Rebuilding
I had passed my day in Manchester and already felt tired when I walked to the venue.
The venue was as crowded as the day before and it was difficult to find a place from where you really could watch was going on at the boards. Beside this the hall was warming up. Probably it was very hot at the boards and a few players were swearing heavily.
As usually the players of the first eight matches got some kind of mini walk-on. It looks like this: the players squeezed through a gap in the curtain into the hall and then are lined up by security in a red cube. The security drags them around till they stand as TV wants them to stand. Then first the players for the boards 1 - 3 walk to the left to their boards, then the players for the boards 4 - 6 and the small stage to the right and finally the players fpor the main stage stand for a few moments in the light of the TV cameras before they start to walk to the main stage. There is no walk-on music for that walk-on.
When the players arrive at the oche the immediately start with a few warming-up shots followed by the throw which sometimes takes some time.
The players of the following matches have no walk-on, it wouldn't be possible as the time the matches takes differs and matches on the boards
follow smoothly.
As I've heard during the Major tournaments players in the practice room are told by officials when it's time to go to the board but I suppose during the early rounds of the UK Open they have to find out themselves what shouldn't be too difficult as from the practice room they have a clear view on what is going on in the hall.
The first match on the main stage yesterday brought a small surprise - Co Stompe defeated Simon Whitlock. But the most thrilling match of the first eight certainly was the epic match between Andrew Gilding and Andy Hamilton. The both still played after John Part had won the third match on the small stage against Roland Scholten. In the en the winner was the Riley's qualifier Gilding 9:6.
There was another qualifier who caused an upset: BDO player Andy Boulton eliminated Vincent von der Voort - who eats as fast as he throws - from the tournament. With Joe Murnan und John Bowles two more qualifiers reached the fourth round.
For me the best match of the evening to be sure was the clash between Terry Jenkins and Adrian Lewis. I had seen two weeks ago in Crawley that Terry Jenkins was in great form, he proved it again with his win over the World Champion.
Between the other players out of the tournament are Wayne Jones, Colin Lloyd who lost to Richie Burnett who finally managed to hit the winning double, Mervyn King, Alan Tabern und Jamie Caven who had no chance at all against a strong playing Steve Beaton.
Again the evening closed with a draw - the draw for the fourth round. After this immediately the rebuilding for the fourth round started in the hall - there are only four boards left now but more tables and chairs.
When I returned back to my hotel the lights in the Reebok still all were on.
