ENGLISH NATIONAL SINGLES 2009
Qualifying
Once again Sutton Coldield provided one of the Warwickshire qualifiers for the event, this time John Kavanagh won the Birmingham venue, though there was no Rob Hawker or Mark Kane available that night.
Early casualties at the Birmingham venue included Trevor Frost, Anwar Parvez, Mark Birch and our own 2008 qualifier Mark Wild who again met team-mate John Kavanagh in the first qualifying round, this time the result going to JK.
The first semi-final saw PDC player Ian McFarlane of Shard End beat his team-mate Carl Winters 3-1. Carl had earlier beat another PDC player and Shard End team-mate Trevor Frost.
The second semi-final was between Tamworth's Kevin Taylor and Sutton Coldfield's John Kavanagh. JK winning a close game 3-2.
In the final Ian took the first in an impressive 12 darts, but JK bounced back to take the next three legs, all of them going to the wire.
The Finals
The finals were held at Stockport County Football club on Saturday 18th July 2009.
The other Warwickshire qualifiers along with JK were Warwickshire County trio Nigel Heydon, Jamie Atkins ( both Leamington), and Noel Grant (Coventry Cherry Tree).
Rob Hawker kindly offered to taxi JK to the event, and although the Warwickshire contingent didn't fare too well on the day, it was certainly a good experience for JK, as it had been for Wildy in 2008.
The line up included some of the biggest names in the BDO, Tony O'Shea, Scott Waites, Peter Evison, Dave Chisnall, Darryll Fitton, Gary Robson & Ian White of Cheshire who was the eventual winner beating Doug Smith of Lancashire in the final 4-1.
JK's Report From The Day
I marked Noel's game when he narrowly lost to Gary Robson in the third round and have to say it was a great comeback. Gary
Robson hit two 180's in the earlier legs, but once Noel levelled I was
sure he was going to pull off a famous win. I suspect Gary Robson
thought he was too! Noel had 4 at 32 in that last leg and suffered
terribly, only to see Gary clock 25 in 3 darts. Out of interest, had
Noel won it would have been Dave Chisnall for him next.
Pikey
and myself left after all the Warks lads had bitten the dust. We had
just seen Trina Gulliver win through an earlier round, and had pretty much
decided she was going to be hard to beat in the ladies KO at that early
stage.
Nigel Heydon played a lad called Tony 'Buzzer' Burrows,
both players scored heavily but Nigel had bad luck with his finishing
doubles, going 3-1 down when he could have easily been 3-1 up. He won
the next but lost the 6th for a 4-2 defeat. Felt sorry for Nigel
because I think had he won his 1st round he would have gone a very long
way.
I think I am right in saying Jamie Atkins played Ronnie
Godbeer from Surrey. He was on the same time as me so I didn't see it,
but I heard he went 3-0 down, fought back to 3-3 but lost out on the
decider 4-3. Jamie, however, won best dressed in a flourescent pink
T-Shirt. Nice!
I played a lad called Mick Cosgrave from
Cheshire, a very winnable game but I lost the first two legs on doubles
to make life hard for myself as I tend to do.The third was a better leg but I lost out again with the Cheshire lad
hitting a maximum. I won the 4th & 5th legs, and had the darts in
the 6th but blew the advantage on the doubles and was on the chalk
losing 4-2.
It'd been a while since I had beer for breakfast
(last year on the coach to the Headingly test match I think), but
managed to get my mandatory 4 pints in before my game with the beer
flowing from 9am. Not sure my body clock could quite work out what was
happening though.
Have to say I enjoyed the experience. It was a
bit of a novelty for me (being the makeweight of the Warks contingent)
to be playing at the same venue as the likes of Tony O'Shea, Darryl
Fitton, Scott Waites, Peter Evison, Dave Chisnall, Gary Robson &
Co. Just wish I could have drawn one of the bigger names 1st round.
That would have topped off the day.
A really big thanks to Pikey
for the lift up there. I was all set to get the train up there like
Noel. It must have been gut wrenching for Pikey being there and not
playing. I bet he wishes he had turned up at the qualifiers now!
