What a weekend it turned out to be for World No.4 Mervyn King, who completed a memorable double in Swindon by winning the first UK Open qualifier of 2010.
Just 24 hours after beating Andy Hamilton to claim victory in the Players Championship tournament, King took the UK Open qualifier by beating Simon Whitlock in the final.
But it could all have been so very different!
King survived a huge scare to pinch victory in the 1st Round against Unicorn’s former Ladies World Champion Anastasia Dobromyslova.
Anastasia was in top form. She thrashed Billy Meakins 6-0 in the preliminary round and then gave King a real run for his money….Ana was 3-2 up and she took out 113 to force the decider, before King scraped through.
It would have been one of the best wins of her career – equal surely, to her win over Vincent van der Voort at the Grand Slam of Darts.
But if Ana carries on in this form, she will have no problems qualifying for the Reebok again and those UK Open Finals in June.
And James Wade will be angry with himself after losing again to King. The former UK Open winner looked on course for the final in Swindon.
But after Wade was heavily beaten by King in the Premier League on Thursday, he lost again – this time by 6 legs to 4 in the semi-finals. King hit seven 180s in the match in what was Wade’s second semi-final in four PDC Pro Tour events this year.
In the final, King was totally dominant – hitting finishes of 117 and 104 in overcoming Whitlock, although the Australian was impressive all day. In the semi-finals, he won the last three legs to edge out Gary Anderson.
Terry Jenkins was a quarter-final loser to ‘The Wizard of Oz’. Remember in the Premier League on Thursday in Bournemouth, ‘The Bull’ won the last two legs to snatch a draw…..well this time, Whitlock took the honours – only just – winning 6-5.
Four Unicorn stars lost at the last 16 stage….Adrian Lewis, Jamie Caven, Paul Nicholson and youngster Arron Monk, who enjoyed a terrific run, including a victory over his Dad!
Monk enjoyed impressive wins over Carlos Rodriguez and Steve Beaton to set up his clash against Dad Colin….and it was quite a game!
Arron was 4-1 up, only for Colin to win four consecutive legs. Monk junior levelled and saw Dad miss D16 for the match in the decider. Arron nailed D10 with his first dart to claim family bragging rights – and although he lost to Wayne Jones in the last 16, the £500 prize money should already be enough to see him through to the Finals in Bolton in June.
Lewis suffered a surprising 6-2 defeat to Matt Clark, Nicholson lost 6-3 against Whitlock and Caven went down 6-3 to King.
Colin Osborne suffered a surprise 6-0 defeat at the hands of the other ‘Wizard’ in the 3rd Round. The Unicorn ace was nowhere near on this occasion – whitewashed by Whitlock.
He missed doubles – simple as that, because it was an incredible match, which featured 10x180s in just six legs of darts!
Barrie Bates was beaten 6-2 by Lewis and Peter Manley ran Gary Anderson close but lost 6-4.
In the 2nd Round at Swindon, it ended for five Team Unicorn players…..Kirk Shepherd lost 6-3 to Colin Monk, Kevin Painter was beaten 6-2 by Wade, Wes Newton was a 6-4 loser to Mark Lawrence, Mick McGowan lost 6-2 against Nick Fullwell and the trials and tribulations continued for John Part, as he went down 6-2 to Nigel Heydon.
Andy Hamilton was a shock 1st Round loser….finalist in Saturday’s Players Championship event, he fell at the first hurdle – beaten by PDC newcomer Peter Hudson. The Manchester thrower beat ‘The Hammer’ by 6 legs to 4.
And there was disappointment for Joe Cullen, who was a 6-4 preliminary round loser to Lee Williams.
UK Open qualifier one results:
4th Round:
Wayne Jones 6-4 Arron Monk
Mervyn King 6-3 Jamie Caven
Gary Anderson 6-2 Robert Thornton
Simon Whitlock 6-3 Paul Nicholson
James Wade 6-4 Anton Liscsey
Terry Jenkins 6-2 Chris Mason
Matt Clark 6-2 Adrian Lewis
Mark Lawrence 6-4 Roland Scholten
Losers - £500
Quarter-Finals:
Mervyn King 6-3 Wayne Jones
Simon Whitlock 6-5 Terry Jenkins
James Wade 6-3 Mark Lawrence
Gary Anderson 6-3 Matt Clark
Losers - £1,000
Semi-Finals:
Mervyn King 6-4 James Wade
Simon Whitlock 6-5 Gary Anderson
Losers - £1,500
Final:
Mervyn King 6-1 Simon Whitlock
Winner - £6,000
Runner-up - £3,000
By STUART PYKE (Twitter @stuartpykesport)
Photo courtesy Lawrence Lustig