Chelmsford's Rod Harrington and Witham wizard Colin Lloyd have vowed to bounce back in the first year of the new millennium after a disappointing end to their season at the Skol PDC World Darts Championship at Purfleet's Circus Tavern last week.

World Number Three Harrington was tipped as one of the favourites to win the title, but suffered an unfortunate upset in the first round at the hands of an in-form John Lowe, who beat him 3-2.

Hopes for an Essex World Champion then rested on the relative newcomer Colin Lloyd, where victory in the Festival Open last February highlighted his world class pedigree. However, Colin was plagued by illness at the start of the tournament in the first round encounter with number four seed Shayne Burgess.

Yet despite his early exit, Colin was confident about his game in the year 2000. "I won Eastbourne and I've done really well since. I have travelled abroad and picked up ranking points, and coming from nowhere I've reached number ten in the world."

The highlight of his year was the PDC World Matchplay at Blackpool, where he destroyed the experienced Alan Warriner 13-2 and went on to reach the quarter finals.

His fellow Essex player Harrington was considerably more successful at Blackpool, beating Peter Manley in the final to retain the coveted trophy.

As Rod watched the 2000 final, Phil Taylor defeated Dennis Priestley 7-3 to win his eighth world title - he reflected on his own performance at Purfleet.

"I was disappointed to lose to Lowe," he admitted, "but at the same time I've won a lot of matches this year, and I am the type of player who can easily bounce back."

Essex now boast having two darts stars in the top ten world rankings, and with the Eastbourne Festival approaching on February 6, Lloyd will be looking forward to defending his international crown.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.