Ladies Doubles title goes to Victoria again

They say it is beautiful one day, but perfect the next up here in Queensland, the envy of many southerners of Australia but here at the Darts Championships in Brisbane the heat was on right from the start of competition. Major disappointments for some of the best pair's combinations in the country as some were eliminated as early as the round robin at the 30th Australian Darts Championships at the Redlands Multi Sports Complex. Defending Champions, past champions were part of those first round casualties. The standard of Darts in Australia is definitely improving with outstanding quality and depth in this country.

The new playing format introduced in 2008 was a great success with the players really enjoying the competition so the same format was played again this year. Players were seeded as per usual and then placed on eight boards. A round robin was then played between the four combinations of the board with the winner then moving straight into the quarterfinals. If pairings finished up on equal wins in the group a one leg tiebreaker was played to determine the placings.

Ladies Doubles
The Final of the Ladies Doubles was played by four ladies with a wealth of experience in this event with the title being won eleven times by the participating players and what a final they gave the big crowd in attendance. Janine Cassar and Carol Forwood (pictured right) continued the dominance of the Victorian Ladies in the Australian Ladies Darts Doubes by taking out their third Australian Doubles title in four years. A common factor in all of those titles was Janine Cassar who has featured in all of these recent titles and on each ocassion she has won with a different partner. (previously winning in 2006 with Joanne Hadley and 2008 with Sue Tuhi) Not to be out done this also was Carol Forwood's third title in this event. (she won in 1993 with Chris Clark and in 1996 with Megan Rodgers when she represented the ACT). They played brilliant darts all day to overpower Western Australia's Louise Ball (winner in 1990 - 1992 with Val Armstrong and twice with Dot McLeod) and Jodie Hislop (winner in 1994 and 1995 with Dot McLeod) in the best of 9 legs final. Ball and Hislop started the final strongly hit some big scores while Cassar and Forwood struggled to find the triple, the WA ladies obtaining a break in the first leg. The Victorian pair started to find their range but it was too late and the score was 2 - 0. Leg three and a 132 finish by Hislop created another break followed by them holding their lead off leg after Victorian's missed a chance to break back and all of a sudden the final looked like heading for a white wash. At 4 - 0 it looked all over. The fifth leg and Victoria were away first. They finally won a leg when Cassar finished from 35. Leg six and suddenly the WA Ladies were missing the double and Cassar jumped at the opportunity to inflict a break back. The pairings had evened up with their scoring and now it was a real close contest. Another break to Victoria in the eighth leg saw the final all square at 4 - 4. The deciding tiebreaking leg saw Victoria with the advantage by being away first. Cassar was throwing brilliantly hitting three big scores in a row to give them the advantage. With 24 left she finished with her second dart to hit the winning double. She had finished all of the last five legs.

Finals Averages:
Janine Cassar 21.60 Carol Forwood 20.196
Louise Ball 21.356: Jody Hislop 19.958

The first semi final was nearly all Victoria. Cassar and Forwood played Queenslander's Pam Burr and Cathy Shaw in a semi final that seemed a little one sided. As in the final the scoring power and the clean finishing by Victorians was a stand out. The Victorian Pairing immediately broke the throw in the first leg and then held their throw to take the early lead. Queensland never got on the score board as Cassar and Forwood put in a 20-darter to take leg three and then powered through the fourth leg to comfortably make the score 4 - 0 and moving into the final. Unfortunately for Pam Burr she lost out in this event at the semi final stage in the event last year.

Semi Final Averages:
Janine Cassar 24.434: Carol Forwood 23.104
Pam Burr 20.741: Cathy Shaw 19.244

Hislop and Ball (pictured right) had a comprehensive win in the semi finals. They defeated Samara Ash (a semi finalist in this event last year) and Stephanie Moriarty from Western Australia 4 - 2. Ash and Moriarty won the first two legs but after that the Hislop and Ball combination were cleaner with their finishing and too strong with their scoring power for the other Western Australian pair.

Semi Final Averages:
Louise Ball 22.845: Jody Hislop 20.179
Stephanie Moriarty 19.000: Samara Ash 22.750

Quarter Final results
Janine Cassar 20.89 & Carol Forwood 20.024 (VIC) defeated
Vicki Hepple 15.067 & Jucinta Dann 19.452 (WA) 3 - 0

Pam Burr 24.22 & Cathy Shaw 18.42 (QLD) defeated
Sandra Smith 21.238 & Helen Johnston 15.795 (TAS) 3 - 0

Stephanie Moriarty 18.333 & Samara Ash 16.278 (WA) defeated
Joanne Hadley 17.028 & Melissa Sinnott 18.193 (VIC) 3 - 1

Louise Ball 25.345 & Jodie Hislop 20.408 (WA) defeated
Kyle Henningsen 19.509 & Kerry Crowdey 16.522 (QLD) 3 - 1

At the completion of the round robins, Cassar & Forwood, Ball & Hislop, Jucinta Dann & Vicki Hepple, Joanne Hadley & Melissa Sinnott, Kerry Crowdey & Kyle Henningsen, Helen Johnston & Sandra Smith, Pam Burr & Cathy Shaw and Stephanie Moriarty & Samara Ash all came through winning all of their matches.

