Players from Dundee to Devon arrived at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane Stadium for the 2014 National Final on Sunday 7th December 2014.
Having battled through qualifying at the quarterly Regional Finals the expectation was that this year’s event would be the toughest yet to win one of the eight places for Q School in January.
Previous winner and PDC Tour player, Paul ‘Moo Moo’ Amos was on hand to start the day off with the draw for the group stages, with all the players divided up into groups of four, everyone was guaranteed at least three matches on the day.
Play got underway promptly and we were soon treated to the first of many 180’s thrown throughout the day. Three dart and 100 plus finishes were common throughout, with the quality of finishing more impressive than ever this year.
Adding to the colour were the players from Warsop Ex-Servicemens Club all dressed in smart new matching shirts with some very impressive graphics on their backs!
Special mention should be made of Bob Fuller (Walnut Tree, Maidstone), Lee Cusworth (The Wilton, Rotherham), Sean Johnson (The Griffin, Carlisle) and John Power (Riley’s, Victoria) who all completed their groups undefeated and without dropping a single leg.
Once again Paul Amos made the draw for the last 32 with the group winners kept apart at this stage, the draw left us with the prospect of a brother vs brother final (Michael & John Power) or a father vs son clash (Bob & Jack Fuller), sadly neither possibility came to pass.
The last 32 clashes were over in record time with only one of the 16 matches going the full distance, John Power recording a 3-2 win over Kristian Larkin (The Alpine, Rotherham).
The last 16 matches followed a similar pattern, with only one going the full distance again, a 4-3 win for Wayne Ellams (The Alpine, Rotherham) over David Simpson (The George, Oldbury). On completion of this round there was a presentation of their winning invites for Q School to the eight remaining players.
The full list of Q School qualifiers is as follows;
Michael Groover (Market House, Cullompton), Michael Power & John Power (both Riley’s, Victoria), Jack Fuller (Walnut Tree, Maidstone), Lee Cusworth & Brian Lewis (both The Wilton, Rotherham), Ryan Hoggarth (The Three Horses, Keighley) and Wayne Ellams (The Alpine, Rotherham).
In the first semi-final Michael Power came from behind to beat Jack Fuller in a great game by a score of 6-4. In the other semi-final Ryan Hoggarth, with the help of some superb finishing, ran out a 6-3 winner over Brian Lewis. Jack and Brian both picked up cash prizes of £250 each to go with their places at Q School.
Both Michael and Ryan having played exceptionally well all day were fully deserving of their places in the final, Ryan however seemed to find another gear and soon raced into a 3-0 lead, Michael had a glimmer of hope pulling it back to 3-1 but Ryan hit top form running out a worthy 7-2 winner.
Michael picked up the runner-up trophy and £500 in cash whilst Ryan walked off with the Winner’s Trophy and £1,000.
Congratulations to all the players who took part in a superb tournament, the standard of play and sportsmanship throughout the day was second to none.
Good luck at Q School to all our qualifiers, let’s hope to see more of our players on the PDC tour next year!
Full details including scores of the knock-out stages are shown below.
