Stars on the oche

NICKNAMES such as The Power, Jaws, Rocket, Tripod and The Man give little clue as to which sport was televised live from Stevenage last Thursday night.

But others like One Dart and Hawaii 501 give a clearer indication that the Arts and Leisure Centre hosted the ninth night of the Sky televised Holsten Premier League Darts.

World champion and last year's winner Phil The Power Taylor was there and was a convincing victor in one of the four league matches.

Trish Washer, operations manager of the Stevenage Arts and Leisure Centre, said: "From our side, it went really well. The feedback is that people had a good night.

"There was a good atmosphere in the hall and that was probably helped by the bar being incredibly busy at the start!

"We would love to have it here again - something like this can only be good for the town - and they're looking to go to even more venues next year."

On the night, Wayne Hawaii 501 Mardle grabbed his first win of the league season as the play-off race was blown wide open.

Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld had already secured their places in the play-offs at Plymouth at the end of May and both took further victories from their visit to Stevenage.

Taylor defeated world number one Colin Lloyd 8-3, while van Barneveld enjoyed a win over fellow Dutchman Roland Scholten by the same scoreline.

Third placed Scholten also lost the night's first game, to Peter Manley, and could still drop out of the top four.

Manley's 8-6 win meant that he moved into fourth, although he has just one game remaining compared to two for Lloyd, Ronnie Baxter and Mardle.

Mardle took his first win of the year with an 8-5 triumph against Baxter in the night's third game.

With just the six-game final league night in Reading tonight (Thursday) remaining, five men are still in contention for the remaining two places in the top four.