RESULTS
| First Round | |||
| Tony Pilkington | bt | Harry Smith | |
| Darryll Fitton | 4 | Archie Goodier | 0 |
| Danny Stevenson | 0 | Stuart Kellett | 4 |
| Brian Derbyshire | 4 | Mick Ward | 1 |
| Pete Dyos | 1 | Tony O'Shea | 4 |
| Craig Cockroft | 0 | Tony Randell | 4 |
| Robbie Hain | 2 | Leon Bailey | 4 |
| Nigel Heydon | 2 | Tony Burrows | 4 |
| Ian Frame | 4 | Stephen McHale | 1 |
| Roger Haines | 3 | Dave Routledge | 4 |
| Daniel Allsopp | 0 | Stephen Bunting | 4 |
| Paul Daniels | 3 | Chris Sheldrake | 4 |
| Adrian Genery | 4 | David Cook | 3 |
| Second Round | |||
| Graham Manning | 4 | Simon Willmott | 1 |
| Dave Chisnall | 4 | Joe Palmer | 0 |
| Gary Robson | 4 | Gary Flynn | 1 |
| Andy Hornby | 1 | Noel Grant | 4 |
| Danny Scott | 1 | Lee Topper | 4 |
| John Kavanagh | 2 |
Mick Cosgrove | 4 |
| Bob Stanley | 4 | Tony Pilkington | 1 |
| Darryll Fitton | 4 | Stuart Kellett | 3 |
| Ian White | 4 | Mark Cairney | 0 |
| Alan Syphas | bt | John Elliott | |
| Ben Burton | bt | Keith Bedding | |
| Justin Thurley | 0 | Graham Peck | 4 |
| Bob Alexander | 4 | Dale Newton | 3 |
| James Welding | 1 | Dave Place | 4 |
| Peter Evison | 3 | Brian Derbyshire | 4 |
| Tony O'Shea | 4 | Tony Randell | 2 |
| Steve Plumber | 1 | Matthew Castle | 4 |
| Brian Woods | 4 | Shaun Griffiths | 1 |
| Ronnie Goodbeer | 4 | Jamie Atkins | 3 |
| Kevin Self | 3 | Chris Bowring | 4 |
| James Marcroft | 4 | Steve Jones | 1 |
| Darren Gray | 4 | Jamie Landon | 3 |
| Joe Murnan | 4 | Leon Bailey | 2 |
| Tony Burrows | 4 | Ian Frame | 3 |
| Scott Waites | 4 | Steve Rogers | 0 |
| Chris Stanley | 2 | Andrew Barker | 4 |
| Doug Smith | 4 | Andy Lynn | 1 |
| Jon Jukes | 4 | Jonathan Bramble | 3 |
| Aaron Turner | 4 | Roy Pryor | 2 |
| Nillson Pritchard | bt | Mick Bushby | |
| Dave Routledge | 2 | Stephen Bunting | 4 |
| Chris Sheldrake | 1 | Adrian Genery | 4 |
| Third Round | |||
| Graham Manning | 0 | Dave Chisnall | 4 |
| Gary Robson | 4 | Noel Grant | 3 |
| Lee Topper | 4 | Mick Cosgrove | 1 |
| Bob Stanley | 0 | Darryll Fitton | 4 |
| Ian White | 4 | Alan Syphas | 1 |
| Ben Burton | 4 | Graham Peck | 3 |
| Bob Alexander | 4 | Dave Place | 2 |
| Brian Derbyshire | 1 | Tony O'Shea | 4 |
| Matthew Castle | 0 | Brian Woods | 4 |
| Ronnie Goodbeer | 4 | Chris Bowring | 2 |
| James Marcroft | 2 | Darren Gray | 4 |
| Joe Murnan | 4 | Tony Burrows | 1 |
| Scott Waites | 4 | Andrew Barker | 2 |
| Doug Smith | 4 | Jon Jukes | 1 |
| Aaron Turner | 1 | Nillson Pritchard | 4 |
| Stephen Bunting | 2 | Adrian Genery | 4 |
| Fourth Round | |||
| Dave Chisnall | 3 | Gary Robson | 4 |
| Lee Topper | 2 |
Darryll Fitton | 4 |
| Ian White | 4 | Ben Burton | 2 |
| Bob Alexander | 1 |
Tony O'Shea | 4 |
| Brian Woods | 1 |
Ronnie Goodbeer | 4 |
| Darren Gray | 2 | Joe Murnan | 4 |
| Scott Waites | 1 | Doug Smith | 4 |
| Nillson Pritchard | 4 | Adrian Genery | 3 |
| Quarter Finals | |||
| Gary Robson | 4 | Darryll Fitton | 2 |
| Ian White | 4 |
Tony O'Shea | 3 |
| Ronnie Goodbeer | 4 | Joe Murnan | 2 |
| Doug Smith | 4 | Nillson Pritchard | 2 |
| Semi Finals | |||
| Gary Robson | 3 | Ian White | 4 |
| Ronnie Goodbeer | 2 | Doug Smith | 4 |
| FINAL | |||
| IAN WHITE | 4 | DOUG SMITH | 1 |
*Denotes Sutton Coldfield player
*Denotes other Warwickshire player
