ANDREW McDermott now has a target on his back at the top of the table, as reigning champion Sam Ward produced four fantastic wins to close the gap on the leader with games in hand.

Trevor Honnor, who ended the night having played five matches due to an early season injury, was first up to test McDermott and very nearly produced a victory.

With both missing doubles to go into the lead, it was McDermott who hit double 10 and a sigh of relief knowing a draw was the minimum result, before Honnor took the next leg and the 3-3 draw.

A more straight forward 4-0 victory in his last match of the night over Simon Sharpe saw McDermott stay the man to beat.

Ward won 16 legs for with just three against and he hit two 180s and a 121 checkout on the bull, two 13 and a 12-dart-leg saw him make light work of what at the start of the night looked on a paper a very tricky night at the oche.

Opening up with a 4-0 success over Jordan Caughlin, Ward ended with 4-1 wins over Andy Masters, Mark Long and Danny Aplin.

Despite defeat to Ward in their last match, a 4-2 win with a 106-checkout over Chris Burton saw Aplin hold on to second spot by one point above third-placed Mel Burton.

Adding another 180 to his tally, Burton ended his 4-1 win over Honnor with a fantastic 13-dart-leg, and a 4-1 victory over Adam McKay made it maximum points from Burton’s two matches.

Another playing with real intent over the last couple weeks is Mark Samways, as he won all of his matches for the second week running.

Samways’ toughest win on the night came in his 4-2 triumph over Andy Masters, with the score 3-2 in Samways’ favour a last leg that saw both players hit four hundreds, it was Samways who had the first poke at a double and sealed it at the first time of asking and the win.

Two 180s in the same leg from Matty Betts against Samways didn’t stop the in-form thrower going on to win this contest 4-1.

With Andy Masters firmly in a play-off spot as expected, he opened up with a 4-1 success over Paul Paice.

Paice, a player who is sitting just outside the play-off spots, did little wrong in this match but came away kicking himself in his second match.

When leading Dave Butler 3-0, Paice hit a 140-out-shot but was far from home and dry with the points as Butler terrier like dug in a came away with the most unlikely of draws.

Recovering from the set back of losing a 3-0 lead, Paice managed to claim a great 4-1 win in his final match of the night over Caughlin.

Just above Paice and still with games in hand, Simon Churchill hit five perfect darts just wiring the sixth in his last leg against Chris Stones on the way to claiming the 4-1 success.

It was a great night for Churchill overall as he won all his matches starting with a 4-0 whitewash on fourth-placed Arnie Quinn.

If it wasn’t for missed doubles from Scott Gannon, Churchill’s 4-2 win in their match could have quite easily been the other way round.

Seventh and eighth-placed Paul Dormer and Drew Tweedy both came through their respective matches with two wins each.

Dormer beat Gannon and Wayne Jordan 4-0 while Tweedy opened up with a 4-0 success over Sharpe before ending with a 4-1 win over Chris Burton.

In between an opening draw with McDermott and a defeat to Burton, Honnor managed two more 3-3 draws against Mark Long who hit a 100-shot-out and Stew Masters, before suffering a 4-2 defeat to Butler.

After his superb display last week, Stew Masters opened up from where he left off, as he had two 16-dart-legs in his 4-0 win over the luckless Gannon.

Highlights from other matches saw Sean Lampard beat in-form Nathan Smith 4-2 and then start his match against Stones with a 134-shot-out before eventually going down 4-1.

Stones produced a fantastic comeback in his opening match trailing 3-0 to Smith, to seal a 3-3 draw before ending the night with a 4-1 win over Betts.

Despite defeat to Aplin in his opening match, Chris Burton came away from his next two matches with a draw and a win.

Leading McKay 3-2, Burton threw away a handful of match doubles letting in McKay for the draw. However, he made no mistake in his final match as Burton beat Jordan 4-1 in their final contest.

180s: Ward (2), Aplin (2), Churchill (2), Betts (2), Smith, Stones, C.Burton, M.Burton, Masters, Caughlin

100+ Checkouts: Paice 140, Lampard 134, Ward 121, Aplin 106, Long 100

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