On behalf of England Darts and personally I would like to say how overwhelmed we are with the news that our Ladies International Captain and Executive Deta Hedman has been awarded the Order of the British Empire in the Kings honour list today.

Without doubt an overdue recognition of not only Deta’s incredible record of World Ranked Championsips, but just as important all the time and effort Deta has involved herself in for many years in the “Heart of Darts” charity, just one of many initiatives she has helped to assist the less fortunate in our society.

Recently as England launched our England Youth Grand Prix, Deta has been in the forefront of raising funds which leads to enabling our Youth players to compete across the World at World and Europe Cups.

All of the above whilst holding down full time employment with the Post Office. Personally I very proud to be her friend for over 30 years and witnessing how hard working Deta is, and how approachable she has been to everyone during the competitions.

Recently the Lady players of the World Darts Federation elected her to be their representative when dealing and protecting their best interest.

Well done Deta Hedman take a bow, you are a legend.

Tommy Thompson
Chairman England Darts

The raiders from north of the border scooped up the England Open Titles, with Sophie McKinlay taking the Ladies Title from Paige Pauling of England and Jim McEwan lifting the Men’s title against England International Chas Barstow and in the process recorded the top average of the festival with 107.

This wasn’t to be the end of Jim’s efforts of the weekend as he also took the England National Singles Title with a win over “Superman” Matt Clark.

The Ladies National singles continued Deta Hedman’s incredible haul of Word Ranking titles with a superb display against Wales’s Eve Watson, Deta beginning the match with consecutives 180’s and Eve producing a fine performance along with hitting three in her match.

The boys final was yet another fabulous game as Mason Teese and Scotland’s Mitchell Lawrie shared to opening 8 legs, with Mason with the advantage of the throw in the decider just coming out as the winner.

The girls final saw Ruby Grey hoping to defend her title against Kacie O’Conner who went into a 4-1 lead, only to see the title ripped from her as Ruby ran in with the last 4 legs and indeed retained her title.

The Men’s Pairs was won by Davie Prins and Mathew Hodgson 3-1 over Sam Palmer and John Bramble.
The Ladies Pairs went to Deta Hedman & Anca Ziljstra over teenagers Sophie McKinlay & Paige Pauling 3 – 0.
The fun mixed pairs was won by Nick Fulwell/Cayden Smith/Lee-May Dolloway.

The England National Trials as usual opened up the weekend with guaranteed places into 2026 International Team. None of the 2025 teams are guaranteed to be selected for 2026 that is why the Trial was introduced to give everyone a chance of attaining this prestigious place. Some terrific matches during the day saw current Internationals retaining their place next year with Deta Hedman and Jarred Cole victorious.

A terrific weekend of darts once again at the iconic White Horse in Selsey, the event attracted a 30% increase in support from last September. There was 11 events during the three days and all were featured on Darts Connect for our first time, this was a learning curve for our staff, but now that is done, we can move forward to next Octobers England Classic at Selsey with confidence.

Thanks to all our hard working officials, and everyone who attended and Staff and management of Seal Bay for all their assistance in allowing us to use their facilities at Selsey.

Tommy T

The Grand Finals of the England Open and National Singles will start at 5.00pm today