RICH Corner continued his dominance of the Streamline Taxis York Open Darts Championship with a stage four victory over Liverpool’s Joey Palfreyman.

Mitre player Corner threw 12 and 13-dart legs on his way to the final, as well as two 180s.

Palfreyman, meanwhile, included a checkout of 106 to set up his contest against Corner in the York Darts Promotions event organised in association with Red Dragon Darts.

In the final, Corner made the biggest possible statement of intent, starting the first leg with a maximum and closing it on bull for 15 darts.

Palfreyman took one more dart to claim the next leg before Corner charged 4-1 ahead in the best-of-nine clash. But the Merseysider bounced back to reduce the deficit to 4-3, including a 180 during a 14-dart leg, before he then wasted a chance to level the scores by missing four shots at double ten.

Corner capitalised in impressive fashion, taking out 122 with 18, treble 18 and bull to pick up his second stage winner’s prize of £200 and another 20 ranking points.

Hull’s Lewis Kirk and Jason Esteve, of Leeds, were the beaten semi-finalists, securing 12 ranking points each and £50 in cash.

Other quick games in the earlier rounds saw Terry Temple win a match with 18, 18 and 13-dart legs, while Paul Cooper hit two 14-dart legs and Michael Clancey took out 103 for 18 darts.

Maximums, meanwhile, were thrown by Jaro Nemeth, Jo Hodges, Barry Balaban, Paul Botterill and John Quantock with more ton-plus checkouts recorded by Cindy Roberts (105), Kirk (108) and Esteve (136, 106).

In the blind pairs’ competition, Kev Winterburn and Lutz Leutzsch defeated Shane Warrick and Carl Forrington in the final.

The next stage of the York Open Championship series will be held on Saturday at Huntington WMC with registration closing at 11.30am on the day.

At the same venue on the same day, the YDP’s first youth event will also be open to players aged 21 and under. Proof of ID will be required with registration closing at 1.30pm.

The YDP now have Mobile Motors, Barker Travel, The Castle Howard Ox, Melbourne Pubs, Huntington Property Services and Ellis Patents Rillington as board sponsors.

Anybody else interested in sponsorship opportunities should email neilhartydp@hotmail.co.uk or phone Neil Hart on 07921 128063.

Darts standings

Streamline Taxis York Open Darts Championship standings after four stages (all players from York unless stated): 1 Rich Corner stages played 4, points 68; 2 Mark Hartley 3, 34; 3 Lewis Kirk (Hull) 3, 28; 4 Barry Balaban (Bridlington) 4, 26; 5 Steve Atkin 3, 23; 6 Dave Scaum 4, 20; 7 Steve Simpson 4, 19; 8 Tommy Heron (Malton) 4, 17; 9 Joey Palfreyman 1, 16 (Liverpool), Doug Park (Hull) 1, 16; Stuart Ireland (County Durham) 3, 16; Lutz Leutzsch (Germany) 3, 16, Paul Dixon 4, 16; 14 Terry Temple (Whitwell-on-the-Hill) 3, 15, John Quantock 4, 15; 16 Stuart Monaghan (Leeds) 3, 14; 17 Jason Esteve (Leeds) 2, 13, David Lord 3, 13, Kevin O’Hara (Beverley) 3, 13, Andy Rennie 4, 13; 21 Nick Harteveld 3, 12; 22 Russ King 3, 10; 23 Wayne Woodhouse (Ferrybridge) 2, 9, Trevor Holtby (Hull) 3, 9, Mark Miller 3, 9, Rich Plummer 4, 9, Anthony Wort (Leeds) 4, 9; 28 Carl Forrington (Humberside) 1, 8, Paul Cooper 1, 8; 30 Jo Hodges 3, 7, Paul Curry 3, 7, David Horsefield (Richmond) 4, 7, Jaro Nemeth 4, 7.