STEPH CLARKE did not just close the WADC Winmau Championship North. She owned it. At Middlesbrough Sports Village on Sunday she won Event 11, reached the final of Event 12, and finished the twelve-event series at the head of the qualification table.
An ADC Global Championship place is hers. So is the right to say she was the player of the North tour.Event 11 was the one that told you who she is. Clarke trailed Vicky Pruim 4-1 in the final and still found a way home.
Four legs down against one of the most consistent players on the circuit is usually the end of the afternoon. Clarke treated it as an invitation.
She completed the comeback, took the title, and moved to the top of the standings. It was her second crown of the weekend after Saturday’s Event 10 win, and her fourth of the North campaign.
Event 12 asked something different. Clarke went all the way again, beating Liz Humphries in the semi-finals, but Natalie Gilbert was waiting in the final. Gilbert won 5-3 and, with that result, climbed into second place by a single point. Both women now go through to the ADC Global Championship.
Clarke had already done the heavy lifting. A runner-up finish on the last event of the year was not a fall. It was confirmation.
That is the shape of her season in the North. She won when she had to, came back when she was supposed to be beaten, and still had enough left to reach another final a few hours later.
The table at the close of play put her first on points, first on legs difference, and among the highest averages of the leading group. The top two qualify for the Globals.
The top eight make the Winmau Championship Tour Finals in Portsmouth in November. Clarke is not waiting on anyone else’s result.
Middlesbrough has been her stage all year. On the final Sunday it made her the table-topper.
WADC Winmau Championship North — Final Standings (Top )
Top four qualify for the ADC Global Championship. Top eight qualify for the Winmau Championship Tour Finals.
Images: ADC
