Western Australia are Teams Championship

Western Australia showed their state dominance of this event over the past few years to win their seventh men's title in a row. The Ladies Team won back the title they lost last year to Queensland.

Ladies
Round five started this morning with five teams starting the day with just one loss indicating how close this event is in 2010. Those Teams were Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, Victoria, and hosts New South Wales. After this round two teams had dropped off the pace and were now back in the pack. South Australia was smashed by Western Australia 10 - 1, and Victoria coped similar treatment from Queensland losing 8 - 3. New South Wales kept on with their winning ways with a 7 - 4 conquest over the Northern Territory while Tasmania started the day strongly with a 7 - 4 victory over the Australian Capital Territory. Three Teams were left in contention with them all having suffered one loss. Queensland and Western Australia were even tied on legs won.

Round six saw Victoria have its first win for the day with a strong victory over the Australian Capital Territory 11 - 0. Tasmania won its third round with a victory over the Northern Territory 6 - 5. After big wins in round five Western Australia and Queensland had to keep winning as many legs as they could. Queensland enters the last round of competition one leg in front of Western Australia after Queensland won 8 - 3 over South Australia. Western Australia defeated New South Wales 7 - 4.

The final round saw a great battle to the very end of this event. And the greatest battle was being played on separate boards. Western Australia had to win at least one more leg against Tasmania than Queensland defeating New South Wales. A few surprises though. Queensland lost to New South Wales 7 - 4 so they were out of the title race. Victoria defeated South Australia 8 -3 and the Northern Territory defeated the ACT 7 - 4. Western Australia showed their strength and came through winning 9 - 2. The end result saw Queensland and Victoria play a tie breaker to find second place. The best of 1 x 1001 was won by Victoria giving them second place.

Congratulations Western Australia (pictured above) - 2010 Australian Ladies Darts Teams Champions.

The Western Australian Team, Captained by Betty Hislop played great darts to complete the seven round competition over the past two with just the one loss. Playing for Western Australia were Dot McLeod, Louise Ball, Jodie Hislop, Louise Ball, Jodi Saunders, Stephanie Moriarty, Kim Kelly and Jucinta Dann (Manager Agnes Ball). There Captain said, "This week has been a really tough one. The Ladies have had to work extremely hard for every point gained. I am proud of the effort put in by the Team who had a problem with clean pegging but stuck it out and turned frustration into victory."

The Victorian Team (right) Captained by Geraldine Hutchinson played great darts. They will be back again next year as strong as ever chasing this title again. Playing for Victoria (pictured left) were Janine Cassar, Linda Thompson, Glenda Jenkinson, Karen Roberts, Melanie Krause, Sheryll Beasy, Sue Tuhi and Emily Wills (Manager Lorraine Kunz).

Western Australia Darts Teams Champions again

Men
The men's competition started the day with the defending title holders in a commanding position. They along with South Australia were the only undefeated teams but all the other Teams were ready to give them a fight if they wanted the title. In this round the two undefeated teams met. It was South Australia that kept their record intact with another strong showing, this time winning 6 - 5. The defending Champions were now hoping for Queensland to win over South Australia next round to get back in the hunt. New South Wales, a much improved side on last year's defeated the Northern Territory 7 - 4 for their third win. The Australian Capital Territory was back in the winner's circle after a tight struggle with Tasmania. The ACT winning 6 - 5. Queensland continued on their winning streak with a 7 - 4 victory over Victoria.

South Australia still had to win the final two rounds to win the title. This was probably to be the clinching round as they faced up against Queensland. If South Australia lost, it would be back to a three team race for the title. This was the match of the event and went right down to the wire. It was five games all, 1 - 1 in the final single and both players had missed a shot at the double. SA winning it 6 - 5 with Laurie Loch hitting double 9 to win the match. Victoria and Australian Capital Territory also had a thrilling match with Victoria winning its third round 6 - 5. Tasmania finally found some form to win its first match when it defeated the Northern Territory 6 - 5. New South Wales were on the end of a thrashing from Western Australia (left) who regrouped after their loss in the previous round.

The final round saw some big wins. Those that had to win did making the last round a little one sided in each match. Queensland was smarting by now as they were very disappointed with the result in the previous round and took revenge on the New South Wales 9 - 2. Western Australia easily disposed of Tasmania 11 - 0, the Australian Capital Territory defeated Northern Territory 7 - 4 while the big disappointment came for South Australia when they were defeated 7 - 4 by Victoria, losing the chance to win their first Teams Championship.

