Pair battle through to reach final

ON Friday evening in the Widnes & District Darts League, matches in the Alf Houghton Memorial Shield took place at Widnes Bowling Club.

In the pre-lims, Mike Ruane and Alan Moran (15 darts) both took their encounters in two straight legs, whilst Keith Allen and Dave Cowan won through to the round one with 2-1 victories.

In the first round, Keith Glover (10 darts), Dave Pickles, Danny Shipley, Carl Bryan, Jeff Thompson (15 darts), Roy Caldwell, Andy McIntosh, Rob Baxter, Paul Cotty, Callum Taylor and Jimmy Rawlinson all won in two straight legs.

Ian Sharples (14 darts), Peter Mason, Dave Jones, Dave Cowan and Russ Hardman all advanced with 2-1 successes.

In round two, Andy McIntosh, Jimmy Rawlinson and Dave Jones and Ian Sharples all won their matches in two straight legs.

Carl Bryan, Callum Taylor, Paul Cotty and Dave Pickles all advanced by a 2-1 scoreline.

In the quarter-finals, Andy McIntosh (11 darts) and Callum Taylor won their games in two straight legs.

Dave Jones (13 darts) and Jimmy Rawlinson both won 2-1.

In the semi-finals, it was Callum Taylor who struck first with an opening 19 dart display. And try as he might, Jimmy Rawlinson could not find a way back as Callum Taylor wrapped up his place on Finals Night with a twostraight leg win.

The second semi-final saw Andy McIntosh carry on with his good form on the night with a solid display of darts, which his opponent Dave Jones just could not break.

Andy strolled through with a 2-0 victory to book his place to face Callum Taylor on Finals Night in July.