UK Darts Issue 10 - January 2014 | Page 27

than enough. Photo: Tip Top Pics Ltd/Chris Sargent Bunting took the opening set 3-0 with a 94 average as Green struggled to find his feet early on and the St Helens-based thrower found himself two sets to the good after taking the second 3-1. Green had his best spell of the match during the third set, which he took 3-0 with a near 105 average, before he returned to throwing darts that were of a far lower standard than that which we had come to expect from him during the week. Indeed the Wallasey-based thrower averaged in the mid 60s for the fourth set, which was rather unsurprisingly taken by Bunting 3-0. Bunting had his best spell of the match either side of the break, he took the fifth set 3-1 thanks to three 180s and a 104 average, before returning from the break to take the sixth set 3-0 in 37 darts. By now the match was over, and despite Bunting losing the opening two legs of the seventh set he came back to win the set and the match. The 6-1 victory clinching his first ever Lakeside final berth, a fifth overall in BDO majors. “Before I came here this was the plan,” said Bunting. “I have prepared right again as I did for the Winmau World Masters and it’s paying off.” “I am over the moon to come through the match” Alan Norris “Robbie is a great friend of mine and to beat him there took a lot out of me, but I know I can always put a player under pressure with my starts to legs and I need to keep that going into the final now.” A visibly despondent Green added, “I feel like I have played pretty well this week and I have showed what I can do now. I just let myself down today and it’s extremely disappointing.” “Stephen was the better player today, he deserved to win,” he conceded. The Final Stephen Bunting made a slow start to the match, losing the first set 3-1 on his own throw, but quickly recovered and found his feet to break back in the second. The next three sets quickly went with throw, before what was becoming a hard fought contest reached it’s first pivotal point during the sixth. With his opponent sat on a double Bunting found himself with three clear darts at double sixteen to break throw and go in at the break 4-2 up. Unfortunately for Bunting he was unable to convert, meaning Norris was still very much in the match as the players left the stage. Many would have been disheartened by this, but not Bunting, the two-time World Masters Champion came out after the break on fire, throwing some of his best darts of the tournament to move into a 6-3 lead, before a brief flirt with finishing line fever saw Norris pull a set back. Bunting recomposed and refocused for the eleventh set, moving 2-0 up thanks to a 104 checkout, before Norris prolonged the match a little further with a 113 checkout of his own. The wait was nearly over though for Bunting and the former Zuiderduin Masters champion completed his Photo: Tip Top Pics Ltd/Chris Sargent