Another terrific day at the 3rd England Youth Grand Prix, grand finals at the GER Club in March, Cambridgeshire.
Although this year has been a bit stop start having to deal with the Covid Virus, nevertheless the 24 finalists once again produced a high calibre finals day.
On the conclusion of the round robin rounds, the final 8 Boys and 4 Girls moved into the knock-out stages of the event.
First game matched the tallest and smallest players in the event, Sussex’s Tavis Dudeney who has been playing really well reaching the final of the England Open Youth the other week, and Callum Beddow from Cleveland, a very close game saw Callum just getting over the winning line 3-2 with Tavis (73.26) as opposed to Callum’s slightly better average at (74.79).
Match 2, was another terrific tussle going to the very last leg once again, with Hertfordshire’s Thomas Banks prevailing 3-2 in the decider against Yorkshire’s Cayden Smith, once again another set of fantastic averages (80.01) for Thomas and (71.70) for Cayden.
Archie Self from Berkshire ran out a 3-0 winner over Clwyd’s Cole Davey and in the process recorded the best running average of the day so far (85.08), but despite defeat Cole produced a great game (71.49).
The final game of the knock-out round of the boys was the best of the round with Yorkshire’s Leighton Bennett hitting a magnificent (95.94) in his 3-0 win over Buckinghamshire’s Leo Beechey who recorded the highest losing average of the day (78.93)
The Girls Semi-Final Knock-out stage brought together Lancashire Eleanor Cairns, and England Open Girls Champion from Sussex Paige Pauling, it was the Lancashire lass who prevailed 3-1 recording a (57.63) average against (53.22) for Paige.
A similar score line in the second semi-final with Cheshire’s Amy Evans (51.63) win over Berkshire’s Ella Williams (48.39)
On to the boys semi’s, the standard of which would grace any stage anywhere at darts, Thomas Banks (80.52) in his 4-1 Win over Callum Beddow (77.94). Not for the first time in his short career Leighton Bennet joined the hundred club as he recorded a magnificent (103.32) average in a high quality game against Archie Self (84.09)
The girls final saw Amy Evans race into a 2-0 lead, only for Eleanor to reel off the final three legs to take the title, and as the averages highlighted a very close encounter (60.84) Eleanor and Amy (59.58).
The boys final was a testament the value of the England Grand Prix system, with all seven legs being completed in 17 darts or less, there was no finish below 32, and once again Leighton for the third game of the finals hit a 90+ average (94.23) with Thomas contributing amazingly to a really exciting grand final and hitting a (85.14). Leg scores 17-14-14-16-15-17-16.
There is no doubting the quality on show today and during the last 12 months of the event.
I would like to thank the Management and staff at the GER Club in March, Cambridgeshire for once again hosting the event for us, to all the mums and dads, to Bradley, Dave, Paul, Deta unsung heroes of The England Youth Grand Prix, thanks to Cambridgeshire Chairman Tony Barnes for MC’ ing all the stage finals, also to our new England Director Tommie Coleman for the stream. Sincere thanks to England Darts officials and their Directors for all the work behind the scenes in keeping this fairly new initiative in the calendar, for the benefits of Youth Darts. One thing is for certain it is helping to produce the next generation of top flight players for the Sport of Darts.