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PDC UK OPEN DARTS CHAMPIONSHIP 2006
132 competitors lined up at the fourth UK Open Darts tournament at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton, palying on 8 boards simultaneously. Play as in previous years started on the Friday night with the top 32 money earners from the UK Open regional finals, joining in the fray from the Saturday afternoon. ROUND ONE Boltonian Steve Coote was first on the main stage and he put in a poor performance against Kevin Dalwood, ultimately coming through 6-3. The vastly experienced Coote said afterwards he had never experienced nerves like that before. Bob Crawley put in a great performance averaging around 93.0 to beat Alan Green, while veteran Jamie Harvey strode past Wayne Squirrel 6-2, checking out two of his trademark big finishes en route – a 103 and a 130. London postman Gary Noonan beat local man Paul Williams 6-3 and Steve Johnson beat Pip Brown 6-3. Alan Caves has never had the best of fortune on TV, but he looked to be turning it around as he led Sean Palfrey 4-2 on the main stage. Palfrey though clawed the match back for a 6-5 win, taking the last two legs in style with 121 and 116 checkouts. Possibly match of the first round was between two veterans of the World Darts scene – "Big" Cliff Lazarenko and Shayne "The Bulldog" Burgess. Lazarenko went 2-0 up but Burgess then levelled the game and the match stayed close with Burgess ahead 4-3. "The Bulldog" then turned on the style to peg out 130 to make it 5-3 and the winning leg soon followed.
ROUND TWO The second round kicked off with Sussex's Adrian Gray against Dennis Smith. Both players by now are familiar to TV viewers and the experienced 'Smiffy' took a 3-1 lead over the youngster. Gray took an amazing 4 legs on the trot to then lead 5-4 and with a 148 checkout to extend the lead to 2 legs at 7-5, the final leg followed for an 8-5 win. Colin Osborne against Jason Clark was always going to be a close contest between these two promising players in the PDC. It was close early on at 2-2 but Osborne pulled away to a 6-2 lead courtesy of a 161 checkout. Clark however is known for being a fighter and he won the next 3 legs to make it 5-6. Osborne found a deep reserve though and during the 12th leg hit back to back 180s to make it 7-5. The final leg followed and the Publican fromDerbyshire was through to round 3. The battle of two ex-World Champions was next as Keith Deller took on Steve Beaton. Beaton led 4-1 as Deller got off to a shaky start but the 1983 champ found something like his best form to haul back the deficit and ultimately draw level at 6-6. Deller then took the next two legs to win the match. Robbie 'Kong' Green got off to a good 4-1 lead against Jamie Harvey, but the canny Scot pulled the match back to a deciding leg at 7-7. 'Kong' showed his true class though taking out a 126 for the match. Wes Newton missed 6 darts for the match at 7-4 against Henry O'Neill and her lost the leg. He didn't make the same mistake in the next leg though, 8-5 to Newton. Roland Scholten had too much class for Vic Hubbard in his 8-3 win and Jimmy Mann looked in good form as he beat Matt Chapman 8-4. Both Dave Platt and Andy Callaby looked to be in good form and it was close early on until Callaby established a 5-2 lead. Platt then took 3 in a row including a sensational 141 finish (T17, Bull, D20) to level the match. Despite another 116 checkout from Platt to level at 6-6, Callaby persevered to win through 8-6. Finally Darren Latham narrowly beat Peter Allen 8-7 in the last of the televised round 2 matches.
ROUND THREE Onto Saturday and the last 64 in the tournament and enter the big guns including – Taylor, Barneveld and Lloyd. Colin Lloyd didn't have too much trouble with 'The Ice Man' Alan Warriner racing to a 3-0 lead. Wazza checked out 106 to make it 3-1 but Lloyd then raced to an 8-2 victory finishing in style with a 136 checkout. Chris Mason took an early 3-2 lead over Robbie Green but in an upset to the form book, 'Kong' came back to lead 5-3. Mason checked out 126 to make it 4-5 but that was his last say in the match as Green won 8-4. Premier League rivals Peter Manley and Roland Scholten were expected to have a close game, but Scholten shot off to a 5-1 lead. Manley tried a brave fight back retrieving the deficit to 5-7 with a 140 checkout but Scholten took the next leg and with it the match. Wayne Mardle comfortably beat Ian Whillis 8-4 and Bob Anderson used his usual grit and determination to beat returning to form Richie Burnett 8-5. London postie Gary Noonan had a dream draw against 13 times world champ Phil Taylor and certainly held his own in the early stages before Taylor pushed the accelerator to the expected victory. Also worthy of mention and another player finding some form of old was Keith Deller who beat Robbie Widdows 8-2, taking the first leg of the match with a 167 finish.
LAST 32 Match of the round was undoubtedly going to be Adrian Lewis against Wayne Mardle and it didn't disappoint. Lewis went up 4-0 in the first to 11 contest, taking the third leg with a 118 finish. Mardle won his first leg to make it 4-1, before Lewis extended his lead to 6-1. A terrific fight back then from Mardle to take 6 legs on the trot and go into the lead 7-6 with a 101 checkout. Lewis pulled the match level and from then on there was nothing to split the players. Mardle led 10-9 and looked like he might have the match in the bag but Lewis pulled out a 146 checkout to level the match and put the game into a deciding leg. Lewis won it and it was an amazing contest between two of darts brightest stars. Colin Lloyd cruised past Steve Maish 11-3, while Terry Jenkins overcame a 4-2 deficit to beat Keith Deller 11-7. Denis Ovens led 8-0 against Wes Newton but had to stave off a fierce fight back to eventually come through 11-8 victor. Robbie Green continued his surge taking a 7-1 lead against last year's finalist Mark Walsh. Too much for Walshie to claw back as Green went on to the last 16 an 11-6 winner Roland Scholten beat Andy Jenkins 11-5 while 65 year old John Magowan (who became a bit of a people's hero at last year's World Grand Prix) beat Matt Clark. Many expected Jimmy Mann to do well in the tournament and he had done until he came up against 4 times world champion, Raymond van Barneveld. Barney took a 7-2 lead and cruised through to an 11-4 win. Phil Taylor also progressed comfortably beating Dave Askew.
LAST 16 Raymond van Barneveld was in no mood to play games with Bob Anderson as he established a 3-1 lead checking out 109 and 158 en route. A 106 checkout followed to make it 5-1 and it was hard to see a way back for Anderson from there. Barneveld went to 7-1 before eventually taking the match 11-3. John Part looked good value as he took a 4-1, then 6-3 lead against Andy Callaby. However Callaby is a real scrapper and he tied the match at 6-6. The tide seemed to turn as Callaby then went ahead for the first time 9-7 but Part fought back to level the game with a 126 checkout. The impetus was still with Callaby however as he took the next two legs for the match. Adrian Lewis looked to be on his way as he led 4-1 against John Magowan, but the 65 year old Irishman seems to have no nerves whatsoever as he overturned this lead to produce a major upset beating Lewis by 11 legs to 8. Barrie Bates beat Roland Scholten pulling away after a close start and Phil Taylor once again demolished Colin Lloyd. Taylor checked out 110 to lead 4-1 and although Lloyd took out the same finish to make it 2-6, that was his last leg as Taylor breezed to an 11-2 win. Robbie Green beat Terry Jenkins 11-4 finishing in style with a 144 checkout and Denis Ovens had his lead overturned (which he held for most of the match) to go down 11-10 to Alan Tabern who won the match with a 100 finish. Ronnie Baxter and Alex Roy was a very tight game with Roy finding his best and perhaps The Rocket not quite firing on all cylinders. Baxter led 7-5 but Roy took the next 3 to lead 8-7. Baxter then broke Roy's throw to lead 9-8 but Roy broke straight back to tie the match. That seemed to swing the match to the "Ace of Herts" as he took the next two legs and booked his place in the quarter-finals.
