Tyler Thorpe defeats Jack Main to win Darts Referee Open, run by ‘The Darts Referee’ Jack Langston, at Stonham Barns Park

Tyler Thorpe was a surprise recipient of the £700 cash prize as he won the third edition of the Darts Referee Open at Stonham Barns Park on Saturday.

The 21-year-old defied the odds as he dispatched of former PDC Tour Card holder Jack Main 5-1 in the final of the event run by ex-PDC referee Jack Langston, in association with Evolution Darts.

More than 150 people competed in the tournament that followed a round-robin group format, where the top two of each group – which contained four of five people – would qualify for the knock-out stages.

Speaking on Thorpe’s success, Langston said: “I’ve seen his name a couple of times, and I’ve seen him play in different tournaments over the last year, and I’ve always thought he’s pretty good.

“He was playing in one of the games and my dad was watching, and he said ‘that young lad’s quite good’. I said to him I thought he’d do well.

“I thought he might get to the semis or something. I didn’t think he’d win it, but I’m glad he did because it’s nice to have a new name on the trophy, especially someone who is a bit of an up-and-comer as well. I really rate him and I’m glad he did well.”

Reigning champion Stephen Burton was unable to make the event, while runner-up, Main, who won the first open two years ago but was unavailable last year to defend his title, was someone who Langston thought was ‘one to win’.

This year, the tournament doubled in size and Langston – who runs a YouTube channel with more than 74,000 subscribers – is hoping to organise the event, with 160 people sought again, in May next year.

“It’s so good. I have my YouTube channel and I have people turning up to the event who I speak to almost on a daily basis if I’m doing live streams,” he said.

“The funny thing is, I don’t know what they look like, I just know their usernames. So I’ll be sat there chatting to someone for five minutes, I’ll say ‘what’s your name?’ and if they had said their name five minutes before I would have had so much more context on who I’m talking to.

“It was really good fun. It’s nice to meet people who support what I do online. I would have struggled to run it myself, but Evolution Darts are so good at it. I wouldn’t be able to do it without them.”