Minehead 1

With Raymond van Barneveld through the first day
After I had overcome my reluctance I had decided to come to Minehead for the UK Open. I was not really delighted the tournament was moved away from Bolton, I liked the venue and I already knew where to stay and it was easy to reach when flying to Manchester. Now I had to travel by train and bus from Heathrow across the country and - if one could believe German news - straight through a flooded region.
It turned out that the cross country travel was not too difficult - not in the times of the internet - and though one could see flooded country parts from the train on the journey to Taunton (right, that's where Justin Pipe is at home and a few other players live nearby) Minehead itself was flood free and the journey in no way hindered.
It was already dark when I sat in the bus from Taunton to Minehead so I couldn't see much of the landscape but it seemed to be rolling and I can say that the road in not really reached the German standards...

Minehead itself was very dark as well and at this time of the year it is after six o'clock in the evening more or less deserted. The season only starts in April and one could see it! A lot of the hotels and restaurants seemed to be closed and even the Butlin's Resort is only open for Adult Weekends and opens not before April as well. Then - I was told the town - starts to get crowded. Alone in Butlin's 7000 holiday visitors can stay and those fill the town in the evening as it's much cheaper there then in Butlin's itself.
On Thursday evening I give sightseeing a miss - there was a very strong wind and it started to rain as well.

On Friday noon the tournament started and I took the short walk to the venue in bright sunshine. The press room turned out to by a mixture of press room and main players lounge and it is huge! The tournament itself took place in three different venues in two different buildings. All the venues are attractive but I myself liked the venue with the second stage best. One could find it in a building beside the main stage and it certainly had some kind of intimate club atmosphere. Till I had found my way around the different venues the preliminary round was almost over and I already had tired legs as a lot of walking was necessary - not really an advantage. As the format was very short on the first day you had to decide in advance for a match you wanted to watch - you just couldn't wander from board to board - that certainly was better in Bolton. There was no walk on at first and later only on the main stage. The players were only announced on stage one and two by the callers. In the room with the six boards they just appeared from somewhere. In the room with the boards 3 - 8 was only one entrance/exit and it felt always cramped,

German Jyhan Artut already played first round and didn't survive it. Might be it was a result of his rather difficult journey to Minehead. I moved on to Rowby-John Rodriguez who had no chance at all against the strong playing Tony Randell. In between I had made a short trip to the main stage where Raymond van Barneveld made his first appearance. He was the only top player who entered the tournament already in the first round. But he really showed a great performance and progressed easily. I returned to the main stage to watch Mensur Suljovic second round match - no problem for Mensur - and then moved on to stage two where Raymond van Barneveld already played the last match of the afternoon session's second round. Matches on stage two were always over faster then on the main stage. The Dutchman looked rather positive and got another clear win. As by now internet worked in the press room I updated the site and so missed out on the biggest surprise of this round - the elimination of John Part by Paul Hogan. But Paul Hogan not only entered the tournament as one of the Riley's qualifiers he is an experienced BDO player as well and John Part only his first victim in the tournament.

I passed the break in the press room where the cold started to creep in. It got colder and colder during the evening and finally John McDonald said: That's really ridiculous it's far to cold to work.

During the break slowly the top 32 of the PDC UK Open Order of Merit started to turn up, among those of course Phil Taylor as well who had just been defeated for the fourth time in this year's Premiere League. But the third round started I first had a look at stage two again where Justin Pipe just lost to Dave Chisnall, moved on to the stages 3 -8 where Simon Whitlock lost to Ronny Huybrechts and was impressed by Brendan Dolan, Mark Webster and Paul Hogan. I had a short view on Baxter against Lewis on the main stage and admired Richie Burnett's throwing style on stage two though it didn't help him much against Kevin Painter.
After that once again Raymond van Barneveld stood on stage two and he really seemed to feel comfortable and relaxed there. And thus - almost unobserved by me on the main stage the biggest upset of the UK Open developed and Aden Kirk became a new star on darters sky - reigning champion Phil Taylor crashed out against him in third round! For the last matches of the evening session I decided for boards 3 to 8 and watched another win by Mensur Suljovic while on the board beside him Dirk van Duijvenbode was eliminated from the tournament. Then I just managed to update my site before I was frozen stiff before I started on my way back home.
Outside it seemed to be much warmer...










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