QUARTER FINALS Without a doubt the clash of the quarter-finals and indeed the tournament was the third head to head between Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld since the latter's move to the PDC in January. Many would have wished this to be the final but the re-draw at every round meant it could happen anytime. Although pride was at stake in their previous Premier League encounters, this contest was the first time that prize money, ranking points and more importantly a chance at the title was at stake. Taylor won the first leg with Barney checking out 118 to make it 1-1. Barneveld then took out 109 to make it 2-1 before Taylor levelled again to make it 2-2. Taylor then took 4 legs on the trot to make it 6-2 and many a player would have buckled at this point, but Barneveld seems to be made of sterner stuff. He broke Taylor's throw in the next leg then checked out 108 to make it 4-6. The next two went with throw making it 7-5 to Taylor with both players averaging around 96. Barneveld took the next two to level the match and upped his average to 99 in the process. The Dutchman took the next leg to go ahead for the first time but Taylor checked out 124 in the next leg to level the match once again. The next two legs were also shared leaving the match hanging on a sinlge leg. Taylor was at a double first and incredibly missed 3 darts for the match. Barneveld was still on 97 but checked it our coolly to beat Taylor in a major competition for the first time. An overjoyed Barneveld leapt around the stage as he had realised his ambition of beating Taylor. Alan Tabern progressed to the semi-finals beating Andy Callaby 11-5, while Alex Roy had an 8-4 lead overturned by Welshman Barrie Bates who won 11-10 in another last gasp victory. John Magowan's incredible tournament continued as he beat Robbie Green by 11 legs to 8.
SEMI-FINALS Not many would have predicted at the start of the competition that three out of the four semi-finalists would have been unfamiliar faces to televised Darts viewers. Of course both Alan Tabern and Barrie Bates are well known to the players that travel the PDC circuit. Both have won titles, Tabern has recorded a 9 dart game and Bates in particular has had a great run of form in 2006. Bates took an early 4-1 with Tabern clawing the match back to 7-8. It was fair to say that both players didn't show their best in this match and perhaps as they are not well known, the game didn't really seem to spark the crowd either. However it was a close finish as Bates continued to just hold off Tabern and win through 11-9. Raymond van Barneveld was clearly looking drained from his epic victory against Phil Taylor, conversely 65 year old John Magowan looked as fresh as a daisy for their semi-final encounter. Barney started off well going 2-0 up courtesy of a 116 checkout but Magowan came back to level the match taking the fourth leg in 11 darts. Magowan won the next leg as Barneveld was clearly suffering, but the four times world champion dug into his reserves to take the next two legs and go back into the lead 4-3. The match stayed close, Barneveld checking out 136 to make it 8-6, but Magowan took the next to reduce the game to a one leg deficit once again (averages – Barneveld 95, Magowan. However that was Magowan's last real input as Barneveld reeled off the next 4 legs to win through 11-7.
THE FINAL The contest between unexpected finalist Barrie Bates and Dutch Grandmaster Raymond van Barneveld started fairly closely with the first 4 legs shared. However Barneveld looked a little more focussed than in his semi-final and he took the next 4 legs to lead 6-2, with the 8th leg being an 11 darter (Barneveld averaging 91 to Bates 81). Barneveld took the next 3 legs as well and it was effectively 'game over'. At 11-4 up, Bates did win 3 legs in a row to make it 11-7 but it was too little too late as Barneveld checked in a fairly comfortable 13 legs to 7 victory. So a first major tournament win for Raymond van Barneveld who must have felt on top of the world. He would be disappointed just a week later in failing to qualify for the 2006 World Matchplay, a feat which his beaten finalist Barrie Bates managed to accomplish along with semi-finalist Alan Tabern. Next stop – Vegas.
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