DAVE Davies was crowned the Christmas king as the Denbigh and District Darts League closed the year with a fine evening at the Hand Inn.

The in-form Masons man had to do it the hard way, beating no less than four players all with Superleague or Clwyd county experience.

He put out Nick Hailes in round one, then dispatched 2016 winner Pete Martin in the last-eight.

Davies succeeded in ending the run of Clwyd county captain Steve Gierke 2-1 in the semi-finals.

He would meet Denbigh league legend Dilwyn Martin in the final.

Martin got past Nick Campbell 2-0 and he then just got the better of Hope and Anchor leftie Dave Cooke 2-1 in the semi-finals.

The final was dominated by Davies, whose power-scoring gave him multiple chances to finish the match, but a host of missed doubles saw the match level at 2-2.

Davies then finally found that winning double to take the win and festive goodies.

Rachel Kingdon was crowned the Christmas queen at the event.

The current Clwyd Open champion defeated Karen Coates 2-0 in the final to end the year on a high.