YORK’S Lutz Leutzsch was whitewashed 5-0 by Cleveland county player Kenny Dobson in the stage three final of the Streamline Taxis York Open Darts Championship.

Dobson hit 19, 15 and 17-dart legs, followed by a 180 score for 14 and a 120 finish for 15 darts, as he averaged 93.94 to beat a shell-shocked Leutzsch (ave 80.24) in the climax to the York Darts Promotions event held at Huntington WMC.

A bull, bull, double-16 for a 132 finish for 12 darts and an 11-dart leg had earlier seen Leutzsch emerge from the semi-finals as the in-form player after a 4-3 defeat of fellow Minsterman Paul Cooper.

Cooper, meanwhile, defeated Huddersfield’s Steve Hattersley 3-1 with 14 and 15 darts in the last eight.

Dobson beat Jim Gordon, of Scarborough, 4-1 in the other semi and tamed York’s Quentin Mcmaster 3-0 with a 102 checkout for 18 darts and a 106 finish for 15 in the quarter-final.

Other quarter-final results saw Leutzsch defeat Mark Hartley (York) 3-2 and Gordon hit a 132 finish to level 2-2 with Neil Hart (York) after the latter had missed nine doubles. Gordon then fired off 140, 180 for 16 darts to take the decider.

At the round-robin stages, Dobson set the standard in group one defeating Barry Ballaban 3-1 with 15, 16 and 18, including two 180s.

Daniel Lidgett (17) and Oliver Mitchell (16) showed glimpses of form and Colin Hendry hit legs of 19, 16, 17 and 18 before going down 3-0 to Dobson in the group one final.

Mcmaster, who earlier hit 16 and a 180 score for 11 darts, won group two, beating Rab McKenzie (21) 3-1 with two 17-dart legs.

Hart won group three with 17-16-21 in a 3-0 victory over Steve Mann, who had earlier thrown a 180.

Richard Heathcote (16), Steve Silver (120 and 132 finishes) and Dave Lord (180) were the best of the rest.

Gordon starred in group four with legs of 15, 16, 17, 18 and 13 before defeating Dave Scaum 3-2 in the final, adding a 14-dart leg to his impressive list.

In group five, Paul Bulmer took out 17 and 18 and a 142 finish for 12 and then hit 16 and 18 darts, plus two 180s, before going down 3-2 to Leutzsch (16-20-15) in the final.

Mark Hartley produced legs of 16, 18, 19, 20 and 16 to win group six, beating Stuart Ireland (180) 3-0 en route to the quarters, while Jason Day contributed a 19-dart leg and a maximum.

Cooper claimed the highest checkout of the day with his 157 finish coming in the group seven final against Jonathan Crossland.

In group eight Mark Helliwell (17) and Hattersley (16), who beat Alex Render 3-1 in the final, both enjoyed rapid legs.

Colin Hendry, meanwhile, hit a 108 finish while further 180s were scored by Martin Wilson, Hart and Trevor Holtby.

Stage four of the Open Championship, organised in association with Red Dragon Darts, will be on Saturday, March 30 at Huntington WMC. Registration closes at 12.30pm.

Further information is available by phoning Neil Hart on 07921 128063.