Steve Douglas was a pairs winner.

Tony Cox happy with tenth classic, but has eye on improvements

With the dust barely settling on the tenth Sheppey Darts Classic organiser Tony Cox already has an eye on next year’s event.

While he had hoped this year’s contest would be the best yet, the number of entrants dropped off notably because of a Father’s Day clash, but for Cox it didn’t detract from a great tournament.

He already has ideas about how to improve it for next year, with one sticking point the event’s location at Merlins in Leysdown, which is a distance from the nearest train station.

Cox is considering arranging for a taxi firm to run shuttle buses to and from the station to help swell the crowds.

“It went really well, it was down on numbers on Sunday, which was because of Father’s Day,” he said. “There were 29 who had paid, but didn’t turn up.”

He was hoping that for the first time, the temptation of BDO ranking points would bring in a stellar line-up, but it was hard to tell whether that had made an impact because of those that failed to show.

“We couldn’t see if it made a difference this year because of the problem of absence,” he said.

“We are looking forward to next year, which has been pencilled in for June 8 and 9.”

Shane Burgess, from Hastings, clinched the men’s singles with a 6-1 win over Portsmouth’s Danny Pinhorne, while Clive Barden and Steve Douglas won the pairs competition.