Smith Slides Past Corner To Secure Last Leg Winner
Smith beat Rab McKenzie 4-3 in the best of 7 leg semi-final with Corner including a 180 in 14-16-20 and 21 dart legs whitewashing Mark Lawrence in the second semi.
in the quarter finals McKenzie (16 and 14) beat Jaron Esteve 3-2 with both including a 180. York^s Phil Chapman went down 3-0 to Smith as did Andy Walshaw to Corner who added another 180 in 17-14 and 20 darts. Lawrence hit 2 x 180^s in a 14 dart leg in a 3-1 victory over Simon Craven.
The earlier stages saw Paul Bulmer including 17-15-18-18 and 19 before going down to McKenzie (14) 3-1 in the Group Final. Mark Gale 16 and Rich Plummer 20 and 16 added to the Group One tally.
Jaron Esteve was the hot shot in Group Two hitting 15-18-19-18-15 and 21 darters en route to his 3-0 over Graham Steel in his board final. Tim Owen 16 and 18 and a 18 dart leg from Alan Priestley were the other contributors.
Phil Chapman outweighed his opponents with 20-21-20-17 and 21 before adding an 11 dart leg followed by 19 and 21 to take out Stuart Monaghan who had included 19-16-19 and 19 en-route to the last 16. Andy Scott 2 x 21, Dave Lord 18 and Greg Martin 17 topping up in Group Three.
Event winner Dave Smith dropped just one leg in winning Group Four adding legs of 15-21-15-15 and 19 to his days total. Other top legs came from Mally Welsh 18-19, Jonathan Crosland 16-15, Paul Mizon (Jnr) 21-18 and Stephen Silver 20-18 and 19 darts.
Runner-up Richie Corners charge gathered momentum early with legs of 15-16-14-16-14 before adding 16-13 and 17 in beating Ian Atkin 3-0 in the Group Five final. Atkin 21 and 17 along with Daz Meek 21 were the only other two in five hitting low legs.
Steve Rice 20-16-13-13-19-20-18 and 16, Dale Everatt 17-18-21-16 and 19 plus board winner Andy Walshaw 18-20-15 and 21 were the main contributors in Group Six with Nick Harteveld 20-16 and 18 and Jo Hodges 19 adding.
Simon Craven supplied the fastest leg in Group Seven which was 12 darts, also adding 20 and 18. This was closely followed by 14 from Neil Hart with Gary Wensley and Kieran Evans 18 and Pete Neary 18 and 16 following on.
Group Eight appeared to be the toughest on paper and included 24 legs of 21 darts or less. Mark Lawrence 19-14-16-18-16-18-19-16-16 and 13 darts led the way with John Quantock 18-18-17-20-19-18 and 16 hot on his heels. Chris Thompson 2 x 16, Colin Hendry 18, Fred Evans 16 and Quentin McMaster 18-16-18 were the best of the rest.
A total of 34 x 180^s were recorded on the day with Rich Corner out in front hitting seven maximums. Further multiple 180^s were added by Mark Lawrence (4), Andy Walshaw (3) and Chris Thompson & Andy Walshaw two each. Further solo 180^s were added by Paul Bulmer, Mark Lea, Graham Steel, Alan Priestley, Dave Lord, Jonathan Crossland, Dave Smith, Daz Meek, Lee Fisher, Neil Hart, Adam Wingrove, Jim Banister, Pete Neary, Colin Hendry, Rab McKenzie and Jaron Esteve.
The top out shot winning a £25 prize, sponsored by Embassy Racing, came from Stephen Blower taking out a 141 finish. Andy Walshaw was just one behind on 140 with Simon Craven 132, Paul Bulmer 122, Pete Neary 118 and Quentin McMaster 108 all ton plus finishes. Harrogate^s Val Wilson finished on bull.
Jo Hodges and Linda Staverley shared the furthest lady prize whilst Jamie Branton was the furthest Youth.
Ryan Lea won the under 16^s event beating Kyle Wilce in the final.
Kyle, Neil and Ryan
Dave Smith and Val Wilson were drawn together hitting scores of 180-85-140 and 96 two dart finish for 11 darts on their way to winning the Blind Pairs defeating Ian Atkin and Andy Scott in the Final.
Val, Neil and Dave
Ranking Event No.4 takes place on Saturday 21st February with No.5 a week later on the 28th both at Huntington WMC in York. Registration closes at 12.30pm for a 1pm start.