Winmau World Masters 2014 - Part 3

Not without a little bit of drama...
The second day in the City Hall in Hull was before me. The sun had come out again after a showery night when I started to walk down. This time a lot of young spectators were in the hall as the youth finals were played first. A lot of spectators were dressed up or did at least wear hats or glitter wigs which were sold at the BDO booth in the lobby.

The girls played first, to be sure at least for the only ten years old Beau Graves, who only plays darts for a few months an enormous challenge which she coped with astonishingly. But she was no match to the seven year older Robyn Byrne. In the boys match the rate was more even, they were 15 and 16. Dutch Colin Roelofs nevertheless let Callan Rydz no chance, he just dominates the boy's scene at the moment. It was a fast and high class final and over in no time. Callan Rydz didn't look happy with his second place while Colin Roelofs was all smiles.

Without a break the ladies followed. The first semi-final was a solid match though not high class. Rachel Brooks is not a fast thrower and from time to time takes her time to compose herself. She and Fallon Sherrock were not really consistent with their scores - in the end Sherrock won. In the second semi-final with Anastasia Dobromyslova and Aileen de Graaf two of the top players stood on stage, which showed a high-class performance. Dobromyslova progressed to the final.

The men's last 16 started with the match between the qualifiers Mark McGeeny and Seigo Asada, who again impressed. First Asada was far in the lead but McGeeney draw level. The tension grew and the match reached the deciding leg of the fifth set when suddenly all went dark. No light, no TV, no internet.The complete electricity supply of the City Hall had broken down -but as it soon turned out only in the venue. The internet worked soon again but the hall stayed dark. Several times it looked the problems were handled but the hall fell back into darkness again. It took around 40 minutes before the two players were able to return on stage and started again with the deciding leg which was won by Mark McGeeney. I heard power blackouts tend to happen here but I doubt it ever happened before in such a crucial moment.
The following matches all were far less thrilling and mostly one sided. In the first three the qualifiers all lost 0:3 against the seeded players. Glen Durrant played better then the day before, Martin Phillips and Scott Mitchell kept the same level. Then two seeded players played one another: Alan Norris and Remco van Eijden. Norris let van Eijden no chance, he couldn't resist the scoring power.
Then again to more qualifiers - Willem Mandigers and Pip Blackwell - were eliminated 0:3 by Jamie Hughes and Gary Robson who both again showed a strong performance.

The final match of the evening was without a doubt "match of the day" might be even "match of the tournament". With the young Welsh qualifier Nick Kenny and BDO old hand Martin Adams two worlds collided. It was almost unbelievable how Nick Kenny kept his nerve; he only once began to totter when he missed with a Matchdart in the second leg of the fourth set - probably losing the match there. Adams managed to draw and in the deciding leg really gave it everything to cross the finishing line first - a great match, high-class and thrilling. Well done to both players!!!

When I left the venue it once again had started to rain...











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