Darts By Stan Launder

Last updated 09:21, Saturday, 19 July 2008

THE trip to Lakeside by the Cumbria contingent can be put down to experience. Our lads Andrew Foster and Garry Simpson went out in the first round of the Men’s Gold Cup, Garry unusually surrendering a 2-0 lead.

Pecker and Steve went out second time on in the pairs to a couple from Gwent.

Heather Draper won her first match but then lost out in the second round - that’s sad because it is the next round where the money starts!

Heather and Pam Hind won the first round of the doubles but then went out to a pair from Dorset who were in turn knocked out by the reigning champions Barbara Lee and Sandra Greatbatch who were attempting to become only the fourth pair in the history of the Gold Cup to retain the title.

And they only failed at the very last hurdle going down in the final to Tricia Wright with Sally Dowell.

My but we have had some pile of runners up in this event - Barbara once before with Carole - Crissy with Anita, Crissy with Angela (several times) and Michelle with Janice - we shall have it up here one of these days.

World Matchplay

Next week sees the start of the famous tournament in Blackpool with the top 32 players in the PDC slugging it out for the much sought after title which James Wade currently holds.

Peter Manley will start his challenge on Tuesday when he has the far from easy task of casting Dennis Ovens into the role of spectator.

The darts start on Sunday with the 6th playing of The Bobby Bourne Memorial Trophy which bears only one name to date - that of Phillip Taylor and he will not let it go without a fight.

Alan Warriner-Little will begin his bid for it against Ian Lever who might well have played with Alan for Lancashire.

Kirk Shepherd and Wayne Mardle are in Alan’s group.

Peter will play Lee Holden in a group which also includes Vincent Van der Voort and former Embassy Champion Richie Burnett.

Two newcomers to the PDC will play in this event - the 19 year old Bradford lad Joe Cullen and, from Somerset Justin Pipe.

Ellenborough Social Club

Didn’t quite get it right last week - oh the winner was Gary Heaney but he beat Mark Sloan in the final - both of them having beaten the unlucky John Madine in the latter stages of each half of the draw.

The second heat winner was Paul Tuck who beat Mark in the final - Mark had a 180 but Paul had a pair of them and a superb 145 finish. Darren Smith had a hat trick of 180’s, Spider Sewell had one and a 15 dart leg and there was a 180 from David Perry. It will be heat 4 on Thursday.

Portland Club

This is NOT The Northern Smoothie tournament which will be later in the year - this is an 8 week competition with the accepted prize money total which the club is famous for.

This was the first heat with Trevor Watters and Ged Stockdale leading the scoring stakes with 3 x 180 each - and there were doubles from Janice Wilson and Mike Sowerby whilst Mark Sloan was in good nick with legs in 13 and 14 darts.

In one half of the draw Mike beat Ged in the semi-final to go on and play Chris O’Prey in the final after Chris had beaten Trevor.

Chris then beat Mike to claim the first of the two qualifying places.

Ged beat Mike in the semi finals of the other half whilst Mark put out George Moore - and then Mark beat the unlucky man of the night!

Mark and Chris go through to the play offs - the second heat is tonight.

Royal George Workington

This has to be the best supported blind pairs anywhere, and has been ever since Keith started the competition years ago.

Good darts too with 180’s this Wednesday coming from Andrew Foster, Des Halbert, Eddie Waugh, Willie Gallea and Terry Parry, but Mike Sowerby’s 150 finish remains the top out shot.

Andrew and Rob McCoubrey (now there’s a likely pair) lost the first semi final to Des and Steve Hodgson (also a strong partnership) but then won the second semi-final at the expense of Eddie and Mike Sharp.

Both these games went to the deciding leg but the final went to Rob and Boy Wonder in three straight legs.

The next heat is on Wednesday.

Bounty Inn Top Duffer

There were 13 in each half of last Sunday’s also ran competition and several of the players have made quite an impression in the whole of the tournament by appearing in the latter stages in a fairly consistent manner.

In the top half of the draw Steve “Stivi” Stevenson put out Graeme Minto in the semi final with a sweetly times 96 finish in the deciding leg of three whilst Steven Maguire beat Craig Wilkinson and then Beat Stivi to contest the final of the night.

Stivi got his other half entry to the last pair as well with a win over Bill Hoskins to get to a final where he had to play Graeme again, who had beaten Mark Sloan.

