John Lowe believes he still has a chance of snatching an unlikely Betfred.com League of Legends semi-final place after belatedly opening his winning account in the competition last week.
The 63-year-old from Chesterfield ended a run of four straight defeats with a 7-2 success against Bobby George in Reading and will arrive at the penultimate round-robin event at Bridlington on Friday with his hopes of qualifying still mathematically alive.
Results in other matches will have to go Lowe's way if he is to be part of the main action on finals night at the Circus Tavern, Purfleet on August 22, but 'Old Stoneface' is convinced he can keep up the momentum when he faces 'Big' Cliff Lazarenko in the East Yorkshire seaside resort.
"I'm up and kicking now, even though I'm still joint bottom of the table," said Lowe, whose final match of the league phase will be against his big 1980s rival Eric Bristow in Stoke on August 15.
"I'm really up for it against Big Cliff, who is my very best mate, and if I can win my last two matches I may just sneak into the last four with six points."
The Betfred.com League of Legends is the first darts tournament being held at the famous Spa venue in Bridlington since it reopened in May following redevelopment, with the prestigious Winmau World Masters due to return there later in the year.
All eight players retain a chance of reaching the semi-finals but Lazarenko, currently fifth in the table, is capable of eliminating Lowe, Eric Bristow and Bobby George in one fell swoop by avoiding defeat on Friday.
Yet despite back-to-back victories, the Wellingborough professional is taking nothing for granted when he comes up against Lowe.
"We all know John Lowe isn't the sort of player to lie down," said Lazarenko. "I think the other seven players all expected that somewhere along the line John would do the business and he did a number on Bobby last week. I think his pride had been hurting.
"Bob Anderson is top of the table and should be fairly safe to qualify, but it's far from over for the other three spots and nobody knows who will get through. That's healthy for the tournament."
Anderson can clinch his semi-final spot by beating Bristow in the opening match, while either Peter Evison, Dave Whitcombe or even both of them could find themselves sweating on their qualification prospects depending on the outcome of their clash.
Lazarenko and Keith Deller hold the keys to whether any of the three big names at the bottom of the pile can progress and if that duo lose both their remaining contests, it could open the door for a late surge by one of Bristow, George and Lowe.
Schedule of play on night six of the Betfred.com League of Legends at The Spa, Bridlington (all matches to be screened live on Setanta Sports, TV coverage begins at 7pm):
Bob Anderson v Eric Bristow
Peter Evison v Dave Whitcombe
Cliff Lazarenko v John Lowe
Keith Deller v Bobby George
by Jon Wilde 06/08/2008 BACK TO TOP ^ |
