The Spirit of Sport

As every year the last day of the UK Open is for all working there the most relaxed. Only one game is played at a time not quite a few you always have to have an eye on.
The player's room is almost empty - at the most eight players can be found there. All spectators have seats and one is only allowed to stand at the barrier for the walk-ons, afterwards one has to sit down immediately otherwise one of the security turns up und tells you to look for a seat.
But of course it's as well the day when all inmates of the press room start to feel exhausted and tired.

On Sunday morning it rained and it was almost cold, I felt it on my way to the Reebok. When I arrived there around one hour before action was due to begin there were only a few spectators - all in all the Sunday was not sold out in both sessions and one could feel and see it.
All the matches of the last day were played on the main stage and all players had a proper walk-on with music and walk-on girls - Jessica Simpson and Kim Mellor - both blond and sometimes wearing a red dress because of the sponsor speedy hire. The two girls were made up beside the press room, where a make-up artist of sky sport had her corner. She looked after all the people who had a an entrance on TV. You couldn't see anything of it from the venue as the lighting was deliberately dimmed.

In the first quarterfinal Denis Ovens could certainly benefit from the lack of experience of his opponent Mark Hylton and he had a very dominant start. After a while Hylton settled in the match and catches up but Ovens finished the match with the same superiority he had shown throughout the tournament. Afterwards he joked, it was only his smart shirt which helped him to the win and disappeared to take a nap before his semi-final.
In the second quarterfinal Mark Webster and Robert Thornton met. Webster had the lead over the whole time and was in no danger when Thornton made a short comeback. He showed some nerves near the end but quite some bottle too.
Then Wes Newton and Dave Chisnall met and it was a close fight from beginning to end. Newton won the match - probably because Chisnall just was not sure enough with his doubles.
The last quarterfinal was awaited from all with anticipation but Paul Nicholson couldn't keep up the great performance we did see from him when he won over Gary Anderson and Phil Taylor. It could well be he felt exhausted after those matches and James Wade was too clinical for him.

The quarterfinals took quite a long time and were followed by the draw for the semis. So the break between afternoon and evening session was shorter then planned. The venue was once again tided up, in the press room we finally had a little time to talk to one another and to eat. John McDonald changed into his semi-final outfit, the photographers uploaded their pictures and I once again translated some match reports and updated the site.

The first semi-final was between Denis Ovens and Wes Newton. Once again Ovens had the better start and got into the lead But he couldn't withstand Newton's finishing and for the second successive year lost in the semi-finals of the UK Open. Might be Newton's 170 finish in leg 12 finished him off.
The second semi-final was a very close affair and while Ovens was very disappointed Webster almost was inconsolable over his defeat. Wade was a few percent better on the doubles what brought him the win as the scores were almost identical, Webster even had the chance for a nine-darter.

To give the players time to recover a little bit before the final there then was 20 minutes break while sky sports showed on the screens some highlights. The atmosphere in the venue was great and everybody seemed to enjoy himself.

The final was rather close most of the time but then Wade managed to win four out of the last five legs while Newton slightly run out of power.
After some time an overjoyed James Wade appeared in the press room together with his girlfriend. His manager already the whole evening had dipped in from time to time. A short while later a slightly dejected Wes Newton turned up as well. Though on stage sometimes he has some kind of "I don't care" attitude, he of course is ambitious and was deeply disappointed. But of course Wade was in the centre of attention and numerous pictures were taken with him and all of the Speedy Hire team. Speedy Hire turned out to be a very enthusiastic and engaged sponsor. You can even find an own Speedy Hires Darts page on the internet: Speedyhire Darts.

And what about the "Spirit of Sport"? Well I had passed it several times on my way between the Reebok and the station and you can see it on the picture. Probably the artist more had soccer on his mind, Bolton has a quite famous soccer team, when he shaped the sculpture. But I think that the UK Open is the PDC tournament which reflects spirit of sport the best. It's a tournament were professionals and amateurs meet and not always the pros are the winner though rarely a top ten player is beaten by an amateur. But this year tweak of the qualifiers reached the fifth round while Terry Jenkins, Gary Anderson, John Part and others already were eliminated one round before. Beside this due to the huge number and participants and the many matches to play the participants really need a lot of bottle and staying power. The winner and the runner-up had to play three hard matches on the final day - it really is a very demanding tournament. James Wade showed an impressive performance as he had started his tournament already on the first evening in round one while Wes Newton had two matches and one day less to play through.
It is always very hot and very loud in the venue and to be sure very hard to concentrate on your own match because you'll at least acoustically realize what is getting on the main stage. As the spectators all have a look at the main stage as well it can happen and happens often enough - they'll cheer or start to whistle at the same moment you have to play the winning double.

So I would say you can always feel the "spirit of sport" during the UK Open. Unluckily one can get near enough the sculpture to find out whether on the rectangular metal plates it was build off there are pictures of dart players as well - they certainly would deserve it!!!







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