FORMER world champion Bob Anderson gave a darts masterclass – but he was put in his Place by a local champion.
The Limestone Cowboy, who won the world title in 1988, took on the cream of the crop from the Blackburn Premier League.
And Anderson, who is also the inaugural winner of the Betfred.com League of Legends, beat all before him except for Premier League champion Dave Place and John Phillips whose 152 checkout was the highlight of the evening.
The event was organised by Paul Booth to help raise funds to support local players.
"I am in a fortunate position where I know a lot of the top players and thought this would be a great opportunity for me to put something back in to darts at a local level," said Booth. "What I want to do is to be able to build up a pot of money which players can use to enter competitions while they have self-generating sponsorship to represent Lanc-ashire."
And he said it was such a success, he is hoping to attract more top class players to swell the coffers and help local players compete on the county circuit.
"Bob was absolutely fantastic," added Booth, who was MC for the League of Legends tour. "As you would expect, he was a class act but Dave and John proved that the standard of darts in the area is very high.
"Dave's victory shows just how good he is after winning the Blackburn Premier League title again.
"But he was put in the shade by John whose check-out was the highlight of the night."
Phillips beat Anderson with two treble 20s and a double 16 to bring the house down.
"In fairness to Bob, he was the first to congratulate John," added Paul.
But after the success of Phillips and Place, the remaining Premier League players didn't get a sniff in the one leg 701 showdowns with Ian Lever, Graham Willets, Jeff Baron, Mick Ansbro, Darren Place and his daughter Dannielle – a Lancashire ladies player who was a late replacement for Dougie Smith – all falling to the sublime skills of Anderson.
He also took on a number of the audience who packed in to the St Paul's WMC.
However, the real winner was darts itself as the event raised more than £300.
Former world champion put in put place
