With the very sad and untimely passing of both Doreen Fitzmaurice and Jocky Wilson, there was understandably a sombre mood at Rhyl for the final day of the Welsh Masters.
Nevertheless, all players present vowed to produce darts of the very highest standard to pay a fitting tribute to Doreen and Jocky. And how they delivered. Alan Norris took the menâs title, following up a superb victory over Scotty Waites in the semi-final with a 5-2 win over Gary Stafford in the final. Lorraine Farlam beat Trina Gulliver 4-2 to win the ladiesâ event.
The BDO posted this tribute to Jocky on their website today and I donât think I could have written it better myself. A sad day for darts.
25 March 2012 Goodbye and God Bless JOCKY WILSON
The British Darts Organisation joins the rest of the darts community in paying homage to the twice Embassy World Professional Darts Champion, JOCKY WILSON, who sadly passed away on Saturday, March 24th at the relatively young age of 62.
Jocky was a true character of our sport and one of a talented group of players who helped to put darts on the TV map in the 70s and 80s.
His distinctive and exciting style of play established him as a legendary sporting icon, particularly in the Embassy World Championships which he won twice, in 1982 and 1989.
He will be sadly missed by everyone in darts and the BDO Board of Directors and everyone in the sport of darts is united in sending sincere and heartfelt condolences to his family and friends on such a sad loss.
A one-minute silence was held at the Welsh Masters and Welsh Classic weekend at the Lyons Robin Hood Park in Rhyl on Sunday, March 25th for players, officials and darts fans to pay their respects to Jocky.
29 June 2012 Tribute from Yorkshire Darts Organisation for PETER CONVEY
Sadly Peter Convey passed away at 11am this morning.
He was Chairman of Yorkshire for many years and before that was also a very talented player. He lived for the Yorkshire Darts Organisation and was a very popular personality within the darts fraternity.
He had been battling bravely with illness for a long time and will be sorely missed by everyone in Yorkshire and the whole darts community.
I spent many an hour listening to the endless hilarious tales he told about his antics at darts matches and tournaments with his old mate Ronnie Cockerham and others.
Needless to say, Peter Convey will leave a void in our organisation and Yorkshire Darts Organisation send condolences to Peterâs family on this very sad day.
RIP Peter from your colleagues, friends and all Yorkshire players.
Weâre just over an hour away from the opening matches of the 2012 Finder Zuiderduin Masters. Some really good ties to be played this evening with the great John 'Boy" Walton first up against Ross âThe Bossâ Montgomery.
Wolfie has a tough battle on his hands against Belgian number one Geert de Vos.
And what a tie to finish the action later on - world 3 dart average record holder Robbie Green against Stockport legend Darryl âThe Dazzlerâ Fitton.
I hope to have a link to live streaming later.
First night (Friday 1830 GMT, 1930 CET)
John Walton (Eng) - Ross Montgomery (Sco) (Group D)
Aileen de Graaf (Neth) - Lorraine Farlam (Eng) (Group A)
Michel van der Horst (Neth) - Bryan de Hoog (Neth) (Group F)
Quin Wester (Neth) - Mats Gies (Neth) (Group A)
Dennie Bos (Neth) - Jimmy Hendriks (Neth) (Group A)
James Wilson (Eng) - Rick Hofstra (Neth) (Group B)
Kenny Neyens (Be) - Joe Davis (Eng) (Group B)
Richie George (Eng) - Jeffrey de Graaf (Neth) (Group C)
Martin Adams (Eng) - Geert De Vos (Be) (Group H)
Anastasia Dobromyslova (Rus) - Sharon Prins (Neth) (Group B)
Remco Eijden (Neth) - Christian Kist (Neth) (Group G)
Darryl Fitton (Eng) - Robbie Green (Eng) (Group E)
No Irish qualifiers for this but the arrows scene here is abuzz at the prospect of Jason Cullen opening up this yearâs Lakeside.
Darts doesnât get any more rockânâroll than this match here. Jimmy Hendriks v Dennie âThe Bossâ Bos. Completely full house in the arena tonight.
Great wins for Geert de Vos and Remco van Eijden over Martin Adams and Christian Kist respectively. There are great players everywhere you look in the BDO.
Some excellent analysis from Neils de Ruiter between matches here. Have I said before that heâs doing great work with the Dutch Darts Federation?
Kong and the Dazzler serving up a tungsten treat in tonightâs last match. 180 for Darryl as I type.
Kong takes it 5-3. Despite four 180s in those eight legs he was typically honest in his post-game assessment, calling his perfomance, âterrible, shocking, awfulâ.
Great translation of the post-match interviews for the Dutch viewers from the RTL presenter. Consummate professionalism all round.
Niels is a tremendous administrator, Dunph and has put great structures in place for young talent to flourish. A real playersâ man, as a former Lakeside semi-finalist himself. He can take so much credit for the constant stream of world class dart players coming out of the Netherlands. Heâs inspiring a new generation of Dutch darting administrators too.
Alan Norris hit a 112 average and clinched a 5-0 victory over Dennie Bos with a Ted Hankey-style 170 outshot this evening. Great darts from âThe Man From Nowhereâ and he looks the man to beat tomorrow.
Hereâs the quarter-final draw with all three-man round robin groups now decided:
[font=Verdana][size=3]Alan Norris v Rick Hofstra[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=3]Jeffrey de Graaf v Ross Montgomery[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=3]Tony OâShea v Scott Mitchell[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=3]Remco van Eijden v Stephen Bunting[/size][/font]
