OF all of those who came, now just eight remain to vie for the right to become this year’s Evening Mail Darts champion.

Tonight’s Grand Finals Night at Cloud Nine sees seven titans of the tungsten from the Barrow Area final and the winner of the Dalton Area final going head-to-head on the stage for the highly-regarded honour.

Among those are last year’s runner-up and pre-tournament favourite James Kempster, who blew away his opponents without dropping a leg in the quarter and semi-finals in last year’s Grand Final, only to suffer a surprise 4-1 defeat to Paul Harris in the decider.

Another of last year’s Grand Finalists is back for a tilt at the title as well, with Tommy Richardson - another scalp of Harris’ in 2017 - aiming to ensure he goes further than the quarter-finals.

The rest of the field is made up of Luke Shaw, Ross Rimmer, Craig Mansell, Dale Miles, Ian Greaves and Dalton Area final winner Sean Miles.

Tonight’s Grand Finals will take place under the watchful eye of five-time Evening Mail Darts champion John Kane, who has been invited down from Whitehaven by competition organiser Chris Irvine.

Kane will conduct the draw for the quarter-finals once all of the players have registered and present the prizes at the end of the night, with the action is due to get under way at 7.30pm.

Doors open at 6.30pm and admission is £2, which includes a programme.

Chris Irvine’s competitor pen pics

James Kempster (Castle House, Walney): Aged 40, originally from Wrexham and moved to the area back in 2014. Tournament favourite. High-scoring darts player who, if he plays his top game, will take some beating. Won just about every local competition over the past few years and played superbly last week, including an 11-dart leg, to overcome fans’ favourite Barry Twiname

Tommy Richardson (Castle House, Walney): Aged 25. A player who struggles a bit for consistency, but certainly has the game to beat anyone on his day. Won a few competitions in 2014 and showed some good form last week to overcome Keith Moscrop

Ross Rimmer (Tally Ho, Barrow): Aged 27, the current man in form and is playing well. Scores very highly when on his A-game, won the last couple of local competitions and has branched out in Lancashire Super League darts. Ross played well last week to overcome young Tyler Armistead.

Craig Mansell (Castle House, Walney): Aged 35, Craig is new onto the scene and has done brilliantly. He would say himself getting here has shocked him as much as anyone. But Craig did excel himself last week, playing very consistently to overcome another good player in Nat Hardie.

Luke Shaw (Furness CC): Aged 24, Luke is probably the most improved darter in the area over past year or so and he shown last week that he is there to battle it out with the best of them luke is yet to win a Major singles event.

Dale Miles (Last Orders, Barrow): Aged 28. Dale has kept himself away from the darts scene over the past year or two, starting a family and having other priorities. But based on last week’s performance, Dale is back to his best and has a good chance of causing an upset.

Ian Greaves (Red River, Barrow): Aged 45. Ian doesn’t play many singles events due to work and other commitments, but he has a very consistent game and plays regularly top man in the Salthouse Thursday League. Ian has the game to beat anyone.

Sean Miles (Wellington Inn, Loppergarth): Aged 56 Sean is certainly no novice on this stage having been around for years and is certainly a man capable of beating anyone. Sean has been a top local darter for 20-plus year, so can he go one better than previous attempts?