Mixed Doubles Darts title goes west

Western Australia has always done well in this event, highlighting the strength of both Men's and Ladies darts in WA. 2010 saw little change as they backed up again to take their thirteenth title since 1981.

The final event at Central Coast Leagues Club at the 31st Formula Australian Darts Championships saw Kyle Anderson and Louise Ball (left) win the Australian Mixed Doubles title for the first time with a fantastic performance against Victorian's Jason Murdoch and Janine Cassar. It was final with brilliant scoring, plenty of 180's and great finishing by all four players. Louise Ball however has won this title before, way back in 1995.

The final saw some really big scoring by the men and both ladies matched each other so it was a fairly even contest. Anderson and Ball won the first leg with Anderson throwing the first 180 with his second shot. Jason Murdoch immediately threw a 180 back to set Cassar 70 for the first leg, Ball had left Anderson 155 which he nonchalantly stepped up and neatly finished it off for a 15=darter. They won the second leg as well inflicting a break against the throw when Anderson finished from 8 for a 20-darter.

A second 180 by Murdoch saw the Victorian's immediately inflict a break back. Not to be out done Anderson hit his second 180 to start the fourth leg strong for his pairing. With some great scoring by Ball they were able to win the leg to give them a 3 - 1 lead.

Leg five saw Murdoch and Cassar score 5 scores of 100 or more in a row to set them up to win another break back. A 38 finish this time to bring the score back to 3 - 2. To leg six and Murdoch and Cassar were really burning. A third 180 by Anderson was not enough this time to win them the leg as Cassar pegged 32 with her first dart for a 16-dart leg.

The final was squared away. At this point it looked like Murdoch and Cassar were going to run away with the final as they won their third leg in a row, with Murdoch hitting his third 180 in the final to leave Cassar 36 which she pegged to win the seventh leg. However a couple of average scores by Murdoch and Cassar let Anderson and Ball back in. They scored brilliantly to square up the final at 4 - 4 to send the final into a tiebreaker.

The Victorian's were away first but a fourth 180 by Anderson immediately gave them the advantage. A couple more 100's by them saw Ball set Anderson up for the finish scoring 80 to leave tops. It may have taken three darts but Anderson finished from 40 to give him and his partner Louise Ball the title. It had been a great exhibition of accurate darts by all players which the crowd really enjoyed.

A little note here. If Anderson had hit that final double 20 with his first or second dart he would have averaged over 100 per three darts in the final.

Averages
Kyle Anderson 33.289, Louise Ball 21.214
Jason Murdoch 31.625, Janine Cassar 25.630

The first semi final saw Anderson and Ball up against Laurie Loch and Vanessa Bridge from South Australia. The first three legs were won by Anderson and Ball. The South Australian's were missing a few opportunities at the doubles letting their opponents in. In the third and fourth leg Laurie Loch was playing brilliant darts and his performance in the fourth gave the South Australian's their first leg when he finished from 78 using two darts. The fifth leg saw the WA combination away first. They continued to hit the big scores but Kyle left 14 with his last dart. No problems for Ball, first dart double 7 and they were in to the final after a 4 - 1 win.

In the second semi final Murdoch and Cassar accounted for the young Western Australian pairing in Justin Miles and Jucinta Dann. Murdoch and Cassar started this match winning the first leg with a great 112 finish by Murdoch. They were hitting everything to take leg two in 18 darts with a neat 71 finish with 3-darts to inflict a break on their opponents. Leg three and both the Western Australian players were hitting big scores as were the Victorians. Murdoch (140, 100, 180 were his first three walks in this leg) and Cassar hung on to win this leg and to take the match out to a 3 - 0 lead. The fourth leg saw Miles and Dann start to fade. They had had a great event but everything appeared gone in this leg. Murdoch and Cassar kept up the pressure and comfortably took the leg for a 4 - 0 victory.

Final:
Kyle Anderson 33.289 & Louise Ball 21.214 (WA) defeated Jason Murdoch 31.625 & Janine Cassar 25.630 (VIC) 6 - 5

Semi Finals:
Kyle Anderson 27.984 & Louise Ball 19.821 (WA) defeated Laurie Loch 28.692 & Vanessa Bridge 17.943 (SA) 4 - 1
Jason Murdoch 31.511 & Janine Cassar 25.282 (VIC) defeated Justin Miles 26.738 & Jucinta Dann 17.138 (WA) 4 - 0

Quarter final results:
Laurie Loch 30.387 & Vanessa Bridge 20.232 (SA) defeated Kim Lewis 27.096 & Jody Hislop 21.023 (WA 3 - 1
Kyle Anderson 30.184 & Louise Ball 21.071 (WA) defeated Owen McArthur 25.521 & Kyle Henningsen 19.00 (QLD) 3 - 1
Justin Miles 30.372 & Jucinta Dann 21.961 (WA) defeated Pat Orreal 26.516 & Chrissie Sheerin 20.807 (QLD) 3 - 2
Jason Murdoch 28.558 & Janine Cassar 27.666 (VIC) defeated Beau Anderson 27.818 & Dot McLeod 18.466 WA 3 - 0