Friday night i went to bed early as had a 2 1/2 hour drive to get to the barnsley metrodome.
Alarm did not wake me up but luckily i managed to turf myself out at 6am.
Took my two eldest children Oliver and Rosalind to this event as they have never been before ,i just hoped not to let them down.
Left home and began the drive dreaming of victory on the tour and actually earning some money.
Arrived at barnsley at 8.30 and went to the hotel where my practice partner stu white was.
Went to the hotel where i met with Ian moss johnny haines stu and dennis smiffy smith.
They got a mini bus and me and stu went to the venue.
Got to the venue and walked in and found a table at the back of the venue brought a pint and went for a practice on board 16.
Also on the board with me warming up was scott rand,muffin man and barney.
Me and barney played a game of 121 and managed to get to 153 but to be honest i only had to worry about hitting the doubles as he done all the hard work loll the man was on form as was to show later on as he took the win.
Went back to the table where i was joined by andy slugger brown had a chat and went for another practice but this time in the practice room out back...
Draw was made and i was lucky to get a bye in the prelim but noticed i had drawn the promising young player gaz cousins.
The night before gaz had qualified for the vienna european event and has drawn phil taylor in round 1,
Me and gaz have some history as he beat me at the previous event 6-3...
Went and watched a few games as i had hours to wait for the prelims to finish..i was drawn on my board with gaz cousins,Wayne the wanderer jones,mark jones,steven pearson,richie howson,connie finnon,craig pope,brian pecker woods,john scott,peter snakebite wright and lee whitworth, Stu had a board with gary anderson and steve beaton and james richardson on..ouch i thought..
Watched wayne jones beat steve pearson then watched him loose to mark jones 6-2 in the next round..if i won one of these was to be my next opposition..
My turn
Went to board one where i was joined by gaz for a warm up we threw a few then he said 6 more..We threw for the bull which i lost after several attempts.
Gaz started strong with a brace of 140s which i followed with 2 tons and a to 40..gaz was first to the double but missed and i never..Break i thought now get your head on.
I looked to the left where my daughter was making just breath slowly signals to me and this kinda worked as i went on to win the next 2 legs on d16,next leg i missed tops for a 114 finish and gaz took out a 161 4-1 he then followed this with a 12 dart leg ..not again i thought..i muttered to myself come on i havent drove this far to go home now..next leg gaz again some great finishing..but then he started to miss doubles i made it 5-3 then he pulled another one back..all i can remember was hitting d8 twice for a 32 finish and winning the game phew!!!! first money on the tour..not the best game in the world but a win is a win and ill take that..Stu came over and said he was made up for me and was more nervous watching me than playing loll i aim to please i said..
Stu had won his first game v jerry hendriks 6-3 his next game was former bdo world champion steve beaton...game started and stu went 3-0 down with some fantastic darts from steve...stu then seemed to wake up where he reeled off 180 after 180 to level at 3-3 game went to 5-5 when stu reeled off a 10 darter to achieve his biggest scalp in darts..nest day stu was to get to the last 16 with a big win over the talented micheal smith only to loose out to the eventual final looser ian white..
Back to my next game and mark jones ..what can i say i got beat 6-1 i missed doubles but mark played really well and well deserved the win he went on to loose in the last 8 to any pie man smith after taking snakebites scalp on the way there..
went back to the table and felt low ..next time i thought...stayed and watched stu play gary anderson in the last 16 the game was so level with 11 180s till gary managed to break stu when he wired the bull for a 170 out..gary held on for the 6-4 win next round he was severly punished by james richardson 6-0 with 5x11 darters and a 12 sensational darts..
Had a great day out won some cash and learnt alot to go away and work on... ill update the next events after birmingham on 5-6th may .....

Now this is some good reading!

Enjoyed reading that - and good luck in Birmingham (unless of course you meet Richie Howson again - we're both from Essex so I've got to cheer the local lad lol).

That was a great read reggie, thank you for involving me in the experience. I felt me nerves start to tingle just from reading it hahaha

thanks guys catch ya soon

very nice! love to read that kind of thing, thanks for posting.

will do a write up on last weekend events loll not that it went too well ..but enjoyed it any way

martin reggie perring wrote:

will do a write up on last weekend events loll not that it went too well ..but enjoyed it any way

Nice one Martin looking forward to it, and as long as you had fun then thats a good thing!

right here goes with the next write up lol
i went i got smashed both days played awful loll
didnt deserve to win.
roll on next years ones lolllll..

LOL! quick write up that, nevermind next year will be better!

lets hope so had a 107 ave last night so form is coming a tad late

get practising now! LOL!

107 avg WOW!

loll its all about consistency and doing it when it matters though

HENCE ME WATCHING IT ON TV TONIGHT THIS YEAR ! LOLL

Haha yeah your right! Next year we will be watching you!