The 2012 Men’s World Masters final was contested by No.1 Seed Stephen Bunting and No.7 Seed Tony O’Shea to provide a mouth-watering 13 set finale of the 39th Winmau World Masters. The only guarantee being that there would be a new Men’s World Masters name engraved on the famous trophy…….Game On!
Stephen started the better of the two as he won the opening 2 legs and the set courtesy of Tony leaving a single 3 and being unable to hit the d-1.
Stephen then took the first set before Tony levelled at one set apiece. Stephen went ahead again at 2-1 but in a ding-dong battle Tony checked out on 72 to make it 2-2 at the first interval.
Stephen won the first leg after the break and then hit 126 to win the next and go 3-2 ahead. Tony won the first 2 legs of the next set to level again at 3-3. Tony’s second 180 of the match wasn’t enough to win the 1st leg of the 7th set and Stephen then won the next to move ahead 4-3. But Tony came back yet again to take the 1st leg of the next. Stephen hit his 2nd maximum of the match to level 1-1 in legs and followed it with his third 180 before checking out on d-18 to go into the second interval 5-3.
Once again Stephen was first to win the opening leg after the break, but Tony hit another 180 in the next. However, it wasn’t enough to stem the high scoring of Stephen who then went 6-3 ahead – just 2 legs away from the title. Tony wasn’t out of it as he hit yet another 180 – only to see Stephen hit a 180 of his own. The score was now 6-4.
The opening leg of the 11th set went in Stephen’s favour and a fantastic 146 checkout gave the No.1 Seed a famous 7-4 victory. It was his first major title and he has now become the first man to win both the Boys Masters title in 2001 and now the Men’s Masters title in 2012
Julie Gore, the 2010 Women’s World Master won the 1st leg of the final with a bull finish and then took the next with tops before making it a hat-trick of legs before Deta, who last won the title in 1994, got a leg back to make it 3-1.
A 180 in the 5th leg got her to match dart – she missed at the first ask, but not the next to be crowned 2012 Women’s World Master by a score of 4-1.
In addition to the live coverage by ESPN for the 2012 Winmau World Masters, BBC Worldwide have secured coverage on ESPN3 USA, ESPN Live and ESPN On Demand, in addition to live coverage on Eurosport and Eurosport Asia of the Men’s Semi-Finals and the Men’s and Women’s Finals.
Yorkshire’s two finest darts players, Scott Waites (No.4 Seed) and Dean Winstanley (No.2 Seed) were the perfect opponents for a Winmau World Masters final held at the Hull Arena in their native county.
180. And then a 61 checkout for the next and a commanding 4-1 lead. Dean hit a 180 in the deciding leg of the 6th set, and Scott did the same, but Dean was back in business with a 140 checkout to make it 4-2 before Scott came back to make it 5-2 and just two away from victory and even closer when he went 6-2 up at the second break.
Golden Girl TRINA GULLIVER opened her account in typically determined style as she took the opening leg against England colleague Lisa Ashton, but she faltered on an unfancied double 7 in the next and Lisa hit back by taking the next two legs when Trina again stumbled on double 5. A strangely out of sorts Trina just couldn’t find the form that has made her so dominant in the women’s game, and it was Lisa Ashton who was crowned 2011 Winmau World Women’s Master with an impressive 4-1 victory.
