Battle of the Legends 2006

LOWE v BRISTOW
Battle Of The Legends - The Event.......

SEE THE POSTER OF THE EVENT HERE>>

Friday 22nd September 2006, 9pm, a full house at Exit Palace, John Lowe enters stage left to a rapturous applause to play 4 guest dart players including Jose the President of the Spanish Darts Federation.
John is absolutely clinical as he wins all his matches without dropping a leg.

It is Eric Bristows first trip to Tenerife and the noise is deafening as he is introduced on stage. There are some good players lned up to play Eric including Colin Bristow (no relation) and Graham from TLP who unfortunately is not at his best tonight.
There is one place left to play Eric, which is auctioned off for charity, and bought by Darren from Superior Foods for 240 euros (donated to K9).
Darren puts up the best fight against Eric and managed to win a leg, but was finally beaten - even though it was his birthday!

For the darts league, the crunch match was John Lowe v Calum McRorie - The Re-match!
The match lived upto all expectations with 180's flying in from both players, and superb finishing from the winner - John Lowe.
Old Stone Face had vowed to win and kept his word with a superb display of world standard darts.

The main event did not disappoint........Lowe v Bristow.........the best of 19 legs!
This was a trip back down memory lane to when darts was at its dizzy peak in the late 80's.

Lowe and Bristow were clinical in their scoring and put on an incredible show for the crowd with Lowe winning 10-5 although the match was closer than the score suggests.

During their final speeches, both players expressed their gratitude to everyone but especially Oasis Fm and look forward to the Battle of the Legends in 2007!

JOHN LOWES DIARY OF EVENTS..........
We asked John to keep notes of his trip to Tenerife for the Battle of the Legends event, this is his record of what happened:
"We arrived in Tenerife on Wednesday, our accommodation was: The Hollywood Mirage in Los Cristianos, this is a five star resort and it deserves everyone of them, Eric and his lady friend Heidi decided to have an early night, I had arranged to meet with friends from the Uk at the Summer Night, it was 9-30 before we all met up, it was in the early hours before we left, good intentions go out of the window very fast in Tenerife and John Websters hospitality at the Summer Nights is becoming legendary.

We are still up early Thursday, we have to be at Radio Oasis Fm to do a live interview to promote the big event at 10am, Roscoe the radio DJ is on good form, his opinions are on a high and the listeners are hanging on the end of the speakers, and clutching their phones, the interview runs smoothly, we meet all the staff and leave around 11am, with only a little over 24 hours to show time we decide we should put in an hour or two practise, I have spoken before about my new found darts bar in Los Cristianos, so I guess you now know all about: The Beer Engine and it’s Coventry born owner Loz, since I last visited he has fixed a small camera onto the darts light up stairs, now when they play league games the matches can be viewed on all the TV’s in the bar, to make the Beer Engine even more special the dart board is a Unicorn Eclipse Pro, simply: the best.

We have a good session on the board even though we were distracted by Europe playing America in the Ryder cup, (or should I say Europe thrashing America) after the darts we head off to visit another favourite of mine: The Fortuna restaurant, the home of the slow cooked Lamb.

Eric and Heidi were more than impressed with the Fortuna and it’s fine food and were even more impressed with the bill, now we have been fed and watered and it is almost midnight so we call it a day, tomorrow is the big day, the biggest day of darts the Island has ever witnessed.

It’s Friday and we are up quite early, I walk down town to open my email, best wishes from Janet May and Ray to both of us is the first to be opened, many more follow, it seems the news about the match is well known, after a light lunch Eric and myself head off for the Beer Engine and a few hours practise, the girls join us around 6pm, taxi’s are ordered for 7-45 and we set of in numbers for the venue.

The La Hacienda Exit Palace, venue for the match has a real buzz about it when we arrive, many people are busy getting the bars ready, the lighting man is running up and down ladders fixing the spots, Chris Elkington, the Oasis Fm owner is checking the walk on music and making sure the cameras are correctly positioned (he’s a perfectionist) to show the darts and the players on the two big screens, the only people that do not seem fazed by the occasion are Eric and myself, well I guess we have been there many times, but we do know the nerves will appear when Roscoe calls: Show Time.

At this time we are not aware that Chris has put together an amazing introduction for the big match, we think it is just walk on music with the girls, what a surprise we are in for, first it’s the audience participation, Eric takes on two people drawn out from the ticket sales, then he plays three league players of good standing over matches of 501 best of three, he is undefeated.

I take the stage and play a lady, a young lady, to say she was not very good at darts would be an understatement but she was dressed in way that would distract the best, it did not work, not for the lack of trying on my behalf, she just could not play, and I tell everyone darts is an easy game!!

After a couple more matches it’s time for the match the Island has been waiting for, the rematch between Callum Mcorie, the Island champion and myself, Callum beat me at the league presentation night in May, I was convinced tonight would be my night, the local bookmaker was offering 3/1 on Callum, I tried to get him to give me 2/1 on myself, no luck, I was 1 / 2 on.

The match was to be played over the best of 11 legs 501, I win the bull and take the first leg in 15 darts, I take the second in 14, Callum then produces the first 180 of the night, two throws later and I follow him with a maximum, Callum wins the leg, I then go into a 5 legs to 1 lead, only one leg needed to win the match, Callum hits another 180 and wins the 7th leg, I step up a gear knowing he senses he can pull the match back, 140 followed by another 140, 135, and 86 finish is good enough and the match score is 6 – 2. Hand shakes follow and congratulations from both of us, I know Callum is capable of getting better, much better, Callum also knows that and instantly reminds me, it’s now one match each, I guess that’s a challenge I cannot resist.

We have a break from the darts while George King entertains the audience with his own brand of humour.

It’ midnight and the big match is about to begin, Eric and myself are standing at the entrance to the auditorium a walk on girl on either arm, we await our own individual music, mine: “Smoke on the Water”, Eric’s “Rocking all over the World”, then we get the surprise of our lives, the room lights go down and the sound goes up, for the next few minutes a presentation on both screens is shown, Chris has put together an amazing pro-mo for the match, I cannot describe it, so click here and enjoy it with us.

Download Intro here>>

We take the stage to a standing ovation; Roscoe can just be seen amidst the smoke from the dry ice machine, we hear him call out “Let the Battle Commence” it’s game on and I come out of the blocks like lightening, 140’s, 100’s, 180’s I am on good form and I know it, Eric kicks back and the match is level at 3-3, I go up a gear like I did against Callum and real off 5 games in a row, Eric hits back again but it’s to no avail, this challenge and the massive trophy that goes with it belongs to me, 10-5 is the final result.

Roscoe introduces us to the audience and Eric first and then myself take the microphone, it’s 1am and time for the last part of the night, the Wild Boyz take over and it’s party time for the next hour, we head home to a night cap and a wind down, a job well done, we sit and reflect over the whole promotion, how professional Chris, Roscoe and the team from Oasis Fm have been throughout, how well the people of the island responded to the event in numbers, the venue was packed, this was the first darts event of such magnitude ever staged on Tenerife, the next one will be eagerly awaited by everyone.

From Eric and myself a Big Big thank you to everyone who made September the 22nd a special night to remember."

Visit John Lowe's website here>>
See pictures of the event in our gallery>>