THE Carlsberg UK Open League recently organised two qualifying contests for the Holsten Blue Square Open Darts Championship at the Crosville Club.

The winners were Andrew Pitt and John Cooper, who will now progress to a regional final to be held at the Willows Variety Centre, Salford on Sunday, April 26.

And should either win the regional final they qualify to play against the world’s best players in matches to be televised on Sky Sports.

In the early rounds of the first qualifier winner Andrew Pitt (White Lion A) stood out as the top player of the day hitting 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19-dart legs and a 101 finish.

Other players on the mark were Paul Wright (Capt Webb B) with 16, 20, 21-dart legs and a 112 finish, Mark Clowes (Coppenhall Club) with 16 and 20 darts, Carl Dennell (Cosey) a brace of 18-darters and a180, Darren Downey (LMR A) with an 18-darter and Lee Ross (Cumberland C) with 20 darts. In the quarter-finals Andrew Pitt (White Lion A) was still in devastating form, hitting 15,17,18-dart legs with checkouts of 85,76 and 70 to beat Mark Clowes (Coppenhall Club) 3-0 despite Mark hitting a brace of 180s.

Ben Davies (Foresters) also hit form with a 3-0 victory in 18,19 and 20-dart legs including a 111 finish over Paul Wright (Capt Webb B).

The other quarter-finals were close affairs with Dave Evanson (Cumberland C) beating Ben Snape (Rileys) 3-2 and the contest between the LMR A’s Downey brothers also finishing 3-2 with victory going to Darren, who hit a 115 checkout in the third leg to stay in the match after Daniel had won the first two legs.

In the semi-final between Dave Evanson and Ben Davies, the former took the first leg finishing with an 88 kill to a 23 darter.

Davies responded winning the second leg but Evanson took control winning the next two for a 3-1 passage into the final.

The other semi-final saw Andrew Pitt continue his good form but this time he was made to work being taken to five legs by Darren Downey.

Andrew Pitt won the first leg in 18 darts to which Darren Downey replied with an 18 dart game himself, Pitt again took the lead winning the third leg in 19 darts but Downey responded again winning the fourth leg to level at 2-2 but he was finally defeated when Pitt hit a 17 dart leg to earn a place in the final.

Andrew Pitt turned the final into a one sided affair continuing his scintillating form giving opponent Dave Evanson no chance as he won 3-0 winning with a 20 dart first leg and then two legs of 12 darts finished with 121 and 56 checkouts and also included a couple of 180 maximums. In the second qualifier top darts in the early rounds were produced by Clive Lucking (Queens Pk) 14,17 darts and a 180,Tony Richardson (Pioneers) 15 darts, John Speed (Pioneers) and Paul Sheehan (Rockwood) both hit 16 darters and 180s, while Chris Townsend (Queens Park) hit a 17-darter and a 180 and Dave Bickerton (LMR B) with 16 arrows, with the top finishes coming from Chris Woolley (Pioneers) 100 and Colin Wilkinson (LMR B) 116.

In the quarter-finals Tony Richardson (Pioneers) hit a pair of 19-dart legs and one of 23 to complete a 3-0 victory over Clive Lucking (Queens Park) while team-mate Chris Woolley had a more difficult task coming back from 2-1 down to beat Shaun Wilkinson(LMR B) 3-2.

The other quarter-finals resulted in 3-1 victories for Colin Wilkinson (LMR B) and John Cooper (Pioneers).

Wilkinson hit a 21-dart leg in his victory whilst Cooper won the first leg in 15 darts with a 135 checkout and third and fourth legs in 19 and 21 darts.

As usual the Pioneers dominated the semi-finals with three players and one from LMR B.

In the clash between two Pies players, John Cooper came out on top beating teammate Tony Richardson 3-1 with a 20 dart first leg as Richardson levelled taking the second leg but Cooper won the next two to go into the final.

In the other semi-final Chris Woolley (Pioneers) took the first leg but Colin Wilkinson (LMR B) retaliated winning the next three legs for a 3-1 victory and a place in the final.

As in the first qualifier, the final was one sided as Colin Wilkinson had no answer to John Cooper who won 3-0 with 21 and 22 darts legs and finishing the concluding leg in 18 darts as he progressed to the regional final.

Both winners of the qualifiers as well as a place in the regional final won cash prizes and a case of Carlsberg Export while the losing finalist and semi finalists all received cash prizes and Carlsberg shirts.