Two board finals for Wayne Jones in UK Open

Wolverhampton's Wayne Jones lost two board finals over three of the opening events in the qualifiers for the UK Open at Wigan's Robin Park Centre.

He lost to Vincent van der Voort on Saturday and Dave Chisnall on Sunday after going out in the first round on Friday, where Adrian Lewis took the spoils.

Jones rebounded from a 6-2 defeat to Jamie Guilfoyle in the first event with relative success from then on, although he couldn't make the last 16 on either occasion, writes Craig Birch.

'The Wanderer' opened on Saturday with a 6-3 victory over Shaun Griffiths, before an impressive 6-2 success over world No 8 Robert Thornton.

Another 6-3 scoreline over Dennis Smith set up the board decider against van der Voort, but it was the Dutchman who prevailed comprehensively 6-1.

Jones returned for the third and final time on Sunday and dropped just a leg beating Colin Fowler 6-1, before two successive 6-2 victories over Johnny Haines and Andy Smith respectively.

But a second board final saw him run into Chisnall on top form, a 6-0 whitewash seeing 'Chizzy' record a staggering 118.66 average.

Jones did bank a total of £1,000, picking up £500 for both board final runs, leaving him a useful 32nd in the opening UK Open's Order of Merit but 44th in the Pro Tour standings.

The 49-year-old from Wednesfield is 35th in the overall Order of Merit, but has nearly £12,000 of prize winnings to make up to climb back into the top 32.

Stourbridge's Nick Fullwell also reached a board final on Friday, losing to Brian Woods 6-1 after flying out of the traps in the early stages.

He saw off Dave Ladley 6-4 and two-time BDO World Championship runner-up Ronnie Baxter 6-3, before whitewashing James Wilson 6-0.

He made it £750 for the weekend after a third round run on Saturday, losing to world No 1 and eventual winner Michael van Gerwen 6-2, putting him 42nd in the UK Open standings.

Rugeley's Mark Hylton, Wolverhampton's Dean Stewart and Bloxwich's Matthew Dennant were also in the money, picking up £250 each for reaching the last 64.

Hylton got off the mark yesterday, as did Dennant, with Stewart getting off the mark on Saturday. Van Gerwen again won Sunday's event.

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