Magee and Whitfield on target as they book their spot in Shield final

ON Friday night in the Widnes & District Darts League, the Alan Knowles Memorial Shield – sponsored by the Corpy Club – was played at the Corpy Club.

In the pre-lims, Scott Grady with a nine-dart display set his quest off with a quick 2-0 performance. Dave Powell with a 10-darter and Ste Whitfield in 11 darts also had comfortable wins, with Carl Hackney also looking strong with a 15-darter in his opening game.

Also through to the next round without dropping a leg of darts were Mike Ruane, Alan Friar, Glyn Owen, Paul Linger, Tommy Robertson, Jeff Thompson, Eddie Dootson, Alan Sutton and Chris Taylor, whilst requiring a deciding third leg of darts were Billy Fox, John Glover, Jack Dunn, Jamie Doneghan, Ray Dutton and Mike Howard who all survived the preliminary round.

In round one, a blistering start from Alan Friar with a 10-dart display, was not enough as Glyn Owen cancelled out the lead before taking the contest with a third leg of darts.

Alex McGill opened his game with a 12 dart display to comfortably advance whilst both Karl Whitfield and David Powell with opening legs of 12 and 13 darts respectively required a third leg of darts as they were pushed all the way to go through. Meantime, an opening 17 darter from Eddie Dootson was quickly added to make it a 2-0 win.

Level at one leg each in his game, a timely 17-darter in the decider saw Alan Sutton through to round two.

With 2-0 victories, Chris Bright, Alan Magee, Tommy Robertson, Carl Hackney and Alan Clark also made the round two cut, but requiring the deciding third leg to go through were Barry Stanners, Jamie Doneghan, Anthony Hall, Billy Fox and Paul Linger.

In round two, Paul Linger with a 13-dart second leg made the quarter-finals.

Also through were Tommy Robeson, Karl Whitfield and Alan Magee without dropping a leg of darts.

Pushed all the way for a quarter-final place were Alan Clark, Billy Fox and Glyn Owen with a third leg of darts required to survive in the competition.

In the last-eight, the competition was getting tight. Billy Fox, for the fourth time, was pushed to a deciding leg of darts as Glyn Owen came close to toppling him, whereas Alan Magee for the first time found himself challenged in a deciding leg of darts by Alex McGill before making the semis.

Paul Linger made it 1-1 against Alan Clark and looked to be heading through. However, Clark stood firm to get through. Karl Whitfield, in contrast, stormed the first-leg in 13 darts and went on to make it 2-0 to secure his semi-final spot.

Tension was apparent in the semi-finals with the remaining competitors pushing for a place in the final on Finals Night in July.

First up was Karl Whitfield against Billy Fox. Whitfield claimed the opener in 11 darts, but Fox had not got this far to go down without a fight and soon had his opponent pegged back.

With all resting on the final leg, Whitfield just edged it to end a fine night of darts for himself.

The second semi-final saw teammates Alan Clark and Alan Magee battle it out, with the latter hitting his opponent with an 11-dart display, the gauntlet was well and truly thrown down.

But Clark, not to be outdone, showed his composure to force Magee into a third and deciding leg of darts.

However, with a display of 12 darts, Alan Magee booked his place to play Karl Whitfield in the final of the Alan Knowles Memorial Shield later this summer.