Triple May Day delight for Pecker
Last updated 12:35, Friday, 09 May 2008
THE May Day darts weekend at Hemsby in Norfolk was a great success for Brian “Pecker” Woods who came back with two gold medals and a silver.
Playing in the men’s singles, Pecker got to the final in the face of some stiff opposition which included several current international players.
And in the final, he beat Scott Mitchell in the deciding leg of five to take the top prize.
Our home grown version of the Boy Wonder had played so well to get to the last eight and he had a great win over the Welshman Ritchie Davis.
The second gold medal came in the mixed pairs where Pecker and England’s player Tricia Wright beat Abbott and Belton.I confess that I have not heard of either of them but they can’t be bad because at an earlier stage they had knocked out an international partnership comprising of Ian Brand with Sandra Greatbatch.
The silver medal came from the mixed trebles where, parading as ME: ME: and SELF Pecker, Tricia and Andrew got to the final only to lose, comprehensively too, to a trio calling themselves Small, Medium and Large.
To conclude the Hemsby proceedings, the ladies’ champion was Dawn Standley who beat Rebecca Rose - Sandra Greatbatch, Apylee Jones and the once mighty Mandy Solmons.
Last Saturday, week four of eight, saw 16 players in each half of the draw. But there was only one real winner and that was Paul McGimpsey who won both halves of the draw.
Four times he broke with 120 and, for good measure, also finished on the same number a couple of times. He clocked four 180s and, remembering that this is double in and out, had 13 and 14 darters.
In one final, Gimp beat Alan McNaughton, and in the other he did for Spider Clulow and when the two of them played off for the second qualifier slot, it was Alan who came out on top. Other good darts came from George Moore with a 160 off and a 115 finish: Ally Edgar with a 142 start and Davy Nisbett who had a class 143 finish. Stefan Service had a maximum and it is heat five tonight.
Blame it on the lovely weather but only 11 players made it to The Robin Hood on Wednesday.
For the second time in a few days Paul McGimpsey got both of his entries to the finals of each half of the draw.
Gimp, however, lost the first of those finals to Andrew Foster in two straight legs. But then, in a family affair, Paul beat Sean McGimpsey in a tighter 2-1 match. But three wins in four finals is a pretty fair return.
Best leg of the night - a nine-darter - came from Mark Storey. Paul had finishes of 102 and 115, with Sean checking out a 113. David Ferguson had a 100 out and Mark a 109.
We have two winners to catch up on from The Castle before the final play-offs which are on Thursday.
From week seven, Garry Bellard went through the night undefeated with wins in both half finals over Wayne Taylor by 2-0 and Mike Sowerby by 2-1.
Mike then followed the lead which Garry had set the previous week by going through the card on week eight. He beat John Blaney and Brian Graham in the finals, each win in straight legs.
Mike and Garry join Pecker, Scanner, David Cunningham, Ged Kirkpatrick, Andrew Carruthers and John Pears in the final line up.
Firstly, a reminder that the first heat of eight in the Station’s double entry singles competition today at 3pm.
There were 10 couples there on Wednesday evening and in the first half final Gary and Lesley Heaney put out Trevor Watters with Jean Hope 2-0.
Kelly Whitehead and Rob McCoubrey then beat Kerry Wilkinson with Craig Whitehead, also 2-0, to get to the final which was won by Lesley and Gary in three straight legs. I do believe that Wednesday is the last of the heats.
What a grand series of heats there have been at Baggrow where the tournament has grown in status over the years.
The first match of the finals saw Andy Goodfellow and Mark Storey beat John Duncan and Brian Stedman by the deciding leg of five. Then Michelle Jackson (with a bull double eight finish) and Paul McGimpsey (with a 160 start) put out Mark Sloan and Dave Warren, again by the deciding leg.
Chris O’Prey and Trevor Watters (with a 108 finish) beat David Graham and Eddie Carrick 3-1, David winning their leg with a 126 out on the bull. Garry Spedding and Mike Baines were the last pair into the semi finals with another 3-2 win, this against the Armstrong clan, Steve and Alan.
Michelle and Gimp got to the final with a 3-1 win at the expense of Andy and Mark, whilst Mike and Speds went down in three straight legs to the champions elect in a match which was not as easy as the score would suggest.
The final went the way of Trevor and Chris with a 4-1 score, and they deserved their success but what a fine effort by Gimp and Michelle too. Mark had the next best start with a 152 whilst Gimp added to his get off of 160 with a couple of 120 aways.
This weekend, at Leigh Miners Welfare, the two lads from the Penrith heat of the UK Open will compete for the right to play at The Rebok next month. And there will be some stiff opposition!
The World Master will be there along with the likes of Glenn Moody, Paul Whitworth and Alan Tabern (jnr).
Already at the Rebok, Peter Manley will be hoping to carry his bigger scoring power into the tournament. He has upped his average in the Premier League to 92.11 and, this season, has increased his ton and ton plus count from 311 to 456.
