THE top five players tightened their grip on a top-seven finish in the Weymouth ADC League by going unbeaten all night on week seven.

Andy Masters put the pressure on the top two by winning both his matches quite comfortably 4-0 against Wayne Jordan and then 4-1 against Simon Sharpe.

Masters, who started the season with a string of surprising draws, has now settled in and is now commanding games like he was expected to from the beginning.

Before losing to Masters in his final match, Sharpe drew 3-3 with Trevor Honnor and lost his first match to Simon Churchill 4-0.

Sharpe, who started the season with so much promise, has found it hard to get a win in the last couple weeks pushing him further away from that top-seven finish everyone so dearly wants.

Leader Andrew McDermott was once again was in top form dropping just one leg all evening.

Nigeria Davis caused the leader some problems in their first match taking the lead before McDermott took over, winning the next four legs.

Desperately wanting a county call-up, McDermott did not let Mel Gregg in at all beating bottom of the pile 4-0 in his final match and showing why he deserves his chance at county.

Waiting to pounce on any slip-up from McDermott is second-placed Danny Aplin doing all he can on the night winning 4-0 against Chris Stones and 4-2 against Paul Dormer.

Aplin was untroubled from Stones who did not score well at all but being two up against Dormer took his foot off the pedal and let his opponent in to wrack up the next two legs.

Both trading blows, it was Aplin who kept his nerve and went on to take the next two and win the match.

Stones finished the evening with a very good draw against fourth-placed Churchill, finding his big scores again and leading 3-2 before Churchill took the sixth leg for the draw.

Churchill continued his good form starting the evening with a convincing 4-0 win over Sharpe.

Playing the best darts, Churchill has found a new lease of life in this singles league and is now one of the favourites for the title.

Mel Burton won both his games on the night and was involved in arguably one of the games of the season against the ever-surprising Dave Butler.

Burton took the match 4-2 but, with both players hitting 15-dart legs, a 180 each and Butler matching the current highest shot-out 164 on the bull, neither player would have complained if it had ended a draw.

It was a case of after the lord mayor’s show for Butler because after his 164 he started the fourth leg with a score of one.

Trevor Honnor missed too many chances in his first match against Burton, losing 4-1.

Honnor, who took the 1,001 shot-out in 36 darts, is sitting mid-table and will want to improve massively when entering the second phase of fixtures in a couple weeks.

Mark Samways escaped with a 4-1 over Paul Paice. Out of four out of the five legs, Paice was on a double while Samways was way back near the 300-mark to steal every leg and claim the win.

Paice, who was still affected by his first match after being two-nil up against Gregg only to go 3-2 down just could not hit his doubles. However, he did manage to take the last leg and gain a draw.

Adam Mckay, whose scoring has eluded him of late, drew both his matches 3-3, a good point against Samways in his first match, Mckay then drew his next with Burton.

Burton might not be getting the results he wants but is forever smiling and really enjoying the league format.

There were 11 180s in total on the night and two 110+ check-outs

180s: Paul Paice (2), Trevor Honnor (2), Danny Aplin, Andy Masters, Simon Churchill, Dave Butler, Mel Burton, Chris Stones, Andrew McDermott

100+ checkouts: Dave Butler 164, Adam McKay 100