Brendan Dolan was back in form at the weekend
BELCOO darter Brendan Dolan is hitting the tops again.
The Fermanagh thrower finished runner up to Michael Van Gerwen in Sunday’s Speedy Services UK Open qualifiers in Crawley.
It was a wonderful achievement for Dolan, eventually losing 6-2 to Van Gerwen who is in top form at present, winning a weekend double.
The 23-year-old Dutch star wrote his name into the history books alongside the likes of Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld and Adrian Lewis with the double success as he continued his run of form with another superb day of darts.
Having also won the final Players Championship of 2012, the Dutchman has now won three ProTour events in succession, and including the opening three weeks of the McCoy’s Premier League Darts is now unbeaten in his last 19 games.
The Dutchman raced into a 2-0 lead against Dolan in the final with legs of 15 and 14 darts before the Northern Irish ace punished a missed double 16 by hitting back in the third leg, following an earlier 180 with double ten.
Dolan, though, missed four darts to level the game in the next leg as van Gerwen posted double ten before hitting a 13-darter and a 68 finish in moving 5-1 up.
Dolan took out 84 to stay in the contest, but van Gerwen secured the win by finishing 114 on double top.
“It’s amazing because not a lot of people have won two tournaments in one weekend, so it’s a good achievement,” said van Gerwen. “I’m feeling very proud of myself at the moment and it’s so tough.
“Brendan had just beaten Raymond in the semi-finals and it’s never easy to beat him, but I did what I needed to do. I played good darts on both days, and I want to keep this going now.”
Dolan takes home £3,000 as runner-up and also secured his place in the top 32 of the rankings for June’s Speedy Services UK Open televised finals in Bolton, where he will enter at the third round stage in ‘The FA Cup of Darts’.
Dolan’s successes on the day culminated in a fine semi-final victory over Raymond van Barneveld, who was punished for failing to close out the win with missed doubles in the final two legs as the Northern Irish ace came from 5-4 down to edge victory.
He also overcame former UK Open champion Roland Scholten, Matthew Medhurst, Saturday’s runner-up Dave Chisnall, young Welshman Jamie Lewis, Stuart Kellett and Ronnie Baxter on the day.