THE TOP two in the Weymouth ADC League served up a real Christmas feast of darts as there was no separating them in their first meeting of the season.

With the match ending in a 3-3 draw, leader Andrew McDermott and second-placed Danny Aplin both produced some great play that saw every leg taken out in under 20 darts.

Both players hit maximums and clinical finishing on their doubles did not let the other player have a chance of sealing a full house of wins on the night.

Between them they only dropped one leg in their respective matches as McDermott who hit three 180s and won 4-1 against Scott Gannon and then 4-0 against Paul Paice, while Aplin picked up two 4-0 victories in his other matches against Chris Stones and Billy Short.

It was another night where a record number of 180s were hit (21) and third-placed Mel Burton added to that as he had two alongside three more victories.

The wins saw him overcome the resurgent Mark Long 4-2 in a tight affair, and he went on to defeat Dave Butler 4-1 and Nathan Smith 4-0.

A dark horse for the title this year is Drew Tweedy, who once again had three superb wins on the night overcoming very tricky opponents in Jordan Caughlin and Wayne Jordan before then moving level on points with sixth-placed Andy Masters as he took their contest 4-1.

Arnie Quinn slipped down to fourth in the table this week after letting a three-leg lead go in his match with Mark Samways, who was being beaten in every department of this match until suddenly he woke up and took the next three legs.

Quinn managed to pick up only the one win on the night as this came in his 4-1 success over Shaun Lampard before ending the night how he started it, by drawing 3-3 with Chris Stones.

Stewart Masters had his best night of the season so far, as he claimed two wins and a draw, starting off with a comfortable 4-0 over Smith, and Masters then held his nerve to take the winning double in close game with Samways, with the match at 3-2 darts went missing by both before Masters finally sealed it with a double eight for the 4-2 success.

Long did stop Masters claiming three wins as they slugged it out in another 3-3 draw between the pair.

Not letting his opening match defeat to Burton affect him, Long produced one of his best performances so far as he overcame another player playing some great darts in Paul Dormer, eventually winning their match 4-2.

Simon Sharpe joined the double maximum club as he hit two 180s on a night that saw him take another two wins out of three as he carried on from last week’s good results.

His night could have been a lot worse as Jordan eased to a 4-1 victory in their opening match of the night, however, Sharpe regained composure for his next two matches as he found some great darts at times to take two 4-1 wins over Butler and Adam McKay.

McKay struggled once again with defeat to Sharpe, he lost his second match 4-2 to the experienced Short. Two 180s from McKay helped him come out with one victory in the end as he won his contest with Matty Betts 4-2.

Terry Tucker was another player constantly finding the lipstick as he had two 180s himself, a 4-1 loss to Dormer in his opening match was purely down to missed doubles again from Tucker as this score could have been the other way round.

Tucker then found his range at the doubles as he dealt Smith his second loss of the night winning their match 4-2.

Short was changing his darts every leg to find something he was comfortable with, but he found the perfect one when finally gaining a point in his match with Tucker as they drew an entertaining game 3-3.

Short fell in his opening match however, as Paul Paice pipped him 4-2 in a very good scoring match, Paice did let a two-leg lead slip in his second contest, as Chris Burton fought back from 3-1 down and claim the draw.

Burton ended the night in a rather jaded affair with Matty Betts, as neither took advantage of the others poor darts with the draw a fair result on both.

Betts faired better in his second game of the night as he beat Lampard 4-2 which condemned him to his third defeat of the evening.

Nigel Davies won the battle of he basement boys, as he hit a 180 on the way to winning his match 4-2 vs Butler, a game where either player could have won and Butler should have taken the draw but it was Davies who took the points.

Davies did not get away with the missed doubles in his second match, as Gannon took his chances when it was presented to him and as both settled for a 3-3 draw in the end.

Other results on the night saw Caughlin climb into the top 12 as his sudden up turn in form has seen him harder to beat, this was evident in his 4-2 over Jordan and then he finished off with a 4-1 over Lampard.

180s: McDermott (3), Burton (2), Tucker (2), McKay (2), Sharpe (2), Quinn (2), Aplin, Tweedy, Paice, Smith, Betts, Davies, Caughlin, Long

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