4th
SHEPPEY DARTS CLASSIC
 |
| Colin Osborne - winner of the
Sheppey Classic pictured here with Tom and Lee Dunne -
the proprietors of Merlin's Entertainment Complex. |
A
great weekend was had by all at the Fourth Sheppey Darts Classic
held at Merlins, Leysdown, Isle of Sheppey.
Saturday featured the Pairs, Ladies and Singles events with good
attendance for each event whilst the Sunday gave spectators the
chance to see more than forty of the world’s top professional
players (some coming as far away as Scotland, Ireland, Wales and
Belgium) amongst those competing for the Classic Championship and
the winning purse of £2,000.
Winners of the Pairs event went to Danny Ballard (Hampshire) and
Kirk Shepherd (Kent) (pictured right) who took a 4-3 win from the pairing of Geoff
Harkup (Sheppey) and Clive Barden (a Tovil Superleague player) –
both Danny and Kirk put forward some excellent play to turn the game
around from a 3-0 down to the eventual 4-3 win). Yet another
Sheppey player reached the stage final when Vicki Franklin played
against Sally Dowell. Vicki had taken a 2-0 lead and seemingly had
things sewn up for the Ladies Championship but a strong come-back
from Sally levelled the score at 2-2. One more leg clinched the
title for a jubilant Sally.
The youth competition was very hard fought with some of the younger
players playing as good, and at times even better, than senior
players. Good to know that there are some future champions coming
through the ranks. Eventual winner for the Youth event was was
Gareth Thomas who beat Lewis Maghan 3-0. The scoreline no way
reflected the standard of the game with both players throwing
supreme darts.
On Sunday with a packed venue the games started at 11am and were
played on twelve boards. There were eight groups and in group ‘A’
Ryan Hope went out toDave Askew (who won the group) in the second
round as did Martyn Randall in group ‘B’ who went out to Gerrard
Condon. Geoff Harkup managed one more round but fell to Dennis
Ovens in a game he had chances to win, Ovens also went on to win the
group. Group ‘D’, Richard Hope went out in the second round again
to another pro player Alan Tabern that was eventually won by Alex
Roy. Group ‘E’ saw Paul McDine go out to the eventual winner Colin
Osborn in the third round. Sheppey did not have much success in
group ‘F’ won by Terry Jenkins as in group ‘G’ won by Andy Jenkins
but Dave Whitcombe from Sittingbourne lost to Jason Clark in the
third round.
COLIN OSBORNE
defeated Alex Roy 6-5 to win the 2006 Sheppey Darts Classic on
Sunday to claim his maiden PDC title. The Derby-based thrower has
been in impressive form this year, reaching the final of the Open
Holland in April and two other semi-finals.
He produced his best showing yet on the Isle of Sheppey, edging out
Roy in a deciding final leg to claim the £2,000 first prize. His
averages against Alex was 29.70 but both players were consistent -
Alex put out an 11 darter in the seventh leg after having two
maximums back-to-back to start a possible 9-darter - Alex's average
over the 11 legs : 28.15
Osborne had produced a searing 31.36 average to overcame Lionel Sams
(27.73) 5-2 in the semi-finals, and also saw off in-form Terry
Jenkins at the last eight stage.
After a quiet year on the circuit so far, Roy found his form when
taking out Dave Honey, Denis Ovens and Paul Amos to reach the final.
Paul Amos
enjoyed his best run for some time by reaching the semis, where he
lost 5-1 to Roy.
Leading PDC players Ronnie Baxter and Kevin Painter were among the
early casualties in the Category Two event.
2006 Sheppey Classic
Final
Colin Osborne 6-5 Alex Roy
Winner: £2,000 & 5 ranking
points
Runner-Up: £1,000 & 4 ranking
points
Semi-Finals
Alex Roy 5-1 Paul Amos
Colin Osborne 5-2 Lionel Sams
Losers: £500 & 3 ranking
points
Quarter-Finals
Paul Amos 4-3 Dave Askew
Alex Roy 4-3 Denis Ovens
Colin Osborne 4-1 Terry Jenkins
Lionel Sams 4-2 Andy Jenkins
Losers: £250 & 2 ranking
points
Last 16
Dave Askew 4-3 Kirk Shepherd
Paul Amos 4-0 Darren Williams
Denis Ovens 4-0 Andy Belton
Alex Roy 4-1 Dave Honey
Colin Osborne 4-2 Mick McGowan
Terry Jenkins 4-2 Steve Hine
Andy Jenkins 4-3 Wes Newton
Lionel Sams 4-3 Barrie Bates
Losers £125 & 1 ranking point
All in all, a great two days was had by all with plenty of great
darts thrown and plenty of top pro’s available for the fans to get
autographs from. Thanks must go to Thomas and Lee Dunn for letting
us use their club for the venue as well as all the helpers, sponsors
and players for turning up to make a great weekend. It was the
biggest event yet we have held in Sheppey and next year is already
looking to be bigger still with the reactions we have had from
players and spectators alike.
Tony Cox
