UK Open - Irish interest

The Rooster

The final qualifying for the UK Open takes place this weekend, and there’s a fair bit of Irish interest, which is good to see.

For those who don’t know, qualifying for the UK Open “the FA Cup of Darts” is totally different to any other tournament. World rankings are ignored and qualifying is based totally on performances in the 8 Open qualifiers. It’s a money based ranking system, each qualifier has £4,000 for the winner down to £50 for those who lose in the last 64.

The top 96 (and ties) qualify for the UK Open Finals in the Reebok Stadium in Bolton (along with 32 qualifiers from special pub events!). The top 32 don’t enter until Round 3, while those placed 33-64 don’t enter until round 2. In the finals event all draws are FA Cup style out of the hat, with no seedings whatsoever (other than the byes to R2 and R3 as mentioned).

At the moment Tom Kirby is 20th (£1600) and therefore assured of a place in the top 32. In the most recent qualifier another Irishman, Owen Caffrey, did exactly the same as Ray Barnenveld, came from nowhere to catapult himself into the Finals by making the semis and winning £1,000. They are joint 27th, reasonably certain of automatic qualification to Round 3 in the Reebok. Both Caffrey and Kirby are playing on Saturday.

John Magowan and Mick McGowan are joint 36th (£550). John isn’t playing this weekend, Mick needs to make the quarter-finals to get into the top 32 (with over 200 entrants, that’s a tough task, although he did do it in one of the previous qualifiers).

Joe Collins is in the tenuous position of 94th at the moment on £100, but it’s a certainty that the cut-off will be no lower than £150, so he’ll need to win 2 matches to get to the last 64 of the qualifying event and earn another £50. He’s likely to be playing a guy called Dave Jowett in the 2nd round, who is also on £100, so it’ll be a winner-takes-all match. Ray Farrell of Northern Ireland also has £100 so also needs to win 2 matches to qualify for Bolton.

Keith Rooney is on £50, so needs to win 3 matches to bring his total earnings to £150. Unfortunately he’s got a very tough draw. First up is Jan van der Rassel (also on £50 and therefore badly in need of a good run himself). The winner plays Mick McGowan, and the winner of that is likely to play either Michael Barnard or Colin Osbourne (both tipped as rising stars) or it could even be Phil Taylor, if he turns up.

Henry O’Neill of Northern Ireland is also on £50, but because of a favourable draw needs to win only 2 matches to win another £100 and make the top 96. Another Irishman chancing his luck is Paul Dillon who so far hasn’t troubled the bank, so needs to win 4 games to qualify for Bolton. Given that he’d likely have to account for Andy Jenkins and John Part to do that, its probably unlikely – but good luck to him anyway!

Kingp35

Great post Rooster. Ill look at this with interest.

The Rooster

Mixed event for the Irish.

Keith Rooney lost to Jan van der Rassel in the first round thus ending his Bolton hopes. Rassel beat Mick McGowan in the second round and went on to qualify for Bolton.

Joe Collins lost to Dave Jowett in the second round, while Ray Farrell and Paul Dillon both lost in the first round, so all 3 fail to make Bolton.

Owen Caffrey won 4 games before losing to Richie Burnett in the last 32, but he cements his place in the top 32.

Tom Kirby didnt play but his place in the top 32 was already assured.

John Magowan didnt play either, but he ends up in the 33-64 position, alongside Mick McGowan, thus going straight into round 2 in Bolton.

The most successful Irishman was Northener Henry O'Neill. He beat Chris Mason on his way to a last 16 place were he was beaten 5-4 by Ronnie Baxter. So not only did O'Neill make the top 96 for Bolton, he squeezed in to the top 64.

Full results and details of the qualifiers for Bolton are on Planet Darts.

Quarter-Finals
Ronnie Baxter 5-2 Steve Beaton
Andy Jenkins 5-2 Wayne Mardle
Richie Burnett 5-1 Dennis Priestley
Raymond van Barneveld 5-0 Colin Lloyd

Semi-Finals
Ronnie Baxter 2-1 Andy Jenkins (2-3, 3-2, 3-2)
Raymond van Barneveld 2-0 Richie Burnett (3-0, 3-0)

Final
Raymond van Barneveld 2-1 Ronnie Baxter (3-0, 1-3, 3-2)

So Barney wins his first title in the PDC! He had also beaten Bob Anderson and Adrian Lewis. On his way to the final Barney played 46 legs, winning 39 and losing only 7, although Ronnie gave him a tough game in the final.

Kingp35

Mixed bag for the Irsih lads all right but at least we have some qualifiers for the event in Bolton. Keith Rooney has been pretty disappointing because I thought he was a decent player after watching him at last years World Grand Prix.

That was an excellent performance from Barney and congrats on winning what im sure will be teh first of many tournaments. A notable absentee though was Phil Taylor who im sure Barney would love to have played along the way.

Butsie

When is the final qualifying round for the irish open? I will be hoping to rub elbows with the big boys.

Butsie

When is the final qualifying round for the irish open? I will be hoping to rub elbows with the big boys.

Butsie

When is the final qualifying round for the irish open? I will be hoping to rub elbows with the big boys.