Day 247 - Sunday, September 4th, 2011

Again Debbie kindly provided the reveille, Cheerios, tea and lift to the Moorways, where marker numbers had miraculously plummetted from 30 yesterday to 17 today. (Chris was initially left on the sidelines, but was introduced as a rolling substitute before long, so everyone was suitably employed.)

Board 14 was to be my officious realm for the day, and the following matches :

Round 1

Reece Robinson 6 Stephen Hardy 2 : I hadn't marked Reece before yesterday, so naturally a similar pleasure would befall me 2 days in a row. On both days, Reece was quiet, calm and courteous, and this comfortable win shows that he is "one to look out for."

Co Stompe 6 Peter Hudson 4 : Co was in quirky form as ever, and his chair-breaking banter with Peter was taken in the good spirit that it was intended. Frustration at poor scoring nearly caused intervention though when he stood onto the oche when throwing his 3rd dart - thankfully it just failed to register on the board, as it wouldn't have counted. Peter missed his next 3 darts at a double and Co finished the 60 that he had remaining.

Dave Smith 6 Joe Cullen 4 : Joe seemed to be in somewhat lacklustre form and Dave capitalised with a narrow but well-merited victory.

Round 2

Justin Pipe 6 Reece Robinson 5 : Reece was 5-0 up in this match - up to this point Justin had been throwing really poor darts (mostly 40-something scores), but the threat of suffering a whitewash brought out barrages of 140s and despite being 5-0 up, Reece didn't have any darts to win the match. Evidence of a new calmness from Reece as he took defeat on the chin and exited gracefully after shaking the hands of opponent and marker.

Co Stompe 6 Dave Smith 2 : An easy win here for Co.

Round 3

Justin Pipe 6 Co Stompe 5 : Marking two 6-5 Justin wins in a row requires supreme concentration, but in truth it was easy to do, as this match was exciting and high scoring, with Justin edging it in the deciding leg.

Quarter Final

John Part 6 Nigel Heydon 4 : John has been in superb form of late and he needed to maintain it to see off the challenge of Nigel, who is rising rapidly through the ranks. Both are gentlemen of the game, so it was great to see both do well today.

John went on to lose in the semi-final to eventual winner Gary Anderson, and with that, another PDC weekend was at an end. Before being left to the airport, I had dinner at the local with Debbie Liam and Scott, and got unlucky with a mixed grill of leathered-beefsteak, gammon fat, pork sausage and cremated chips, although the tomato was delicious. The meal failed to leave a sour taste in the mouth though of a weekend that was fantastic fun, and I can't thank Scott enough for his hospitality, which I look forward to reciprocating in Dublin in October.

I met up with those Krazy Kilkenny Katz Dave and Paddy in the queue at the gate for a flight that landed 30 minutes ahead of its scheduled hour-long length, and the Ryanair crew forgot to press the Punctuality Bugle button - double-huzzah! All of this meant that I was home for 10pm and in bed for 11pm to get the first regulation-length sleep since Wednesday!


Gary Anderson - to today's victor the £6,000 spoils

Contentment : 15.5 / 25
Excitement :    3.5 / 10
Memorability : 4 / 15

Overall Score : 46% (66th out of 247)