Open darts event 'does it like the pros'

A whopping £5,000 prize pot attracted 176 throwers to Allen's Sports Bar in Tipton with cash paid out all the way down to the last 16, writes Craig Birch.

They paid £10 to enter on the day and just £8 if they registered in advance, with the rewards on offer enough of an incentive to attract some top-class players on Bank Holiday Monday.

The main stage at the venue hosted matches from the quarter-finals onwards with former BDO World Championship finalist and ITV4 pundit Chris Mason, who lives in Essington, the host.

'Mace the Ace' interviewed the players, who took to the oche with proper walk-on music, after each game in front of healthy crowd.

Around 1,000 attended the event of the course of the day, with 200 staying on to watch the final between PDC prospects David Pallett and Michael Smith.

Pallett, from Newport in Shropshire, walked away with a trophy and £2,500 overall winner's cheque with a resounding 5-0 win over Smith, who went back to St Helens with £1,000 as the runner-up.

Sponsorship from Coors and Banks's Brewery helped organiser Bob Shaw, who owns the bar, put the event on and he's planning to make it an annual offering.

He said: "All being well, we'll have this again here next year on the Bank Holiday with the same amount of money to play for.

"It was very successful and, if the cameras had been there, you would have thought you were at a BDO tournament.

"There was a fabulous atmosphere all through the day, not just from the players but their friends and family and all of the regulars and local people who came into the bar.

"There was some cracking darts to watch and Dave was a worthy winner. We gave him a replica trophy, as we are keeping the main one here for next year with his name engraved into it."

The entrants were whittled down on 12 match boards, with four practice areas for them to get into their stride.

Wolverhampton's Wayne Jones netted £250 for reaching the last four, as did former BDO world champion Mark Webster.

PDC veteran Jones was a 4-1 victim of Pallett in the semi-finals, while Smith downed Webster 4-2 to set up the decider.

There was also compensation for Tipton's Jamie Hughes, the BDO No 5 bowing out to Smith in the quarter-finals. He was handed £100 as was Craig Allen, Martin Biggs and Reece Hayden.

Graham Hall – who pushed Pallett close 3-2 – reached the £75 first money as did Eddie Dootson, Kevin Garcia, Mark Carter, Josh Richardson, Kevin McDine, Nicky Whitehouse and Stuart Harding.