Renowned darts star John Lowe to play against customers of a new sports bar in Bridlington's Brunswick Hotel

Darts hero John Lowe, also known as '‘Old Stoneface’, will be kick-starting the opening of a new sports bar in Bridlington.

One of the all-time heroes of world darts, ‘Old Stoneface’ John Lowe, MBE, is the main draw of a new season of darts and pool at Bridlington’s The Brunswick Hotel.

The hotel has recently unveiled a refurbished sports bar as part of a full renovation of the property.

Fourteen customers will have the chance of a game against John Lowe, with names drawn out of a hat on the night of Thursday, October 12 as part of a free-to-attend event open to the general public.

Bev Wynn, right, and Bob Palmer, left, testing out one of their new pool tables in the refurbished sports bar.

This popular Bridlington pub and hotel has had one of its main bars renovated, with new furniture, decoration and lighting, and an original upstairs dining room now converted into the fully dedicated sports bar.

Plans are also in place to renovate the hotel’s ten bedrooms and en-suite facilities. The upstairs sports bar has four professional-standard darts boards and two high quality pool tables in a room that has undergone several weeks’ decoration- including new wall panelling, lighting and flooring.

Bev Wynn, landlord of The Brunswick Hotel- who runs the pub in conjunction with Harrison Leisure- said: “We are so excited and honoured to have John Lowe here with us to launch our new sports bar and season of pub sports.

“From now on, we expect to have busy nights of casual, league and team darts and pool, all taking place in a modern, new room with some great new beers, hand-pulled real ales, an extensive range of spirits and gins and a new wine list.”

Fourteen customers will have the chance of a game against John Lowe, with names drawn out of a hat on the night of October 12, at The Brunswick Hotel, Bridlington.

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Bob Palmer, front of house manager, said: “John Lowe will be forever famous in the darts world as being the first player to score a nine-dart 501 finish on TV back in 1984 and is a three-times world champion across three decades.

“We expect this to be very popular, and act as a benchmark for where we want The Brunswick Hotel to be with fun, entertaining and memorable sports and leisure events.”

Pitting their darts skills against the three times world champion, there will be two sessions of seven matches for fourteen lucky customers, with the two sessions split by an informal talk and question and answer session with Old Stoneface.

The Brunswick Hotel will be used as a venue for various darts and pool related events throughout the year, including the inaugural Harrison Leisure Open Darts Competition on Saturday, October 14.

The Amateur Darts Competition league will also be using The Brunswick Hotel as a venue on Wednesday evenings between mid-September and April.

Michael Harrison, owner of Harrison Leisure, said: “We really want to grow the business here in Bridlington as we can’t just let the negative impact of austerity, Covid, Brexit, inflation and energy price rises takeover and prevent us from investing in our futures, the futures of our businesses, the people here and the communities we live in.

“That’s why we are investing, for a better future for us all, for The Brunswick Hotel, for its regular and new customers, for the local people of Bridlington and East Yorkshire as well as for our visitors.”