No stopping imperious Fletcher
THERE had been no real regrets for Mark Fletcher jnr in the GDL Individual Knockout, despite one memorable moment leaving the entire Northfield crowd wondering what could have been.
On a Tuesday, when he and top woman Geraldine Williams qualified to face the opposing Channel Islands in a late April finals night, Fletcher had been in fine form throughout.
Enough to produce a perfect nine-dart leg, a major feat even at professional level? Very nearly.
He immediately stunned Tim Cotterill, a regular Misfits teammate in the Herald League, by firing off two straight 180s to start their last-eight encounter at board two.
But his subsequent failure to check out from 141 left him to settle for a 12-darter – still the best of the night.
Fletcher eventually won 3-1 and then made surprisingly easy work of Mike Ogier, going 4-0 for a straightforward victory in a best-of-seven board final.
This set him up for a meeting with ‘Lucky’ Lee Smith to decide who would book their place in the CI final.
On board one, Smith had earned his passage via tighter victories against Adam Gontier and Mick Ogier jnr.
With the third board brought into use and lit up for the occasion, the initial bull up seemingly foreshadowed a close contest, with Fletcher starting a chain of three bullseyes that ended when Smith missed the mark by millimetres.
Yet ultimately, Fletcher sealed the straightforward 4-0 triumph.
The players posted tons aplenty and Fletcher won leg one in 16 darts.
Smith suffered weaker starts in the next two and though he battled to at least salvage a leg amid Fletcher’s late check-out woes, it was a chance left unfulfilled.
Ultimately, that particularly compelling match against Cotterill had been Fletcher’s biggest shock of the night.
‘The dart legs didn’t really matter to me and it’s just the winning – you’ve got to get through the games,’ said Fletcher.
‘[Tim] is a teammate with me and he played one of the best games I’ve ever seen him play to be honest. Last time he played me, he played really well and this time he’s played me, he played really well.
‘Normally when I see him, he doesn’t quite step up to that mark, but I know he’s got it in him... against me, he seems to bring them out and he puts me under pressure.
‘He is very good and when you’re back-to-back 180 against the guy and he comes back at you, it’s mad. You don’t expect it.’
Fletcher did, he admitted, expect a harder task against Ogier after struggling in practice against him the previous night.
‘I thought tonight he was going to be my obstacle, but he just laid down at the end,’ he added.
‘It was quite nice for me, because I thought he was going to take me out the competition.
‘Lee is a good player but I knew I was going to beat him – I had it in my head that I was going to smash him up.’
The Guernsey women’s qualifier had concluded much earlier, having been a duel rather than a true knockout.
Williams saw off sole challenger Astrid Allen 3-1, with the latter threatening to claw back at one advanced point but proving unable to produce the desired finish.
The CI finals night is set to unfold on 24 April at St Pierre Park against opposition from Jersey, Alderney and Sark.
Bobby Williams is the Jersey qualifier and despite being a familiar foe of Fletcher’s, the duo only have one recorded head-to-head, which the Guernseyman won after co-incidentally having another close brush with a nine-darter.
The remaining line-up is yet to be announced but Nick Ogier, the current CI champion, is a formidable prospect for Sark.
Beyond his individual ambitions, Fletcher will join Jason Allez in a promising men’s pairing and also watch daughter Gigi, 14, become the youngest inter-island competitor as she plays mixed triples with Mike Ogier and Adie Exall.
