gear to win the sixth leg in twelve darts and the deciding leg in fifteen to clinch a 4-3 victory plus the top prize of £100. Randall collected £40 and the losing semi finalists, Trevor Frost and Carl Winters £17.50 each.
Tony Randall was also runner up in the darts knockout staged at the Tipton Sports and Social Club. Randall, as he was throughout the Christmas period was in superb form but sadly lost out in the final to Nick Fullwell.
The Grange 4 a-side Charity League decided to adopt a women and children’s refuge in Cannock, West Midlands as recipients for whatever monies their league could raise and following a very successful summer season in which they handed over a total of £300 it was decided they would look to starting a new league for the winter. The result was the formation of the Grange Sunday Night 301 Charity League.
Jimmy Norris is the current leader of the league, but at the time of going to print he lost a little of his advantage when he was beaten 2-1 by third in the table Eddie Kennedy. Norris quickly recovered from the defeat and went on to win his next fixture against Mike Forsythe 2-1 giving him a total of 43 points from 18 games. Second place Matt Cooper also suffered mixed fortunes as he beat Dave Watkins 2-1 and then lost by the same margin to Julian Harris, leaving Cooper five points adrift of Norris with a game in hand.
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