You can’t help but feel that Adrian Lewis blew a great chance to win the first of the 2011 UK Open qualifiers in Barnsley.
The road to Bolton starts with a qualifying double-header this weekend in South Yorkshire, but Lewis suffered a shock defeat against virtual unknown Ian ‘Diamond’ White in the semi-finals, when Team Unicorn’s World Champion looked on course to win the event.
Bristol’s Steve Brown took the win – his first ever PDC tournament victory – as he beat White 6-3 in the final.
It will be a popular victory on the Pro Tour, because Brown has been threatening to do this for some time.
But Lewis was using new darts – with shorter points - for the first time and they seemed to suit him, as he showed no ill effects from Thursday’s Premier League defeat by Raymond van Barneveld in Belfast.
‘Jackpot’ had beaten Terry Jenkins in a last leg decider in the last 32 and he also won an all Unicorn quarter-final 6-3 against Wes Newton, before he stuttered and stumbled in the semi’s, as he went down 6-1 to White, who is a good friend and practice partner in Stoke!
But it was still a day to celebrate for Newton….his form on the PDC Pro Tour has been brilliant over the last six months and his run to the last eight in Barnsley secures a spot in the World’s top ten for the very first time.
Congratulations to him on reaching the No.10 spot in the PDC Order of Merit and his reward is a big promotion in the Team Unicorn framework.
Newton is now officially a Unicorn ‘Maestro’!
Back to the action…..and Jamie Caven was unlucky to lose in the quarter-finals, as he lost a last leg decider to Brown.
Third Round losers included Kirk Shepherd – whitewashed by Simon Whitlock….Colin Osborne, who lost 6-2 to Brown and John Part, beaten 6-4 by Newton.
Three Unicorn players lost in the 2nd Round….Paul Nicholson (5-6 Tony Ayres), Kevin Painter (3-6 Terry Temple) and Michael Rosenauer, who was unlucky to lose a last leg decider to Brown….the German had earlier beaten Mark Webster 6-5!
There was five Unicorn men who fell at the first hurdle….Arron Monk (4-6 Brendan Dolan), Joe Cullen (4-6 Shaun Griffiths), Andy Hamilton (3-6 John Henderson), Barrie Bates (5-6 Jason Crawley) and Peter Manley (1-6 Dave Chisnall).
The Unicorn trio of James Wade, Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld all gave the Barnsley UK Open double-header a miss.
Results – Quarter-Finals:
Steve Brown 6-5 Jamie Caven
Adrian Lewis 6-3 Wes Newton
Simon Whitlock 6-1 Mark Frost
Ian White 6-3 Dave Chisnall
Semi-Finals:
Ian White 6-1 Adrian Lewis
Steve Brown 6-3 Simon Whitlock
Final:
Steve Brown 6-3 Ian White
By STUART PYKE
Photo courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC