Eric Walters Pembrokeshire Open Saturday January 7th 2009 @ Whitland Sports & Social Club, Whitland.
The Walters Group certainly did Pembrokeshire proud at the Pembrokeshire "Open". With a very late number of entries we finally reached 162 which was a record for us. Due to the very severe weather conditions 24 Players could not make it and the Tournament ran with 138 people.
The eventual winner was Phil Evans from Brecon and he beat Fishguard boy Clive Lewis in an excellent Final. The semi-finals saw Johnny Clayton very narrowly lose to Phil 4-2 after having the darts to at least make the score 3-3. In the other semi-final, Clive Lewis tore the heart out of current Welsh International Mark Salmon and won the game 4-2 with some brilliant Darts.
Pembrokeshire County supplied a few more excellent Players in the quarter finals with Darren Hawkins, Wayne Evans and Dorian Jones all producing wonderful darts.
The last 16 losers were Tim Hendra, Paul Hood, Carl Lewis, Greg Reynolds, Rob Alford,Wayne Davies and Robert Coverdale.
Last 32 losers were Steve Alker, Dai 'Mushy' Lewis, Charles Morris, Jason Davies, Lee Chenery, Mark Lewis, Jamie Rees, Adrian Davies, Paul Jones, Gareth Williams, Martin Allerton, Gareth Holt, Dale Chenery, Richie Williams,Richard Edwards and Ivan Bell.
Winning cash was presented by Darrel Walters, Main Principle of the Walters Group, Milford Haven who presented £50.00 each to Darren Hawkins, Dorian Jones, Martyn Freeman and Wayne Evans. £100.00 each went to Mark Salmon and Johnny Clayton. £400.00 went to the Runner Up Clive Lewis and the Winner , Phil Evans took home £1000.00. Cathy Hughes recieved £50.00 for furthest going lady when she beat Hayley Francis Owens in a playoff. Mark Salmon and Wayne Davies shared the £50.00 for the highest out which was 160 and Kevin Thomas had the Least Number of Darts which was 12.
Darrels mum,the late Eric Walters wife who supplied the trophies, presented both Phil and Clive with two trophies to celebrate the occasion.
Lloyd Evans, the Club Secretary, was thanked for their contribution and then asked to present £100.00 towards the Glan Cleddau Welsh School for under priviledged children . This will be added to the Lucy Walters Charity Pairs which will be played at a later date.
Darrel and his company The Walters Group were warmly thanked by the tournaments organiser Malcolm Hawkins for providing such a wonderful sponsorship and Malcolm added that it would be wonderful to find another sponsor like Darrel to ensure that the "OPEN" could be repeated next year. He also thanked his daughter Tracey Hawkins-Greene, Sue Phillips and Kathy Allenby who all worked so hard making the tournament such a success. He thanked the staff of the Club and the caterers who kept everyone supplied with food and drink throughout the day.