After check-out and breakfast devourage, a chatty old taxi-man scuttles us to the Metrodome, and he tries to drive off with our bags in the boot before we remind him with a gentle number of car-slams to stop again. After the obligatory hour of faffage, it’s off to officiate at Board 7 – huzzah!
Round 1 (Last 128)
Ronnie Baxter Bye
Despite saying bye to Ronnie Baxter, he continues to hang around, and eventually the officials give him automatic passage to the Second Round.
Gary Welding 6 Kevin McDine 4
Kevin seemed to be in his trademark “not bovvered” form today, with a lax style, and not the greatest amount of thought put into his finish build-up play. Gary was in his usual self-aggressive form, snarling after hitting poor scores and shouting “GET IN!” after crucial leg wins. He does however take time to complement opponents on high scores or finishes, which is always a nice touch. This match was definitely a case of the winner wanting it most.
Mark Hylton 6 Dylan Duo 2
No question about who is the Most Improved Player this year so far – it’s Mark. Dylan had been in Escapade until 5am this morning and had virtually written off his chances beforehand, so under the circumstances, he did well to register some good scores and win a couple of legs.
Michael van Gerwen 6 Matt Jackson 0
Matt put in some good scores at the start but his head dropped severely after losing the first couple of legs and MvG was not tested at all in this encounter.
Round 2 (Last 64)
Ronnie Baxter 6 Gary Welding 5
Kudos to Ronnie, he always pays the courtesy of asking the marker at the start of the game if they’re ready, recognising us to be more umpire, less ball-boy. This match was close leg-wise all the way, but if Ronnie had been better at his doubles (he missed 9 darts in two different legs), he would have won 6-1.
Mark Hylton 6 Michael van Gerwen 0
After a semi-sluggish start in the previous game, Mark produced darts of a quality that I had not witnessed in months, with constant 140 and 180 scores, and hitting 75% of his doubles (6 darts out of 8), turning the whitewasher into whitewashee.
Round 3 (Last 32)
Mark Hylton 6 Ronnie Baxter 0
Mark’s phenomenal standard of darts did not relent here, delivering a rare white-washing to Ronnie, who acknowledged afterwards that there could be no arguing with the score.
Round 4 (Last 16)
Mark Hylton 6 Denis Ovens 4
Now I could be wrong, but I do think that Mark is somewhat prone to superstition. Firstly, I’m fairly sure that he gave away the bull to Denis, hitting well outside on both occasions, as he had won his previous 3 matches having lost the bull initially. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing this, but if both players had the same wish, then the bull-off would last for a very long time!
From the previous two legs, he also had become very fond of Double 7, and deliberately left it in the first leg here, but after missing it for the first time, that fad passed! Denis was also in great form, as he has been of late, so the match was a close one.
For the record, Mark went on to the semi-finals, and Andy Smith beat Dave Chisnall in the Final.
Time to dash in the drizzle with Enda, Dave (Coyne) and Matt von Stalybridge to the train station but alas the train to Leeds had just gone, so the 45 minute wait for the next one was largely spent in the nearby boozer, over Carling and poker chips. Matt had never played poker before, so the prize-money was set at zero. He acquitted himself with aplomb, even if he probably folded a little too often for his own good.
A bus brought us onward to the toilet that is Leeds Bradford International Airport, who proudly like to display their initials of LBIA everywhere, and in fairness, the facilities are indeed on a par with those in Benghazi or Tripoli. A microwaved burger in a deep-freezed bun was served up by a young madam,who became apoplectic with huffiness when I requested that the coleslaw advertised as part of the dish be replaced with something else. She came back 15 minutes later with a bowl of salad that no doubt contained some of her personalised signature house dressing, but its zest and tanginess was much appreciated.
The Ruinair flight home was delayed for 15 minutes, which was merciful, as it spared us the dehumanizing Punctuality Bugle at the flight’s end. Alas, poor Dave would not agree, as he missed his bus home by minutes and had to wait an extra 3 hours – boo-urns!
Contentment : 15 / 25
Excitement : 4 / 10
Memorability : 4.5 / 15
Overall Score : 47% (36th out of 163)
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