Marker's Eye View of Wigan - UK Open Qualifiers 1-3

[crispy1978]

Here is my effort at a write-up.

My long weekend started on Wednesday, with a train to Warrington, and a day out in Blackpool/Cleveleys (not to see the darts) on the Thursday to attend to some personal business.

Friday morning saw the short train journey down to Wigan to meet up with Mark "The Chalker" Walker's better half Becki who very generously offered to let us stop at her house for the weekend. Quick cab to her house to see "Chalker" still in bed (9:45am!) - to the venue around 11 to meet the rest of the crowd and give Best Wishes for 2014 and all that jazz!

Friday saw me sat in front of a laptop typing in numbers as they were wrote up on a whiteboard - otherwise known as SportStat in the business!

My list of games was:

Leon De Geus 6-2 Colin Osborne (R1)
Ross Smith 6-5 Nigel Heydon (R1)
Richie Howson 6-3 Terry Roach (R1)
Jamie Caven 6-2 Leon De Geus (R2)
Ross Smith 6-3 Richie Howson (R2)
Jamie Caven 6-3 Ross Smith (R3)
Peter Wright 6-3 Jamie Caven (R4)
Peter Wright 6-2 Gary Anderson (R5)
Peter Wright 6-5 Steve Beaton (QF)
Andy Hamilton 6-2 Adrian Lewis (Final)

Unfortunately - I don't remember much of games when I mark them, let alone SportStat them - although the stats say that 11 out of the 20 had averages above 90, and Andy Hamilton averaged 105.27 in the final.

Friday night saw a trip to Taybarns, which was a multicultural all you can eat buffet - 6 plates later, it was time for bed!

Saturday arrived - alarm set for later than would be normal on a Saturday morning at the darts - a quick jaunt over to the venue, and arrive early in Mr Walker's eyes at around 11:20!

Saturday's draw went up, and board 9 was my poison:

Eric van Meel 6-5 Tony Stone (Prelim)
A very nervy game, as both players admitted. Tony was 4-0 up, but Eric fought back to win 6-5.

Pete Dyos 6-3 Ian McFarlane (R1)
Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-3 Prakash Jiwa (R1)
Johnny Haines 6-1 Eric van Meel (R1)
I can't remember much about these games - I remember marking for Dirk at the Youth Tour last year, and thinking he has the potential to be an excellent player (along with Rowby John Rodriguez)

Paul Nicholson 6-1 Pete Dyos (R2)
Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-5 Johnny Haines (R2)
My board seed was up first - and it's quite weird watching 'your' darts entering the board as I have a set of Paul's darts which I won in a competition on here. Pete put up a brave fight, but Paul was too strong. The second game was a tough duel, and Dirk just came out on top.

Paul Nicholson 6-4 Dirk van Duijvenbode (R3)
On paper, you'd expect Paul to win this pretty easily - but having seen a bit of Dirk's game, I thought it would be close - and close it was. I think it was the only break of the game in leg 10 which saw Paul snatch the win.

Stephen Bunting 6-4 Terry Jenkins (R5)
I was thinking as soon as I heard Stephen was moving over to the PDC, it would be awesome to mark him on the first weekend, and my wish was granted! Two very consistent players in a very high quality match. Stephen averaged 101.91, and Terry lost with a 108.27 average! Stephen also had 7 perfect darts, with the 8th dart lodged right in the corner of the T7.

Stephen Bunting 6-2 Paul Nicholson (QF)
Asked if I fancied another game? Go on then!! My board winner against the Lakeside champ - on paper was going to be a good game. The averages weren't as high as the previous game, mid 90s according to SportStat - but Stephen was too good for Paul, and he was very magnanimous in defeat.

So that was the marking done - as we were going out on the evening, we left early, so didn't get to see Stephen win, which was a shame - but I'm sure we'll see it again in the not too distant future. A very forgettable night at Sams Bar to be honest, which was the complete downside of the weekend.

Sunday arrived - and again board 9 was my poison. We arrived earlier - there for around 10am, which is the norm for me!

Board 9 again - but in reality a different board as they had been swapped around - so I spent the day having to squint at the dart board due to the reflection of the perspex on the back wall!

Scott Mackenzie 6-4 Ian McFarlane (R1)
Paul Lennon 6-5 Mark Forman (R1)
Steve Douglas 6-3 Mark Hylton (R1)
Good to mark for Scott - and his accuracy on T20 and D20 for a predominantly soft-tip player was incredible.
Game 2 was a poor standard, as both players agreed - and actually apologised to me for making me endure it. I actually found it quite engrossing - although the scores were poor, you couldn't create a more intense pressure as you didn't know which way it was going to go.
Game 3 - Mark started off pretty well, but once Steve got in to the pace of the game - he was too strong for Mark.

Robert Thornton 6-5 Scott Mackenzie (R2)
Steve Douglas 6-1 Paul Lennon (R2)
The first game was a corker - although the scores weren't brilliant (I'd guess mid-high 80s), it was a great game to mark. In the second game, Steve was too strong for Paul.

Robert Thornton 6-5 Steve Douglas (R3)
My board final - another good quality game. Robert was struggling to find the T20 on a consistent basis, and Steve was hitting his doubles pretty well. Then, in leg 8 I think it was, Steve kicks off 180, 180 with six very central T20s, dart 7 is smack in the middle of the T20, dart 8 smack in the middle of the T19, and then the 9th dart is on the wire of D12, just unfortunately on the single side.

Peter Wright 6-4 Robert Thornton (R5)
My board winner against one of the most consistent players on the circuit was always going to produce a good game - again Robert wasn't hitting the T20 like he can, and if he had, it could well have produced a different result - but Snakebite slithered in to the quarter finals.

Peter Wright 6-2 Terry Jenkins (QF)
Last match of the weekend - although Peter averaged 3 points less than the previous game, I thought it was a better performance as he hit key shots when required.

We stayed till the end to watch the Phil Taylor v Adrian Lewis final, and Phil's second 9 darter of the day, and the 6th in total of the weekend across the board.

The weekend done, it was time to catch some food in the Wigan Wetherspoons, and then the train home. Bed for 11:30, and then up for work at 7! The things we do!!

A brilliant weekend - huge thanks to Becki and Mark for their hospitality, the PDC Officials and Players for allowing us to mark for them - it really is an awesome experience to be stood so close to the darts, and to the fellow markers (and +1s) who really are a great bunch of people!

Over and out - and hope you enjoyed reading!!

[Neilly1986]

Brilliant report would love to see more of the same

Sent from my C2105 using Tapatalk

[spaceman70]

Nice write up mate.

[Red Robbo]

Nice write up mate.

Ditto.

Having met a couple of markers (great lads but forget their names!) at Blackpool on Friday I got a real sense of how good the marking scheme is and how rewarding it can be. Sadly I bottled out when the scheme was introduced!