Victoria’s first Mixed Pairs Darts title

It may have been nice and warm for some mainlanders, but for the Tasmanians it was pretty hot, just like the darts inside St Aildes Hall in Launceston. Some great darts saw Australia with new Australian Mixed Doubles Darts Champions. Victorian’s Harley Kemp and Margaret Cooper were victorious in high standard final over Tyson Hoefel and Jordan Clarke from Western Australia. This was the first time a mixed pairing has won the title from Victoria and they have attended every Australian Junior Darts Championships since they commenced back in 1981.

The final which was going to be a very interest contest as both pairs had come off a good confidence gaining semi final win and both wanted to win the title. Apart from that there was another little battle that had gone on all week and the two of them have been brilliant all week. Harley Kemp and Tyson Hoefel have battled each other manfully all week and today’s final was no different. Harley Kemp and Margaret Cooper (right) were away in the first leg. The boys were matching each other as were the girls so it was pretty tight early. Kemp cleaned up the first leg with D2 after just missing 136 the shot before. As with the first leg all players were matching each other score wise but with the lead throw Hoefel finished from 74 3-darts to take leg two. A great 2–dart 92 by Cooper gave the Victorians the third leg. In the fourth leg the WA pair was away first and was showing the first signs of pressure. They could not match the scoring of Kemp and Cooper. Cooper left 36 for Kemp to finish on which he did with his first dart. A great even contest between all players

Final Results
Harley Kemp (27.563) & Margaret Cooper (14.34) (VIC)
defeated
Tyson Hoefel (26.037) & Jordan Clarke (14.179) (WA)

The semi finals are hard to comment especially when they are playing fellow teammates from previous days. I heard one Captain comment, “who do you barrack for”. The first semi final had Kemp and Cooper playing against Matthew Francois and Daviesha Ikitautama. Kemp was outstanding in this match hitting 3 finishes, the highest being 100 and he hit a 180 in winning the match 3 – 0 as well. The second semi final saw Hoefel and Clarke (left) against fellow WA players Dylan Dunster and Rebecca Penny. The highlight in this match was how close the players were matching each other score wise, and the cleaning finishing by Hoefel and Clarke. They pegged all three legs in minimum darts. Leg 1 - 86 2-darts by Clarke, leg 2 - 40 1-dart by Hoefel and leg 3 - 67 2-darts again by Hoefel.

Semi Final results:
Harley Kemp (28.586) & Margaret Cooper (12.512) (VIC)
defeated
Matthew Francois (17.047) & Daviesha Ikitautama (13.051) (VIC)

Tyson Hoefel (23.155) & Jordan Clarke (18.56) (WA)
defeated
Dylan Dunster (21.244) & Rebecca Penny (16.951) (WA) (below)

Quarter Final results:
Matthew Francois (25.727) & Daviesha Ikitautama (13.425) (VIC)
defeated
Jackson Wilson-Young (26.727) (NT) & Gillian Methven (13.214) (WA) 2 – 1

Harley Kemp (27.333) & Margaret Cooper (13.77) (VIC)
defeated
Joshua Townsend (18.481) & Sharma Holland (12.407) (NSW) 2 – 0

Tyson Hoefel (26.551) & Jordan Clarke (17.511) (WA)
defeated
Torin Helmore (18.702) & Tori Kewisk (15.628) (VIC) 2 – 1

Dylan Dunster (17.155) & Rebecca Penny (12.45) (WA)
defeated
Corey Cadby (17.051) & Shannon Perry (14.642) (TAS) – 0

The Championships conclude tomorrow with The Australian Youth Masters and Host draw Mixed Doubles starting at 10.00am.