Alan Towe’s The Line – Midland Open 2012-10-03
The Barras Social Club, Coventry Street, Coventry, was the setting for this year’s Midland Open and organiser Neil Pritchard was more than a little disappointed at the low number of entries, with just sixty four players taking to the oche. Nevertheless, in no way did the poor turn out detract from the very high standard of play throughout the competition.
The first round provided some eye catching draws, not least the one between reigning champion Colin Osbourne and Wolverhampton’s Wayne Jones. Jones coming out of the clash with a 5-2 win. Oxfordshire’s Dennis Smith went out 5-2 to Paul Boulton, local Warwickshire man Kevin Dowling lost out to Ian Shaw and another Warwickshire player Prakash Jiwa also had first round blues as he went out to fellow county player Scott Rand 5-2.
The last sixteen play off resorted to the longer format of the best of eleven legs and by the quarter finals it was looking good locally as five of the last eight were provided by Warwickshire, Nigel Heydon, Steve Hine, Matt Edgar, Trevor Frost and Scott Rand.
The quarter final games brought together two pairs of Warwickshire players, Nigel Heydon beating Steve Hine 6-3, after Hine had earlier taken out two time champion Wayne Jones and Trevor Frost losing out 6-4 to Scott Rand. The remaining local player Matt Edgar went out of the competition by 6-3 to Jamie Caven and in the other tie between Gaz Cousins and Jonny Haines, the latter had a clear 6-1 victory.
The semi finals saw Caven take out Heydon with a 6-4 scoreline, while from the other side of the draw Scott Rand handed out a 6-0 whitewash to his opponent Johnny Haines.
In the best of thirteen legs final Rand stormed into a 5-0 lead winning his legs in 24, 11, 18, 15 and 15 darts. Caven replied with three wins in a row in 13, 21 and 12 darts only to see Rand chalk up another eleven darts leg to go 6-3 up to leave him requiring just one more leg for the title.
Scott Rand then began to miss his finishing doubles and Jamie Caven pulled him back to level terms at 6-6 with legs of 19, 15 and 13 darts to force a thirteenth and deciding leg. Rand held his nerve and went on to win the decider in fifteen darts for a very close and thrilling 7-6 victory.
Scott Rand is now only the second Coventry player to win the title, the other being Steve Beaton in 1995.
Despite the poor turn out the day was a huge success with a total of £1800 paid out in prize money.
Neil Pritchard and Scott Rand
Full Results:
Group One:
Last 64:
Nigel Heydon 5 Noel Grant 1
John Walton 0 Dave Waring 5
Mark Carter 5 Sam Poland 4
Ivan Bell 5 Matt Sidwell 0
Mark Gordon 1 Colin Fowler 5
Ian Marson 1 Anthony Meek 5
Peter Wright 3 Steve Hine 5
Wayne Jones 5 Colin Osbourne 2
Jamie Atkins 5 Mark Sutton 4
Rob Singleton 5 Bill Smith 4
Lee Martin 3 Jamie Caven 5
Martin Whatmough 4 Martin Brown 5
Max Murray 2 Martin Bowley 5
Chris Graham 0 Matt Edgar 5
Tony Clark 4 James Hurrell 5
Steve Skelton 4 Graham Manning 5
Last 32:
Nigel Heydon 5 Dave Waring 0
Mark Carter 5 Ivan Bell 2
Colin Fowler 5 Anthony Meek 0
Steve Hine 5 Wayne Jones 3
Jamie Atkins 4 Rob Singleton 5
Jamie Caven 5 Martin Brown 2
James Hurrell 5 Graham Manning 2
Group Two:
Last 64:
Paul Youmans 5 Andy Reynolds 4
Simon Power 3 Ant West 5
Gaz Cousins 5 Mark Westgarth 1
Richard Graham 1 Jim Hill 5
John Fowler 1 Johnny Haines 5
Steve Sharpe 2 Dave Sanders 5
Tom Ryan 5 Tim Kirby 3
Dave Atkins 2 John Newland 5
Ian McFarlane 5 Mem Martin 0
Kevin Dowling 4 Ian Shaw 5
Trevor Frost 5 Matt Boswell 0
Paul Boulton 5 Dennis Smith 2
Graham Hall 5 Dean Bayliss 0
Antony Allen 5 Matt Padgett 3
Prakash Jiwa 2 Scott Rand 5
Joe Carlo 5 Mark Sidgwick 2
Last 32:
Paul Youmans 0 Ant West 5
Gaz Cousins 5 Jim Hill 2
Johnny Haines 5 Dave Sanders 2
Tom Ryan 3 John Newland 5
Ian McFarlane 5 Ian Shaw 2
Trevor Frost 5 Paul Boulton 0
Graham Hall 3 Antony Allen 5
Scott Rand 5 Joe Carlo 0
Combined Last 16:
Nigel Heydon 6 Mark Carter 0
Colin Fowler 5 Steve Hine 6
Rob Singleton 1 Jamie Caven 6
Matt Edgar 6 James Hurrell 3
Ant West 1 Gaz Cousins 6
Johnny Haines 6 John Newland 4
Ian McFarlane 5 Trevor Frost 6
Antony Allen 1 Scott Rand 6
Quarter Finals:
Nigel Heydon 6 Steve Hine 3
Jamie Caven 6 Matt Edgar 3
Gaz Cousins 1 Johnny Haines 6
Trevor Frost 4 Scott Rand 6
Semi Finals:
Nigel Heydon 4 Jamie Caven 6
Johnny Haines 0 Scott Rand 6
Final:
Jamie Caven 6 Scott Rand 7