THE 2013 Speedy Services UK Open kicks off on Thursday night, when the early rounds of ‘The FA Cup of Darts’ take place in Bolton – with former champions Phil Taylor, James Wade and Roland Scholten all in action on the opening night of the event.
The UK Open, unique for having eight stages in play simultaneously in the early rounds, features a mixture of top professionals and amateur qualifiers as 146 players compete for the £40,000 first prize.
Professionals competed in a series of eight qualifying events earlier this year, with the top 114 players progressing to play in Bolton, where the leading 32 qualifiers enter at the third round stage on Thursday night.
The lower-ranked qualifiers and 32 Speedy Amateur Qualifiers all enter in the earlier rounds on Thursday, with 2008 and 2011 champion James Wade taking on Wallasey’s Robbie “Kong” Green in the preliminary round to kick off the event.
“I will have to start firing straight away,” admitted Wade, the world number four who will need to win three best-of-nine leg matches on Thursday to reach the third round.
“There is no growing into the tournament at the UK Open because of the draw so you have to be ready and I will be.
“Winning the UK Open a couple of years ago is a great memory for me and I’ve been getting closer to my best over the last few months. I’m in a good place and I feel like it is a matter of when I start winning tournaments again, not if.
“I was disappointed that I couldn’t find my game in the semi-finals of the Premier League but that is gone now and there are three major tournaments up for grabs in the next couple of months and I hope I can take at least one of them.”
World Champion Phil Taylor, a four-time UK Open champion, finished 44th on the UK Open Order of Merit earlier this year and will meet Coventry’s Kevin Dowling at the second round stage.
Dowling, a design engineer by trade nicknamed ‘The Bounty Hunter’ has played in seven previous UK Opens and has a decade of experience on the PDC circuit, but said: “It’s a dream come true, a cracking draw.
“My first reaction was that it’s the sort of draw that everybody wants to get, at least once in their life anyway.
“It’s the sort of chance that any player would love and thousands of darts players from across the world would love to be in my shoes.
“You can’t get much bigger than playing Phil Taylor, and he’s still the man to beat as far as I’m concerned, so it would be very nice to win on Thursday night.
“I’ve only played on the main stage in Bolton once before, against John Part in 2007 over the best of 15 legs. It’s good having that experience there but I was a bit slow out of the blocks and it took me probably three legs to get used to the lighting on stage.
“If that’s the case this time, I can’t afford three legs, that’s for sure!”
2004 UK Open champion Roland Scholten comes in at the first round stage as he faces Gillingham-based bricklayer Conan Whitehead, who is one of the 32 Speedy Amateur Qualifiers.
Another Dutch star, Vincent van der Voort, is in action on the main stage in the preliminary round against Scottish qualifier Andy Murray, while former World Youth Champion James Hubbard takes on John Scott and Austria’s Mensur Suljovic plays Mark Lawrence in the first round.
Welsh former World Champion Richie Burnett plays UK Open debutant Ricky Sudale, while former World Champion Ted Hankey could meet Dean Winstanley in the second round should they both progress.
Stage two features two more high-profile preliminary round games as Midlands duo Wayne Jones and Nick Fullwell kick off the event before 2009 UK Open finalist Colin Osborne faces Steve Hine, the muffin baker from Coventry who is a former quarter-finalist.
World number ten Justin Pipe later plays Gareth Pass in round one – with the winner progressing to play Holland’s Jelle Klaasen – and former Bolton quarter-finalist Alex Roy meets Swindon’s Mark Cox in the second round.
Stephen Bunting, the current World Masters champion who lost narrowly to Wade in last year’s event, plays Middlesex’s Vernon Sheppard in the preliminary round, Hong Kong’s Royden Lam faces Ireland’s Paddy Meaney and Tony West, a former World Masters winner, takes on young Welsh ace Jamie Lewis in other early contests.
The 32 second round winners will later go into hat for the third round draw, which will be made at the end of Thursday night’s play and also features the top 32 professional qualifiers.
Michael van Gerwen, who won five of the eight Qualifiers, heads the top 32 alongside reigning UK Open champion Robert Thornton, Australian star Simon Whitlock and Belgium’s Kim Huybrechts, who also won Qualifiers this spring.
The Speedy Services UK Open will be broadcast live on Sky Sports HD, alongside international telecasts through RTL7 in the Netherlands, Sport1 in Germany, OSN across the Middle East, Fox Sports Australia and Sky New Zealand.
LIVEPDC.TV International Pass Subscribers (outside of the UK, Ireland & Holland) can also watch live coverage from the whole tournament.
Tickets for the Speedy Services UK Open are still available for Thursday and Sunday’s play by calling 0844 871 8807 or by visiting www.seetickets.com/go/ukopen.
A small, limited number of tickets will be available at the venue for Friday night and Saturday’s sessions, with cash sales only via the North Entrance to the Premier Suite.
PDC Darts 180 