Bell chimes in as he claims Pro-Am spot

Martin Bell (left) with organiser Chris Fletcher.

Ex Service Club hosted the final open qualification night on Friday, which brought in an enthusiastic, high-quality field, all 27 hoping to play alongside one of the professionals.

The tie of the first round had to be Mark Gray verses Scott Sutton in this double 18 start competition.

Double 18 happens to be Mark’s favourite double, winning 2-0 to move on to face Nathan Careless, whose spare set of darts Mark hadbeen playing with.

Mark won 2-1.

David Tuplin is chucking some good darts at the moment and beat Spencer Davis 2-0 in the first round and teammate Jim Wilson after that to meet Mark in the quarters.

Mark edged it 2-1 to move into the semis, double 18 proving no problem for him.

Kristian Thein made stealthy progress, beating Stuart Hodson and Mark Simpson to move into the quarters, where his opponent was to be the man of the moment Pete Evans, who had beat Stewart Yapp and James Richards.

Kristian had the upper hand and won 2-1 to set up a semi-final clash with Mark Gray.

In the other half of the draw the two top point scorers, Martin Belland Scott Smith, met one another, Martin winning 2-1 to set up a tie against Eric Hammond.

Eric had earlier beaten Rick Seaman, but Martin won 2-1 to move into the semis.

The most remarkable leg of the night saw Chris Fletcher take on Rob O’Brien, Chris playing catch up as he struggled to find the start double.

Rob ended up on double one while Chris was still struggling to start, but as he got off the mark he began making up the 499 point deficit before sitting on 80, hitting double top, double top to steal the leg.

However, Rob managed to find the finishing doubles first to gain a 2-1 win.

Nick Casswell was making steady progress with wins over Lee Yates and Andy Hardy, but found Rob O’Brien too strong as Rob brushed him aside to set up a semi-final clash with Martin Bell.

Martin clinched that game 2-1 to move into the final while Mark Gray, with his borrowed darts, beat Kristian Thein 2-1.

It wasn’t to be the fairytale for Mark as Martin won 2-1 to join teammates Mark Forman and Rick Garner, along with Wayne Burles, Richard Hughes, Gordon Smith and Carl Abbiss in the November 4 final.

The final qualifier will be open to players who have accumulated the most points in qualification over the past seven rounds.

The 16 who will batle it out on October 12 are: Scott Smith, Pete Evans, Kristian Thein, Rob O’Brien, Chris Simpson, Stewart Giles, David Tuplin, Mark Gray, Nick Casswell, Nathan Careless, Spencer Davis, Rick Seaman, Stewart Yapp, Jim Wilson, Andy Hardy, Eric Hammond.

The eight pros and their sponsors will be: Jamie Caven (Batemans Brewery), Lorraine Winstanley (The Saxby), Scott Waites (Zorba’s Kebabs), Rob Hewson (SeaviewPub), Anastasia Dobromyslova (Fabrique Creations), Sam Hewson (AC Engineering), Dean Winstanley (Home Style Outlet), Gary Robson (Stuart Hodson Tyres), Referee Mark Waters (DS Trophies), MC Chris Fletcher (Butchers 4 U).