Young Unicorn star James Wade remains on course for back-to-back UK Open victories after reaching the quarter-finals of the Midlands Regional. Wade triumphed in the North West Regional in Manchester a fortnight ago and continued his impressive form in the last qualifying event before the UK Final, which takes place at the Reebok Stadium in June.
And he is joined by the consistent Andy Hamilton and Welshman Barrie Bates in the last eight. Wade beat the likes of Mark Dudbridge, Ronnie Baxter and Peter Manley to get through. He edged out Unicorn stablemate Manley 5-4 in the final match to reach those quarter-finals.
Bates needed a brilliant 156 finish to see of Adrian Gray, while Hamilton was forced to tough it out against Tony Martin, before finally pulling through 5-3.
Mervyn King’s great start to life in the PDC continued, as he won six matches to reach the quarter-finals. His run included victories in the 2nd and 3rd Rounds over Kevin Painter (5-3) and Adrian Lewis (5-2).
Elsewhere, Team Unicorn new boy Kirk Shepherd enjoyed his best run since switching to the PDC. He beat Colin Lloyd 5-3 in the 2nd Round, before eventually losing to Hamilton in the 4th Round…..but Shepherd has clinched himself a place at Bolton for the UK Open Finals in June.
Of the other Team Unicorn players, Mick McGowan was a 2nd round loser to Chris Allen (4-5), Michael Barnard lost at the same stage, by the same score to Simon Craven….In Round Three, John Part was beaten 5-2 by Dave Smith, Wes Newton went down 5-3 to Darren Johnson and Robbie Green lost 5-3 to John Magowan.
Colin Osborne and Bob Anderson both reached the last 32 but that’s as far as they went. Anderson was a 5-4 loser to Chris Hook and Osborne went down 5-3 to Alan Warriner-Little.
Last 16 results:
Andy Hamilton 5-3 Tony Martin
Phil Taylor missed the event, having already qualified for Bolton in June.
BY STUART PYKE
