Sam Spivey beats Graham Usher to boost chances of earning PDC Tour card

Both drawn on board 16, they knew that two wins each would secure a tie against each other in the last 32 stage.

Usher was up first, against 2024 ADC Global Champion and South African darting icon Devon Petersen.

It was “The Gambler” that started strongly, opening the show with a 15-dart hold of throw before taking the next two legs to stroll to 3-0 advantage.

Petersen then fired back with his best leg of the contest to hold in 16 darts before Usher was allowed 19 darts to hold in the fifth.

Another solid leg from Petersen followed to keep the pressure on Usher at 4-2, but he responded and took the next two legs to seal his first point of the final stage.

Spivey was then up against Nathan Potter, and in a game where miss doubles really took away the chance of any outstanding statistics, it was Spivey who prevailed 6-4.

In a contest where each player had darts at double in eight of the ten legs played it was Spivey who proved the more clinical, the highlight being a 15 dart hold in leg 5 with a superb 150 checkout. Potter did have legs of 14,16 and 13 darts in the contest and ended with an average almost 5 points higher than Spivey.

With both players past their first game it was again the turn of Usher, this time facing Martin Thomas of Wales in the last 64.

Thomas opened the contest with an impressive 12 darter before being allowed to hold in 25 darts. Usher then seemed to grow into the game, finding back to back legs to level in a combined 29 darts.

He would then reel off the remaining 4 legs to make it back to back 6-2 wins, this one with an average of almost 88 and three 180s.

In the same round Spivey would face Kevin McDine.

Spivey raced into a 4-0 advantage in impressive style before McDine found a foothold in the game with a 14 dart break of throw in leg five.

McDine then held throw in leg six before Spivey responded with a 15-dart hold in leg seven to go to the brink of victory.

McDine would again show his class by responding with his own 15 darter before hold.

But in the end Spivey proved too strong and got over the line 6-3.

This then set up an enticing contest between the two Scarborough aces in the last 32.

With both players already securing a successful day with two points it was a

chance for one to take serious steps towards a tour card.

And it was “Seaside Sam” who took the spoils by 6-2 in a cagey contest. Spivey started well taking the first two legs in 33 darts, before Usher responded taking the next two legs. Back to back 15 darters was enough to see Spivey into a 4-2 lead.

The pivotal point of the game was leg seven where both players missed multiple chances at double before Spivey got over the line in 22 darts.

There was no looking back from Spivey securing a magnificent 12 darter, with a 121 checkout in the final leg of the contest to seal a deserved victory, averaging 87 to Usher’s 81.

Spivey backed this up with a 6-5 win over Shaun Carroll.

Both players averaged 82 do the contest and showed flashes of brilliance each hitting 2 180s.

Spivey showed real metal in a contest where no player lead by more than two legs at any point and in the final leg an 18 dart hold of throw was enough to seal victory with Carroll ready to pounce on 60 to take the match.

Spivey then faced Niall Culleton knowing two more wins would secure him a card automatically.

In a contest of real quality, it was Culleton who took the spoils with a 6-3 victory and an average of almost 99 to Spivey’s 90.

Culleton won five of his six winning legs in five visits to the board or less, often restricting Spivey to 12 darts in each leg. Spivey did battle well and did hit a 116 checkout to get the contest back to 5-3.

But Culleton proved too strong on the day romping home with a 14 dart hold.

Culleton then went on to claim one of the two cards on offer on the day by defeating Danny Goddard, the other card secured by Carl Sneyd, overcoming Steve Lennon in his final match.

This leaves Spivey on seven points for the week, meaning three more points is likely to be enough to secure him a PDC Tour card for the first time.

For Usher, all is far from lost, however sitting on two points he will require strong runs in both of the last two days to keep alive his hopes of securing his tour privileges for a second time.