First finalists in the IoM festival are decided... Action got underway last night at the 29th Isle of Man International Darts Festival and it didn’t disappoint. The evening saw the launch of two new competitions – the Okells IoM Classic Mens Singles and the Specsavers Ladies IoM Classic Ladies Singles. More than 400 men toed the oche but there was a disappointing turnout for the women’s event – under 50 contested the competition – despite the generous prize purse of £2000. The route to the last 16 in the women’s competition saw top mainland county players easing through as expected with the island’s most successful player – Margaret Kelly – among those failing to make the quarter finals. She lost to Carlisle’s Pam Hind, who went on to make the last four where she lost to on-form world champ Lisa Ashton. In the bottom half of the draw the defending IoM singles champion and former world champion Anastasia Dobromyslova signalled her intentions this weekend, winning an absorbing encounter with Zoe “Pink Panther” Jones. She then dashed the hopes of Casey Gallagher, who had two rounds earlier dismissed nine times world champion Trina Gulliver. Leeds “Assasin” Martin Atkins was one of the surprise eliminations in the men’s singles, failing to get past the second round. Islander Robbie Nelson had locals cheering as he surged into the quarter finals, only to see double trouble destroy hopes of a spot in the last four, as he tumbled to Allan Edwards from the north east of England, who reached Sundays final after toppling former world champ Scott Waites. Gloucestershire’s James Hurrell emerged from the bottom half of the draw, dismissing Richie George and then Welshman Robert Hughes to win the right to play Edwards in the final. l
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 20:45:10 +0000
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