James Wade will be kicking himself after missing a great chance to win the Eddie Cox Memorial Players Championship on Gibraltar.
The Unicorn ace looked in cruise control all day….he missed D18 for a 9-darter in the early rounds and then came unstuck in the semi-finals, missing important doubles in losing a last leg decider to Wayne Jones.
Colin Lloyd won the tournament – beating Jones by 6 legs to 2 in the final to earn the £6,000 prize and the prized trophy, named in honour of the late PDC Players Marshall Eddie Cox.
Lloyd beat Unicorn’s Colin Osborne in the quarter-finals 6-3, despite three ton plus finishes from ‘The Wizard’
There were 18 Team Unicorn players competing on Gibraltar.
Jamie Caven was another quarter-final loser against Mervyn King, while three Unicorn players were beaten in the last 16.
Andy Hamilton lost a final leg decider to Osborne, Caven beat Wes Newton and Adrian Lewis lost out to King.
Earlier in the day in round three, Gary Mawson was edged out 6-4 by Tomas Seyler, Kevin Painter was beaten in another last leg decider against Jones, while Terry Jenkins was a 6-3 loser to Vincent van der Voort.
In the 2nd Round, Peter Manley lost 6-3 to Marko Puls, Joe Cullen was beaten 6-4 by Van der Voort, Michael Rosenauer lost a last leg decider to Tony Eccles, Wes Newton beat Mick McGowan 6-2 and Caven thrashed Kirk Shepherd 6-1.
In the 1st Round, it was back down to earth with a bump for last weekend’s darting hero Paul Nicholson. In his first outing since winning the Players Championship Finals at the Circus Tavern, he fell at the first hurdle – beaten 6-4 by German Jyhan Artut.
Also in round one, Anastasia lost an all Unicorn clash 6-3 to Manley and Barrie Bates was beaten 6-2 by Alan Tabern.
It was a nightmare start to 2010 for Unicorn’s three-times World Champion John Part, who is scrapping for his place in the world’s elite.
Part has slipped down to No.26 in the rankings and he knows that his only route into the big TV tournaments is through this Players Championship Order of Merit…..but the Canadian was beaten 6-4 by unknown German Marko Puls in the preliminary round.
Results – last 16:
Mervyn King 6-4 Adrian Lewis
Jamie Caven 6-2 Wes Newton
Colin Lloyd 6-0 Peter Wright
Colin Osborne 6-5 Andy Hamilton
Mark Dudbridge 6-5 Vincent van der Voort
Wayne Jones 6-3 Gary Anderson
James Wade 6-4 Tony Ayres
Andy Smith 6-2 Tomas Seyler
Losers - £500
Quarter-Finals:
Mervyn King 6-4 Jamie Caven
Colin Lloyd 6-3 Colin Osborne
Wayne Jones 6-5 Mark Dudbridge
James Wade 6-2 Andy Smith
Losers - £1,000
Semi-Finals
Wayne Jones 6-5 James Wade
Colin Lloyd 6-2 Mervyn King
Losers - £1,500
Final:
Colin Lloyd 6-2 Mervyn King
Winner - £6,000
Runner-up - £3,000
• Meanwhile, Unicorn’s Australian ace Barry Jouannet enjoyed his best run at an Aussie tournament for some time, reaching the final of the Underarra Hotel Open on Saturday….but he ran up against an in-form Simon Whitlock and lost 6-0 against the World Championship runner-up.
By STUART PYKE
Photo courtesy Chris Sargeant