Le champion du monde en titre Luke Littler a confirmé son statut de favori en se qualifiant pour les demi-finales de l’UK Open à Minehead, après une victoire remarquable face à Danny Noppert ce dimanche. À seulement 19 ans, le numéro un mondial a démontré une fois de plus sa résilience sur l’olympe des fléchettes. Un retour fracassant face à Noppert Mené 3-0 au début de ce quart de finale en…

Lors des huitièmes de finale de l’UK Open, le champion en titre Luke Littler a confirmé son statut en dominant Gary Anderson 10-5, assurant sa place en quart de finale. Pendant ce temps, une surprise a émergé avec l’élimination de Luke Humphries, le numéro deux mondial, par Danny Noppert sur le score de 10-6. Littler trouve son rythme après un départ difficile Après une victoire serrée 10-8…

Le numéro un mondial Luke Littler a lancé sa campagne de défense du titre à l’UK Open sur une note triomphale, dominant Damon Heta 10-3 samedi à Minehead, dans le Somerset. Cette victoire, marquée par un impressionnant checkout de 170 points, confirme sa forme ascendante après sa première victoire en Premier League cette année. Une performance qui impressionne Littler, âgé de seulement 17 ans,…

Arrows and 8-balls*

I spent the best part of a week op narth covering Premier League Darts (in Leeds) and the UK Open Pool Championship (in Telford) - I've often stated my inclination to work on 'pub sports', but I rarely get the chance outside of snooker.

As it turns out, the Leeds leg of the Premier League wasn't much to write home about, but Telford was the main attraction of my week - pool jobs are seldom seen in general, so I was pleasantly surprised to be drafted in for my first pool gig since Atlantic City (Oct '22). I teamed up with Erin at Telford International Centre (the new home of cue sports?!) as we covered the final two days of the UK Open; the entire 256-player tournament takes 6 days to complete but only the latter stages are televised, so we got a manageable morsel of matches to operate over the weekend.

I was able to tick off another new role by scoring some pool matches for the first time, which I enjoyed. I noted several similarities between pool & snooker operating, which helped me pick things up more quickly - I was soon channelling my inner Mr Snooker and flinging stats anywhere I could!

While pool is simpler than snooker, it still requires a significant level of skill and understanding to master it - plenty of snooker pros have tried their hand at it only to be taught severe lessons, and the top players this week demonstrated just how devastating they can be.

None more so than the eventual winner Aloysius Yapp - the sedate Singaporean faced off against swashbuckling Spaniard Jonas Souto in the final, who - despite some impressive performances in his earlier matches - arguably had less involvement in the final than I did:

Before poor Jonas had even had a shot he was 4-0 down - Yapp broke off and subsequently cleared up four times in a row, and things didn't get much better for Souto after that; Yapp obliterated his young opponent 13-1 in one of the most one-sided finals I've ever worked on. He compiled four more flawless breaks along the way, meaning that Souto - despite the embarrassing scoreline - truly didn't do a whole lot wrong.

Team GFX weren't complaining, though - it was great to watch one of the top pros put on a clinic, and came with the added benefit of wrapping things up in record time; we were off air at 8.40pm and derigged so swiftly that I was able to make it back to Hemel in time to catch the last train home!