Over the years Western Australia have had many very talented teams and this year is no exception, made up from a combination of some out-and-out Champions, some youth and a blend of some relatively fresh talent that they have established over the past few years. This year's team consisting of David Platt, Neil Hembrow, Kim Lewis, Kerry Whear, Beau Anderson, Kyle Anderson, Justin Miles and Joe Comito. (Mark Dorotich - Manager)

Captain Henry Forman said, "As Western Australian Team Captain I am very proud and privileged to be with a Champion side. We had a steady start against the ACT and followed that up with a powerful performance against our old rival Queensland. That was a great win. We played a sound game against Victoria, the score did not give the game justice. Great spirit was shown by the Northern Territory in our last game yesterday. Today we started like we were on another planet against South Australia. We got bet 6 - 5 but was thrilled with the boy's come back from 4 - 1 down. Overall a terrific game of darts. We followed that up with a solid win over New South Wales. The boy's were eager to come back with a good showing. We played well against Tasmania. The result was 11 - 0 but they played some great darts and deserved a couple of wins. To ultimately win with a greater win-loss record is terrific. We all put in and deserve to win the event. SA had two very hard games against WA and QLD and won them 6 - 5. The last game against Victoria may have sapped them of energy to finish off the victory. We are happy with a sound overall win."

For South Australia (pictured right) it was a case of being so close yet so far. They had played all event with the pressure of having to win. They came into day two having to play the past champion teams Western Australia and Queensland for many years and won, yet their nemesis in Victoria did it to them again. They finished the Teams Championship on equal win points but lost on leg difference.

"With a tough day ahead of us we knew we had our work cut out for us. Our game against Western Australia was an extremely tough assignment and the lads kicked off brilliantly getting off to a 4 - 1 lead after the pairs and trebles. As we knew, WA came back at us strong but the lads steadied to win a very tough but important game 6-5. Against Queensland, as the previous game another tough one. A very hard fought game with the games against us early to be 2 - 3 after the pairs and trebles only to find the boy's dig deep and come away with a 6 - 5 victory. Against Victoria, not a team to be taken lightly and the result showed just that with Victoria throwing some great darts to beat us 4 - 7.Overall we could not have asked any more from our players and are extremely proud of their commitment and their desire that they showed for the "Red Shirts"

Representing South Australia were players, Peter Machin, Craig Atze, Andrew Townes, Phillip Bottrell, Ian Wise, Darcy Mobbs, and Garry Kennedy. Captained by Ron Miller, Managed by Mark Edwards.

Australian Teams Darts Championship Results:
LADIES
Round One: VIC 7 - NSW 4, SA 6 - TAS 5, QLD 10 - NT 1, WA 9 - ACT 2
Round Two: WA 7 - QLD 4, VIC 10 - NT 1, SA 7 - ACT 4, NSW 8 - TAS 3
Round Three: WA 7 - VIC 4, NSW 8 - ACT 3, SA 7 - NT 4, TAS 7 - QLD 4
Round Four: WA 10 - NT 1, NSW 6 - SA 5, QLD 11 - ACT 0, VIC 9 - TAS 2
Round Five: TAS 7 - ACT 4, WA 10 - SA 1, QLD 8 - VIC 3, NSW 7 - NT 4
Round Six: TAS 6 - NT 5, VIC 11 - ACT 0, QLD 8 - SA 3, WA 7 - NSW 4
Round Seven: WA 9 - TAS 2, VIC 8 - SA 3, NT 7 - ACT 4, NSW 7 - QLD 4

Final Points:
Ladies: 1st: WA 12 - 56, 2nd: VIC 10 - 52, 3rd: QLD 10 - 52, 4th: NSW 10 - 42, 5th: TAS 6 - 34,
7th: NT 2 - 23 8th: ACT 0 - 17

MEN
Round One: NSW 7 - VIC 4, SA 7 - TAS 4, QLD 10 - NT 1, WA 8 - ACT 3
Round Two: WA 10 - QLD 1, VIC 8 - NT 3, SA 8 - ACT 3, NSW 11 - TAS 0
Round Three: WA 10 - VIC 1, ACT 7 - NSW 4, SA 6 - NT 5, QLD 8 - TAS 3
Round Four: WA 8 - NT 3, SA 6 - NSW 5, QLD 8 - ACT 3, VIC 6 - TAS 5
Round Five: ACT 6 - TAS 5, SA 6 - WA 5, QLD 7 - VIC 4, NSW 7 - NT 4
Round Six: TAS 6 - NT 5, VIC 6 - ACT 5, SA 6 - QLD 5, WA 10 - NSW 1
Round Seven: WA 11 - TAS 0, VIC 7 - SA 4, ACT 7 - NT 4, QLD 9 - NSW 2

Final Points:
Men: 1st: WA 12 - 62, 2nd: SA 12 - 43, 3rd: QLD 10 - 48, 4th: VIC 8 - 36, 5th: NSW 6 - 37, 6th: ACT 6 - 34, 7th: 2 - 23, 8th: 0 - 25.

Competition at the 31st Formula Australian Darts Championships continues tomorrow at the Central Coast Leagues Club starting at 10.30am with the Australian Singles.