Keegan Brown swept aside all before him as the inaugural Isle of Wight Grand Prix Series began with a highly successful opening event at the Ambassador Freehouse.
The inaugural Isle of Wight Grand Prix, proudly sponsored by Modern Landscapes Ltd, proved an immediate success as 38 players battled it out in the opening event of the five-tournament series. The day featured high-quality darts, closely fought contests and a superb atmosphere as players began their quest to qualify for December’s lucrative Finals Day.
The unique format saw competitors split into round-robin groups before the top 4 players from each section progressed to the knockout stages.
Group 1 was won by Stuart Woodmore, who topped the standings with 8 wins from 9 matches and a 67.59 average. Paul Habgood, Dan Havard and David Spragg also progressed after a closely contested group.
Group 2 was one of the strongest sections of the day, with Kirk Bain edging out Tom McInnes on leg difference after both finished on 16 points. Ollie Linington and Stewart Balls also advanced.
Tony Broughton topped Group 3 with a 66.81 average to finish ahead of Reggie Woodmore, while Paul Browning and Antony Smith secured the remaining qualification places.
Group 4 belonged to tournament organiser and local professional Keegan Brown, who produced the standout performance of the group stage. Brown won all 8 of his matches while averaging an impressive 75.86, comfortably the highest average of the day.
The knockout rounds produced plenty of drama. Brown began with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Stewart Balls before defeating Group 2 winner Kirk Bain 3-1 in the quarter-finals.
On the opposite side of the draw, Tom McInnes impressed by overcoming Antony Smith before producing one of the performances of the tournament to eliminate Billy York 3-0 and set up a semi-final meeting with Brown.
Brown’s march to the final continued with a 3-1 victory over McInnes.
The bottom half of the draw proved equally competitive. Tony Broughton edged past Reggie Woodmore 3-2 in a thrilling quarter-final before defeating David Spragg by the same score in another deciding-leg encounter. Spragg had earlier produced one of the shocks of the tournament by knocking out Paul Habgood.
Brown rounded off a dominant day in the final, defeating Broughton 3-0 to become the first Isle of Wight Grand Prix Series champion.
Attention now turns to the second event in the series, with entries now open on Darts Atlas for Isle of Wight Grand Prix 2.