Stivi missed a shot at 73 to win the tie and Graeme took the leg and the match to face Steven in the final. Steve played so well through the night and was a worthy winner with a bull finish in leg one and a 36 game shot in the second.

Mike Reed had the top leg of the night with a 12 darter, Greame had a 153 out and 2 x 180 and there were maximums from Stivi, Steve and Bill.

The play off is tomorrow night.

Bounty Inn Mixed Pairs

This was the penultimate heat for this very fine mixed pairs tournament - Maryport seems to be the centre of very fine mixed doubles competitions at present, so the last heat is on Wednesday.

There were 180s from Trevor Baillie, Paul McGimpsey and a couple from Bill Hoskins with Sas Bode chipping in with a very fine 121 finish.

This could not have been better - Bill hit a 180 and Sas chipped on 121 - 301 in six darts. In addition to this there were a dozen scores of 140.

In the top half semi-final Bill and Sas beat Gimp and Michelle whilst Kelly Whitehead and Andy Cartwright put out Denise Bowe with Barry Hodgson - bet you were chuffed to win a game or two Barry! Bill and Sas won the final 2-0.

In the bottom half semi final Gimo and ‘Chelle beat the unlucky Kelly and Andy whilst Sas and Bill took care of Sally Banks and Trevor to set up a second meeting with Gimp and ‘Chelle.

Gimp and ‘Chelle won this encounter 2-0 despite Bill having the second of his max scores and narrowly missing the double to level it. Gimp was never so pleased to see a finish of five go in.

West Street Social Club

My goodness - another 28 player entry for the last heat of the eight - the finals were last night!

Ewan Hyslop won both halves of the draw last Friday beating Trevor Watters in one final and Stuart Dinnell in the other.

That is top darts from a field of 28! Losing one stage earlier were Gary Heaney, Spider Clulow, Sean McGimpsey and Benny Boa.

There were 180s by Benny, Mark Pearson, Nigel Cowels, and Andy Goodfellow (2).

Benny got off with a 142, Ali Edgar with a 148. There were 120 starts for Ewan, Andy, and Trevor and 112 away for Stuart and Gary.

Ewan had a 101 out in a 15 dart leg and Marvin Dobson had the top out of the night on 130.

Really Blind Draw Doubles

The Jocky Goulding Memorial tournament came to an end last Friday - a pretty satisfactory end as far as Garry Bellard and Glenn Nichols were concerned.

This is a competition where partners are redrawn after each round but the winners managed to be drawn together in each of the rounds.

In the quarters, Brian Bell and Mark Sewell beat Clive Foster and Brian Graham 3-1; Ian Pattinson and Russell Irving put out David Graham and John Wright 3-1; Mark Sloan and Rob McCoubrey had a 3-2 win over Paul Morris and Scanner whilst the Bellard/Nichols partnership had success by 3-1 at the expense of Kevin Flanagan and Shaun Savage.

The semis saw Ian, now playing with Rob, put out Brian and new partner Russell 3-1. The pair about to become champions were taken the full distance by the two Marks before getting through to the final where they beat Ian and Rob by 4-2.

Garry had 4 x 180 and Kevin had a single at the conclusion of Jocky’s memorial competition.

Castle Whitehaven

This was week six of eight and John Blaney got both of his entries to the last pair in each half of the draw. He beat Paul Morris 2-0 in the first half final but then lost 2-1 to David Cunningham in the other.

However, when the two of them played off for the right to play in the finals John turned the tables on David and won in three straight legs. Heat seven is on Thursday.

Other Competitions

Next week we will try to catch up with the tournaments which are ongoing at THE STOCKSMAN in Wigton which is on Friday nights and where there is a grand on offer. HARRINGTON RBL where the 1001 is on Thursdays and maybe a word from EGREMENT CATHOLIC CLUB. We also hope to catch up with the singles league at the UKRANIAN CLUB and have the table from there.

And Finally

I have to say that it was nice to see former County player Alan Shepherd this week, even if we did meet in unfortunate circumstances.

Sadly I have heard that our stalwart Norman Wright has had the worst possible news regarding his illness.

I know you will all join with me in passing on our very kindest regards to Norman and Alma - gosh the pair of them have done so much for darts in the county in the past decade. Cannot say more than that really.