Brilliant Budgen Bags Title
Lee Budgen claimed his first ADC Championship Tour after beating Adam Warner 6-4 to win event 6, going top of the Championship Tour table a point ahead of second-placed Gary Blades. The Englishman is also up to seventh in the rankings with 501 points and 42 now off sixth-placed Lloyd Pennell.
Lee spoke to Darts World to give us his thoughts after his days work in Manchester: “Relieved, I’ve not played that well today, ground the results out and to be honest with you I’m feeling a bit lucky, but I’ll take the win”.
The 27-year-old came through a tough Semi Final dealing James Richardson his third straight defeat in the Last 4 before including a fantastic 93 checkout on double twelve with his last dart, as his opponent in the Final waited to return to the oche and try to break throw.
“Get in I was thinking, I missed a couple of chances before, and I beat myself up after it and I knew I had to take that because if I missed, he would go 4-2 up so it kept me in the game.”
The new ADC Number 7 also spoke on becoming the number one on the Championship Tour table: “I don’t feel like number one, I’m very lucky, I think I played better yesterday but today has been a bit of a grind all day and I just found a way to win doing the right things at the right moment.”
Terriers title holder Warner will be very happy with his weekends work in Manchester reaching the Quarter Finals on Saturday before the Final today, gaining revenge on Championship Tour 5 winner Adam Smith-Neale after losing in the Last 8.
The Sheffield man included finishes of 120 and 150 to seal a 5-3 win over Big Dog and fought back from a 3-0 deficit to beat Kevin Garcia in the Quarter Finals, averaging 91.42 in a 5-4 win. He is up to fifth in the rankings after picking up 64 points today, 129 behind Tony Wood in fourth.
Adam Smith Neale is into the top sixteen of the ADC Rankings after picking up from where he left on Saturday, including a 4-1 win over Tony Wood in the Last 32 before taking apart ADC Number 3 Adam Atkinson 5-1 in the Quarter Finals to reach the main stage again at the Forum Hall.
The Coventry born thrower included the big fish in whitewashing Gary Blades 4-0 in the Last 16, to move tenth in the Championship Tour table and sixteenth in the rankings, seven points behind Simon Preston the man he beat to win Championship Tour 5 on Saturday.
Kevin Garcia is just three points off Tony Newell in eleventh after reaching the Quarter Finals on Sunday, beating a former Winmau Championship Tour Semi Finalist Scott Taylor in the Last 16 as well as victories over Steven Edwards and Terry Winfield to move onto 340 points.
The St Helens man looks in good shape to qualify for the Grand Finals in October sitting ninth in the tour table with 25 points, level with the three players who are above him with just two events now to play, set to take place in Bristol towards the end of September.
All in all, another successful weekend for grass roots darts having seen £2000 go towards the two winners of the events, again showing how helpful the introduction of the ADC has been to the amateur players, signalling the importance of giving opportunities to those, in the mind of many that they are able to play for something during the competitions.
ADC Championship Tour 6 Results
Quarter Finals:
Adam Warner 5-4 Kevin Garcia
Adam Smith-Neale 5-1 Adam Atkinson
Lee Budgen 5-3 Nathan Care
James Richardson 5-1 Harry Gregory
Semi Finals:
Adam Warner 5-4 Adam Smith-Neale
Lee Budgen 5-3 James Richardson
Final:
Lee Budgen 6-4 Adam Warner
ADC Rankings:
Matt Jackson: 1065pts
Steve Brown: 848pts
Adam Atkinson: 756pts
Tony Wood: 703pts
Adam Warner: 572pts
Lloyd Pennell: 543pts
Lee Budgen: 501pts
Graham Hall: 484pts
Phil Borthwick: 399pts
Geoff Murray: 385pts
Tony Newell: 343pts
Kevin Garcia: 340pts
Kevin McDine: 340pts
Ricky King: 334pts
Simon Preston: 334pts
Adam Smith-Neale: 327pts