DARTS: The Warwickshire Invitational Classic
The 2nd running of the Warwickshire Invitational Classic was a once again a huge success with invited players producing quality from the very first dart thrown. The 48 players produced 12 Ten darters on the day and 180s were aplenty.
Group One was a top group with the top two finishes on the day being hit by Nick Gedney. Jamie Caven and Nigel Heydon were the two players who qualified for the latter stages. Ian Jones and Gedney were unlucky in the fact that they finished on equal points with Heydon but their leg difference was inferior.
Group two saw Kevin McDine go through unbeaten but tested all through. His fellow qualifier was Kirk Shepherd who won three of his games and was awaiting other results before he was aware he had got there.
Martyn Turner from Yorkshire was another unbeaten player in Group Three with Steve Hine dropping only one game during their group stages. Rob Hawker and Dickie Foster were finely poised had the top two dropped any further games.
Last years runner up Daren Johnson failed to make it through to the last 16 with Tony Eccles and Tommy Aldridge taking the top two slots although Johnson was only two legs against with equal winswith Aldridge. Aldridge being a 4-0 winner twice in Group Four.
Group Five was overrun by The Pieman Andy Smith who remained unbeaten and Stephen the Bullet Bunting who was defeated only the once. Some to finishing in this group with many 100+ outshots with Ryan Herrington hitting a superb 164 in his first game.
Group Six proved to be very interesting with Husband and Wife team of Tony Martin and Anastasia Dobromyslova drawn together, the ensuing match brought out a 4-1 win for Tony but Ana did produce one win with Darren Horler being the victim. Tony took four out of five wins as did Chris Cooper of Nottingham. Joh Quantock just one win away in third place.
Group Seven was given the title of Group Of Death with all six players looking to make their mark from the off. Andy Hamilton last years Champion took his first two games but that was to be all with David Platt and Colin Osbourne both having won four games scraping through.
Final Group Eight was the most eagerly fought out battle with the bottom placed player having two points.
Tony Littleton and Chris Mason winning through after securing three games as did Dave Honey but his leg difference was not good enough to see him through.
Last 16:
Chris Cooper 4 v 2 Kirk Shepherd
Martyn Turner 0 v 4 Nigel Heydon
Kev McDine 4 v 1 David Platt
Andy Smith 4 v 1 Chris Mason
Jamie Caven 4 v 1 Tom Aldridge
Colin Osborne 4 v 0 Steve Hine
Tony Littleton 4 v 3 Tony Martin
Tony Eccles 4 v 2 Stephen Bunting
Last 8
Nigel Heydon 2 v 5 Jamie Caven
Colin Osborne 5 v 1 Tony Littleton
Andy Smith 5 v 4 Chris Cooper
Tony Eccles 5 v 3 Kevin McDine
Semi^s
Colin Osborne 6 v 4 Tony Eccles
Andy Smith 4 v 6 Jamie Caven
After six hours of play the final two players prepared to do battle, Jamie having the first two legs but Osbourne found his range taking the next three only for Caven to level. Osbourne then threw darts set out for the World champs as he went within one leg of victory, Caven took his fourth leg but it turned out to only be a brief respite as Osbourne took his seventh leg to take the crown for this year.
Many Positive comments came from the players all day and already the plans are being made for Next Years event.
A Big Thank you to the Chief Organiser Dave Wykes and with help from Debbie Lander. Also thanks go to Steve Crowther proprieotor of the Bishopsgate Club in Coventry.
29.41 Jamie Caven 4 v 7 Colin Osborne 31.26..
Cherry Tree (Open Xmas)
56 Players made their way to Coventry for this traditional Open over the festive period. A total payout of £400 was made on the day with Nick Gedney producing top darts throughout the day and eventually to defeat Steve Hine in the final. Losing Semis were Lee Harris and Prakash Jiwa.
At the time of writing the County are preparing for our first fixture of the new year with a trip to Middlesex.