Lewis McGurn of the Medway towns won the first ever Dover Darts Open, defeating local player Ritchie Buckle 6-4 in the final take the title and the £300 cash prize.

The event was a massive success with a total of one hundred and four players entering the event at the Whitfield Club, with entrance from all corners of the County.

Lewis, 20, plays for Super League side the Medway Dolphins and also represents the County of Kent as a part of the Men’s B Team. 

He received a bye in the first round before playing local player Kevin Downs and ran out a comfortable 3-0 winner.  A tighter third round match against Mark Bedford ended with a 3-2 setting up a match against Thanet Player Don Dillon.  Lewis continued throwing superb darts, won 3-0 and booked a quarter final spot against his good friend and equally impressive on the day Conan Whitehead.

The best of 7 legs match went in favour of Lewis 4-1 before a semi-final game against one of the best up coming players in Kent Josh Payne.  Josh, who is just 14, put up an impressive battle before eventually losing to Lewis’s high scoring and clinical finishing 5-3.

Ritchie Buckles route to the final started with a local theme, he beat Dover player Paul Browning 3-0 in the first round before playing another local player Roger Coulson, also of Dover by the same margin.

Ritchie made short work of an in form John Richards with a comfortable 3-0 victory.  Buckle then played Lee Ware with another 3-0 victory before beating Craig Morton 4-0 in the quarter final.

Ross Lowe was the next player to fall to the hand of Buckle and again Ritchie won without dropping a leg, 5-0 to book his final spot.

In the final itself Buckle won the first leg and missed doubles in the second before Lewis hit back to make the score 1-1.  Buckle again took the lead, only for Lewy to come back again to make it 2-2.  Buckle then stretched to a 4-2 lead but the super cool Lewis raced to the finish line to win four legs on the bounce and take the title.

In the ladies competition, former Dover Landlady Ged Carney beat Shiella Roger’s from Thanet 4-2 in the final with a super 90 out-shot on the bull in the final leg of the match.

In the youth competition, 14 year old Josh Payne, who lost in the semi final of the main open beat Mark Gallagher 4-0.  A total of fourteen under 21’s took part in the event.

Paul Turner