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Doubles Knock Out 7^th June

It was a very interesting evening of darts, although there weren’t many spectacular shots and as far as I saw, only one decent finish and that was only 92 in two darts. There were countless ton and ton plus scores, too many to mention here, but I will list some of the better starts. The first ton plus start was from Ernie Jellyman with a nice little 101.

The 2^nd leg of Mark Hylton’s game saw him break with 120 and go on to hit the first 180 of the night, with his opponent Kenny from the Mod, hitting the second 180 with his next 3 darts. Kenny’s partner, Matt also threw some great darts just missing what would have been a great 112 out shot. Although Matt and Kenny put up a great performance it was the poor finishing of Mark and Geof that really led to the first upset of the night with the favourites being knocked out. In fact Matt and Kenny threw well again later nearly taking out another hotly favoured pair of Boo and Nige Cox. As Matt said they were unfortunate with their draw.

Another pair who deserved a better fate were Jason Clasper and his partner who threw on a home board as they play for the Mansefield. Jason hit a great Shanghai break on 20’s early on and then later in the night he hit another. They put up a fantastic performance and were unfortunate not to make the last hurdle and get to the final.

The best bit of the night, for those that saw it, was when Kevin Birt and Jacky McFarlane from the Miners, brushed Scoby and one of the Norman brothers, from Libbys Bandits, in one leg.

A few other memorable darts came from Grant with a 120 break and S Farrelly, now playing from the Pig and Bell, who had a break of 105. Nige Cox hit a  112 break and narrowly missed a 15 darter. Ticker did hit a break of 113 and told me that he had one of the best breaks of the night with a 156, but I must confess that I didn’t see it! It was a bit of a surprise then to see Ticker and Monty, from the Pear Tree Club, go on to lose to Scraggy and I Bullivant.

There were a few hard fought games including Boo and Nige Cox against Marshy and Eamon Gormley who were all from the Pear Tree Club. Boo’s 120 start helped put up a good show as did Marshy and Eamon’s missed 18 darter.

Another great performance came from the Prince Of Wales with Tam McKail partnering Aiden Barry. Tam had the best break of the night with a fantastic score of 160 in the first leg and Aiden followed in the second with a break of 108, then Tam did it again in the 3^rd with a break of 101.

Adam Johnson was the only other player to hit a 180 and certainly picked the right partner for the night in the shape of Jimmy Richards as the pair put in some brilliant games just missing at least two possible 18 darters in the course of the event. In fact they played in the Semis against fellow team players from the Castle, Barry Darby and Norman Buglar, where they put in some more great scores with Jimmy hitting 2 x 95’s in the first leg. These two scores helped them down with Jimmy leaving Adam on tops from 102, for a possible 19 darts, which he missed. Then, poor finishing let Norman take the leg.

The next leg saw a late start from Norman and Barry that meant they were 200 behind, but a ton from Norman helped and then Adam hit a magnificent score of 139 from 179 that left Jimmy on tops, which he got to level it up. In the next leg Adam’s 140 score was not good enough on it’s own letting Barry and Norm take the decider.

The other Semi was Kevin Jones and Martin Roberts v Nigel Cox and Will Hall. The first leg saw Martin left with 32 after only18 darts with Boo and Nige nearly 200 adrift after a late start. Boo and Nige took the next to level it up at 1-1. Then a great break of 117 for Boo signalled the start of another fantastic leg of darts. An early ton from Martin helped things along brilliantly as did the reply of another from Nige. Boo’s 140 followed by 52 from Nige left Boo on 92 which he got for an out in 14 darts to make the best leg of the night by far.

The Final, then, was Nige and Boo against Norman and Barry.

An early start followed by 140 from Norman looked good, but Boo’s 120 break then an 85 and another 125 from Boo meant that the Tree had caught up. Boo went on to leave 32 from 149 for Nige to go out. Then straight off again for Nige on 32, even if Graham marked it on the wrong side of the board!.