THE thrilling Embassy final narrowly lost by East Lancs player Ronnie Baxter has helped cement claims that the tournament remains the cream of darts contests.

Supporters of the Skol World Darts Championship, recently held at Purfleet, will dispute that and say that in Phil Taylor, their champion who has two Embassy and five Skol world titles to his credit, they have the best player in the sport.

But, of far greater importance, is the fact that the British Darts Organisation, the ruling body who run the Embassy, can claim that their strength in depth is so much greater to the rival world championship run by the Professional Darts Corporation.

Only five players at Purfleet had an average above 30 per dart in the first round. The Embassy had 19. The lowest average by anyone in the Embassy in the entire week was the 27.52 achieved by England's Tony Littleton in his first round match.

Seventeen players in the first round alone at Purfleet threw below this average and though Skol can probably boast that they have five of the top 10 players in the world their rank and file members cannot compare to those at Frimley Green.

People might argue that averages do not decide darts matches and statistics can be twisted but the Embassy has had a far higher standard of play for the past five years and some statistics do not lie.

And last night's final proved that point.

Baxter, the world number two, against Ray Barneveld, world number one and reigning champion, was the final everyone had wanted and the hype was justified as both men produced a classic. It lasted just under two hours, yielded 15 maximum 180s, a string of big finishes, countless twists and turns and a dramatic finale which had a capacity 1,500 crowd on its feet.

Rapid-fire Baxter, known as the Rocket for the speed of his throw, certainly had nothing to be ashamed about after signing off with such a stir on his eighth and most successful tilt at the championship.

He had dropped only four sets in his first four matches, averaged a phenomenal 32 per dart and carried on in a similar treble trouncing vein against Barneveld.

Baxter rattled off the first two sets to silence Barneveld's hugely vocal orange army of supporters, but he dropped the third as the holder fought back. But in the final leg of a tense fourth set, Baxter checked out on 119 to send girlfriend Rachel and the rest of his fan club wild with delight.

But back came the former postman from the Hague who took the next three sets to go 4-3 ahead and the Lancashire star was reeling - or so everyone thought. But if Baxter was rattled then he didn't show it as he blasted through the next two sets without even dropping a leg and now it was Barneveld's turn to fret.

But there were still more twists. Barneveld took the next set in 14, 14 and 13 breathtaking darts to set up the decider. The first four legs were shared after Barneveld had missed three championship darts to give Baxter a lifeline.

But Barney made it 3-2 in legs and it was all settled in the sixth when Baxter hit a maximum 180, followed immediately by a Barneveld maximum - his record 39th of the week - and after Baxter missed a double top to keep the match alive, the holder put out 52 to bring the curtain down on a remarkable showpiece.

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