Brothers Win Doubles

Men Doubles
This final was no classic but the scoring was brilliant. For the first time brothers had paired up together to win an Australian Men's Doubles Darts Championship. Kyle Anderson and older brother Beau (pictured right) powered through the field with a brilliant exhibition of power hitting all day. They were relentless. The room was electric in anticipation for some brilliant darts to be thrown before the final. Queensland's Geoff Kime (a previous winner in 2002 with Tony David) and Rob Modra had all the local support behind them but this day would not be theirs. A brilliant exhibition of world standard darts by all four players playing but the final score line did not indicate this. As had been the case all day, the Anderson boy's applied the pressure right from the start, breaking the Queenslanders in the first leg. They then held their throw in the second leg to consolidate the first break. Leg three and both pairs were pounding the triple twenty. The first 180 in the final by Kyle Anderson was still not enough to get a shot at the double with Modra hitting it to get the Queenslanders on the score board. Leg four and the Anderson's nearly messed up when Beau missed three darts at double eight, but their opponents could not inflict a break back as they missed as well. At 3 - 1 and with a 20 darter and the fourth double hit by Kyle the lead was out 4 - 1. Sixth leg and again the Queenslanders missed a shot at the double opening up the opportunity for Kyle to steal the leg, which he did. A 20 darter by Kime and Modra (it could have been 16 darts) saw them win their second leg. Leg eight the pressure was really put on here. Only requiring one more leg for the title, plenty of big scores including Beau Anderson's second 180 were being hit but the Queenslanders were left in their wake. Beau with his first finish for the final sealed the title and the first brothers to do it.

Finals Averages:
Kyle Anderson 29.146, Beau Anderson 27.428
Geoff Kime 27.112, Rob Modra 23.034

In the first semi final Geoff Kime and Rob Modra (pictured left) ended the hopes of the New South Wales Pairing of Sean Reed and Mitchell Clegg. Triple twenties were being hit left, right and centre in this match as well, but Kime and Modra seemed to be in control of the match most of the time. Reed and Clegg won the third leg, the only one they would for the semi final. It appeared throughout this match that if Kime or Modra had a single dart at the double that would be the end of the leg. Their finishing was very clean. That clean finishing by the Queenslander's gave them a place in the final winning this semi 5 - 1. Nearly all legs were completed in twenty darts or less with their best leg being 16 darts.

Semi Final Averages:
Geoff Kime 30.201: Rob Modra 26.931
Sean Reed 25.826: Mitchell Clegg 23.000

Kyle Anderson and Beau Anderson easily defeated their fellow teammates Lindsay Haji Ali and Damon Heta from Western Australia in what appeared to be a little one-sided second semi final, but all players produced brilliant darts. The final averages show this. The boy's from Mandurah Western Australia lost the first leg which Haji Ali and Heta started. From this point on the Anderson brothers threw strong big scoring darts to win the next five legs in 20, 14, 20, 17 and 25 darts to advance to the final. Every shot was 100 or better and the finishing was also very clean.

Averages:
Kyle Anderson 28.639: Beau Anderson 32.780
Lindsay Haji Ali 29.894: Damon Heta 27.323

Quarter Final results:
Sean Reed 28.347 & Mitchell Clegg 23.628 (NSW) defeated
Owen McArthur 27.402 & Josh Kime 23.319 (QLD) 4 - 3

Geoff Kime 31.079 & Rob Modra 25.368 (QLD) defeated
Kim Lewis 23.742 & Kerry Whear 27.017 & Damon Heta (WA) 4 - 2

Lindsay Haji Ali 23.923 & Damon Heta 24.162 (WA) defeated
Anthony Fleet 27.347 & Brad Spurway 19.885 (ACT) 4 - 3

Kyle Anderson 26.753 & Beau Anderson 27.014 (WA) defeated
Dave Marshall 24.569 & Lindsay Wells 28.292 (QLD) 4 - 3

All quarter finalists except for Sean Reed and Mitchell Clegg made it through the round robin stage unscathed. Reed and Clegg had to defeat WA's Neil Hembrow and Justin Miles and Dan Chapman and Dean Williams from the Northern Territory in a three way tiebreaker to claim the board victory.

Tomorrow sees the first day of the main event with the first four rounds of the Australian Teams event.