Fantastic Teams Darts Championship

It has taken Victoria 30 years to win their second Australian Teams Boy’s Championship, the last being back in 1982. It has been a crusade for this team, having suffered the heart break of winning a tiebreaker in 2010 to place second, lose the final leg of the event in 2011 to place second again, and now to finally come through the event undefeated was such a relief.

As in the previous two years, it came down to Victoria’s last game. Along with Queensland, these two teams were the stand out having not lost a round. The match went right down to the wire with the score at 4 – 4 with the 1001 teams game leg to play. With all four players from each side throwing darts in this leg the pressure was on all players. The first chance came to the Victorians and they did not miss the chance. Harley Kemp finished from 89 with his 3rd dart to clinch the title. The players representing Victoria were Harley Kemp, Matthew Francois, Haydn Knowles and Torin Helmore. Manager of this team was John Plucinski.

Ken Penberthy was overwhelmed by the player’s performance. The Captain said, “After having to sit through the last two year and come so close, this gives me so much satisfaction. My expectations were high and hoped the boys would play well. That they did. It’s been an outstanding competition. I could not have asked for a better commitment from these boy’s. Playing against the best juniors in Australia is a real buzz for the boys and this made them play to their best ability”

The Boy’s Team Championship is a hotly contested event with all teams virtually capable of winning any match. Western Australia and Queensland has dominated the event for a number of years. Now it looks like Victoria is about to have a strong period at the top of boys darts in Australia. It was not easy for Victoria either. They had some very tight contests along the way. They won every round either 5 - 4 or 6 – 3. Queensland the defending champions had not lost up to the match against Victoria. They still had one round to play and could not recover from that loss. They were smashed by Western Australia next round. This gave Western Australia second place overall, South Australia had its fourth win in the last round to place them third and Queensland dropped down to fourth Tasmania 5th, New South Wales 6th and Northern Territory seventh.

Results
Round 5
SA 5 - WA 4, VIC 6 – TAS 3, NSW 6 – NT 3
Round 6
SA 7 – NT 2, WA 5 – TAS 4, VIC 5 – QLD 4
Round 7
SA 7 – NSW 2, WA 8 – QLD 1, TAS 7 – NT 2

Final Places:
1st VIC 12 – 34, 2nd WA 8 – 34, 3rd SA 8 – 32, 4th QLD 8 – 28, 5th TAS 4 – 27, 6th NSW 2 – 19, 7th NT 0 – 15.

Competition in the Teams Event started Saturday when three rounds were completed in the Girl’s competition and four rounds in the Boy’s. The remaining two rounds and three rounds for the boy’s were completed today.

Queensland wins title back
Queensland has regained the number one position after the Teams titles concluded at the 31st Puma Australian Junior Darts Championships at St Albies Hall in Launceston. Queensland clinched the Australian Junior Girls Teams Event with two “rookie” darts players in their team. The title has eluded them over the last few years, previously winning it in back in 2007. Since then Western Australia has been Teams Champions. Queensland junior girls have been in contention over the past few years, but 2012 saw the girl’s break through to dominate the event.

Queensland took on every State and managed to defeat all of them. And they did it by coming through winning most rounds comfortably usually dropping just one or two legs of darts. No one challenged them really. This team came into this year’s championships with a mixed amount of experience from last year’s team coming in with two “rookies” and two second year players. Those players were Jade Whitworth, Kara King, Rebecca Franks, and Tiarna Smith (left). Team Manager was Rosemary McLeod.

Captain Leonie Campbell said after the final match, “Our expectations are for the players to enjoy themselves, meet new friends and learn from the experience. I believe they have accomplished that. As a Team they gelled well, supported each other all through the event and brought home the good result due to the love of the game. I’m proud of them. The competition was so tight and all states were so evenly matched”

Second place went to Western Australia. They lost two rounds one game to South Australia and the other to Queensland with their other round matches appearing to be relatively comfortable. The defending champions were just off pace this year but are certain to be back in contention next year.
Captain Lisa Dann was back in charge of this team in 2012. The Team consisted of Gillian Methven and Jordan Clarke whom are fairly experienced players at this level and Rebecca Penny, Kaitlan Brown and Sammara Jones and who were first year rookies. Manager Betty Hislop.

“When we come away to these Championships we make a lot of friends, and some of them hopefully will be for life. Winning is a bonus. We are so proud of the WA Girl’s. A great bunch of girls. The competition has been awesome and we have had to fight the whole way to win. Our girl’s learnt from these championships the value of every dart thrown and that concentration is a must. Thanks to Tasmania for being great hosts.” said Lisa Dann

Victoria placed third with two wins and three loses as did Tasmania and South Australia and sixth place went to New South Wales.

Results
Round 5
QLD 9 – SA 0, WA 7 – TAS 2, VIC 9 – NSW 0
Round 6
QLD 8 – WA 1, TAS 7 – NSW 2, VIC 8 – SA 1

Final Places:
1st QLD 10 – 40, 2nd WA 6 – 26, 3rd VIC 4 – 24, 4th TAS 4 – 20, 5th SA 4 – 15, 6th
NSW 2 - 10