We arrived at Robin Park around 5.30 and practice went well... The draw up and a rare bye through the prelim and a first round match against Joey Palfreyman. I dont know Joey but had heard he had done well at Q School...
Fortunately for me I played well against Joey and never really let him get in his stride and I took the match 6-2.
The 2nd round, and the qualifying game, was against Gaz Couisins who had just demolished young Keegan Brown, no mean feat in itself. It was agood game and the legs went with throw till the seventh leg where Gaz broke me to GO 4-2 ahead, although I did miss 6 at a double to go 2-0..
I dug in and a good leg from me saw me break straight back....4-4... I took the next and was just the one leg away.
Gaz started the leg of like a steam train and I found myself a long way behind, I kept plugging away though and ended up having a pop at 144 for the match, Tble 18, Tble 18 and wired double 18
At 5-5 I had the throw in the last...I went 140, Gaz went 140...I went 140 Gaz went 60, i then hit 95 to leave 126 after 9. I think Gaz hit a ton. I hit a treble 19 then a single 19 and saw gaz on 200+ so hit a big 18 to leave 32 after 12........I then proceeded to put 12 DARTS either on the wire or just in the next bed and lost the game.........Gutted was an understatement, I was distraught. Never felt like crying after a match before, but I didnt cos I'm hard...lol
Saturday and my usual Prelim saw me playing Steve Beaton, I started of very well and went 3-1 up. I started the next 177 but missed tops and Steve made it 3-2. I took the next 4-2.. I dont know what happened next, I dont think Steve played any better and I dont think I played worse but Steve won thew next four to take the match 6-4
Sunday and the Prelim matched me up against Shaun Griffiths, I played well the first leg and found myself on 82 after 12 with Shaun back in the high hundreds.
I was extremely dissapointed with myself for what happened next, my first dart at 82 went straight in the middle of the Bull, I was just about to let go of my second dart when something completely distracted me as I let the dart go and it flew up into the 12, i tried to compose myself and left 16, but I was never going to hit it in a million years I just couldnt focus again... Shaun went 3-1 up and I pulled it abck to 3-3 but couldnt get it out of my head that I should be 4-2 up, something you just cant do. Just got to put it behind you and get on with it, buit I couldnt and hopefully this will be a lesson hard learned.
Shaun deservedly went on and took the match 6-3..
So a bad weekend at the office and although I played some great darts at times I came away empty handed and putting pressure on to get maybe another 400 pound to get to Bolton, which doesn't sound a lot but in this company it can be extremely hard.
Thank you to the Markers as they done thier usual outstanding job and well done to Jamie Caven getting to the final on Sunday...
Cheers
PS have tried to post this several times but had problems, thats why its late, sorry.
