Somerset sure-shot Neil Raikes was on the bull at Southampton's Novotel at the weekend as he was crowned Daily Echo Hampshire Open champion.

The 27-year-old engineer threw some awesome arrows over eight hours to claim the coveted crown.

Chances of the title returning to Hampshire looked good in the closing stages of the popular competition but in the end it came down to a battle between Raikes and Kent's talented youngster Kirk Shepherd.

The crowd saw 19-year-old Shepherd - a former World youth champion and winner of the British Teenage Championship last year - as favourite to take the title when the two players toed the oche for a best-of-nine-legs final showdown. The plumber from Ramsgate had been in blistering form all day.

But it was the West Country player who seized the initiative and was soon heading west with the £1,000 winner's cheque in his back pocket.

"It's strange because I did not play at my best today," said the player from Midsomer Norton afterwards. "I have played better than that and lost and I suppose I have played worse and won - that's just how it goes in darts."

There was a record 450-plus entry for the seventh Hampshire Open and it took a long day's play on 22 boards to decide a winner.

The competition again attracted a huge number of local pub and club players and super league and county standard competitors.

A few well-known faces from the professional game joined them but little went the way of the stars from the television.

There were early exits for 1997 Embassy World champion Les Wallace, former Winmau World Master Colin Monk, defending champion and PDC player Mark Thomson from Wiltshire, his colleague Denis Smith, Hampshire's talented Danny Ballard and Lakeside World Championship regular Paul Hogan.

Hampshire players put in a brave bid to bring the title back home as five of their British Inter-County Premier squad made it into the quarter-finals. But only Kev Ede and Dennis Murrell, who checked out on 170 in the previous round, survived to the last four - Aaron Turner, Danny Pinhorne and Roy Brown losing out.

Ede's charge was brought to an abrupt halt in the semis when he was hammered 4-0 by the confident youngster from Kent and Murrell just missed out after a nailbiting 4-3 defeat to Raikes.

Kirk kicked off the final with first-throw advantage and could have taken the opening leg, but Raikes banged in two 140s and checked out on 96 to take charge.

He held his throw in the second and was soon three legs to the good when Shepherd again threw away chances to get back into the match. Shepherd looked finished when he went 4-0 down but he began to show the form he had been displaying all day and got back to 4-2.

Raikes, though, was on the mark again in the next leg and nailed three 140s on the trot before checking out on double ten for the match.

"I was really pleased to win," said Raikes, who has not ruled out a shot at the professional game.

"I came here last year and got into the last eight but it was great to go all the way this time."

Raikes, who recently won the Somerset Open and was runner-up at Swindon, had a three-dart average of 29.16 in the final. Shepherd shot 29.07.