Last night, the club resurrected their Club Singles Dart Championship. A full field of 16 players were randomly allocated into 4 groups and played a total of 38 games across to 2 boards to decide the Champion.
The night kicked off at 7.30pm with 24 group games. It was great to see some new faces give a good account of themselves amongst our seasoned team players too.
In Group 1, Ed McManus qualified first with an unbeaten run, followed into the knockout phase by Dylan Rowe. Dean Caswell and Jude Marshall didn’t get out of the group but would go onto fair better in the consolation knockout.
In Group 2, the group of death, Steve Groves completed the full set, winning all his games. Jason Evans had a nervy wait to see if he would qualify but a win against Matt Wynn-Smith and Steve beating Gaz Troth in the last group game saw him through.
In Group 3, Matt Anthony, Paul ‘Rosie’ Read and Colin Mckinley all tied on 2 wins each but on legs balance count back, Colin fell short by 1 seeing Matt and Rosie through. He joined Alvin Holland in the losers KO.
In Group 4, Paul Prince won the group on legs balance tied with Geoff ‘Dizzy’ Nokes on 2 wins. However, earlier Jim Mildner had beaten Paul to setup a winner-takes-all last game for qualification which Geoff won 2-0. Mark Wynn-Smith played well and took a game, beating Jim in the group opener.
After 2hrs of play and a break for food, the Knockout phase was split across 2 boards. In the Darts Room the losers KO opened with 4 quarter final matches. In Game 1, Dean Caswell bettered Mark Wynn-Smith with a 2-0 win. In Game 2, Colin lost a very tight and tense match against Matt Wynn-Smith 1-2 which meant Dean and Matt would face-off in the semis. In the other half of the draw, Alvin Holland beat Gaz Troth 2-1 in another close encounter and would face Jude Marshall in the 2nd semi after he beat Jim Mildner 2-1 in Game 4.
In the first semi-final Dean blasted through his games to secure his place in the consolation final 2-0. In the 2nd semi, Jude got the better of Alvin 2-0 to secure his spot
The consolation final then switched to the main match board and was best of 5 legs
Jude started well taking leg 1 but Dean came back strongly and bagged the next 3 legs to take the match and win the consolation tournament.
In the main draw, Geoff Nokes was first into the semi-finals taking a 2-0 win over Ed. Jason Evans saw off Matt Anthony 2-0 in Game 2 which would see him take on Geoff in the first semi-final. In the other half of the draw, Steve Groves beat Rosie 2-0. He would meet Paul Prince in the 2nd semi after he beat Dylan Rowe 2-0 in Game 4.
In the first semi, it was clear Geoff was on a charge now, beating Jason Evans 2-0 to secure his place in the final. In the 2nd semi, Steve brushed aside Paul 2-0 to gain his spot and setup a tantalising climax to the night.
The best of 5 final opened with leg 1 going to Geoff. Steve hit back in leg 2 to draw level but Geoff’s relentlessness saw him take legs 3 and 4 for a 3-1 win.
Your 2026 Lickey End Social Club Singles Darts Champion is Geoff ‘Dizzy’ Nokes
Geoff wins a trophy and his name will be added to the wall of fame for posterity
The Stats:
Games Played: 38
Time Taken: 4hrs
Highest Score: Paul Prince 174
Highest Break/Away: Colin McKinley, Matt Anthony 120
Highest Checkout: Matt Anthony 112
It was a great night and ran smoothly. Thank you to everyone for keeping the games flowing so we got through the night on time. Thanks to the non-team darters, you all gave a really good account of yourselves, and we’d like to see you in the B Team for the Summer Season. Contact Alvin Holland if you are interested. Thank you to Gaz for sorting the match board bracket last minute and Noreen for the food.
…and finally well done Geoff, 2026 Champion, well deserved and well done Dean for the consolation KO win.
