DUKE GOES DOWN FIGHTING

Steve Duke’s campaign at the 2004 Tempus International Darts League is over when Dutch International Raymond ‘Barney’ Barneveld defeated him 6 – 2 in their last round one match on Monday evening. Duke had a few chances and opportunities today but did not capitalise on them. (Left – Dukey moving down to the stage to play Barneveld)

The first leg saw Duke hit a 180 on his fourth walk to set up an early break opportunity against the darts. With 78 left he hit 72 to leave 6. Next shot he missed giving Barneveld a shot at double top. He pegged 40 to take the opening leg.

Leg two showed that Barneveld was on his game tonight. Some big scores saw him sitting on 91 after 12-darts. Duke was matching him at this stage having scored 44, 140,140,137 to have 40 left. Barneveld finished off the leg with a 91 peg to take a 2 - 0 lead.

The next leg saw Duke throwing straight but a few scores of 60 was not enough to keep up with Barneveld. Another 180 to Duke late in the leg was not enough as Barneveld scored a magnificent 165 to leave 16 which he cleaned up next shot.

Leg four was one of those legs where the consistency of both players scoring waned a little. Barneveld had a shot at tops on his seventh walk but missed. This opened up a chance for Duke to win his first leg after a couple of big scores left him on 48. He pegged on his seventh walk. Score, 3 – 1 Barneveld.

Duke was fighting hard and in the fifth leg, both players had again found some big scores. After 12 darts Barneveld had 36 left, but Duke pegged 66 with his 15th dart to take the leg.

Barneveld was on fire and kept the pressure right on Duke in the sixth leg. Ton after ton saw him take the leg in 14 darts to open up his lead to 4 – 2.

The seventh leg saw Barneveld hit 25,140,100,180 to have 56 left. Duke started the leg well with 135 and 100, but then stuffed around with a few small scores before hitting another ton. Barneveld was messing around on the double having wasted six darts. Duke had a chance to get a leg back but missed giving Barneveld another three darts to finish, which this time he did by pegging 9.

It was show time for Barneveld. The eighth leg was all style. Barneveld opened up with 140, 95,96 to leave 170 after 9-darts. He walked up and put the first two darts in the triple twenty but wired the bull to miss the 170 pegout. Next shot he cleaned up the 25 score left to take the match 6 – 2.

Duke had missed a couple of chances, which he needed to take to win this match. Unfortunately he let a few of those opportunities slip by and now joins 16 other players in the crowd to watch the remaining weeks action. He probably feels a little disappointed on his performance this year after his great play last year in this event.

Final averages for this match saw Steve Duke finish with a 27.96 and Barneveld finish with an average of 31.97. Steve Dukes Group results listed below.

Tony David completed his round robin Group G matches to finish on top of the table. After suffering a defeat to Peter Hunt in the first round he came back strong to win the next two matches. Today it was the Dutchman Co “Matchstick” Stompe to front up against David.

David started out a little slowly in the first leg while Stompe was straight into the big scores. Stompe took the first leg hitting double 8 with his 19th dart, and David was left with 100 on the board.

By leg two David was staring to get his eye in but was still not quite on top of his game yet. Stompe was not that far behind him coming down to the double, but a pegout of 58 saw David take the leg to square up the match.

The darts were going in straight by leg three for both players. Stompe had the darts in this leg, but could not find the double. David had come down 60,100,60,100,60,76 and had 45 left. Stompe missed pegging 10 leaving 2, but David pegged cleanly to take the first break of the match.

Leg four saw David on top of his game scoring 100,100,140,105 to leave 56. Stompe was off his game in this leg scoring nothing over 60. David was not give him any chance and immediately pegged 56 to take a 3 – 1 lead.

A lost opportunity for a bigger lead front David in this leg. Stompe started the leg and after 15 darts was sitting on 60. David was sitting on 20. Stompe missed his chance but left 10. David stepped up and missed his opportunity to stretch his lead. Stompe took an unexpected chance to pull a leg back after he finished pegging 10.

David stepped up his game again in the next leg. Not letting the lost opportunity of the previous leg worry him he started the leg with 140,100,121,100 to have 40 left. Stompe was a long way behind. David missed the double top, with a dart slipping into the double one. Stompe was sitting on 81 when David finished the leg with a 38 peg.

Stompe is renowned for fighting out matches and is capable of hitting the big legs. The seventh was no exception with Stompe pegging 137 with his fifteenth dart. David was still sitting on 141 after 12 darts having scored 100,60,100 and 100.

Stompe powered his way through the eighth leg as well with some big scoring and clean finishing to tie up the match at 4 – 4. This match looked like going the full distance.

David looked in trouble in this leg after Stompe had scored 58,140,133,60 and 90 to leave 20. David was throwing straight darts having scored 60,60,100,140 and 65 to leave 76. Stompe missed his chance when not finishing the 20 score he had left. This opened the door for David and he burst in to peg 76 to take the lead and the chance to throw for the match when starting leg 10.

Leg 10 was a cracker. David started hitting 100,100,100,140 and 53 to leave 8 after 15 darts. Not to be out done Stompe had scored 45,125,100,105 and 116 to leave 10. David was not letting his chance to play in the next round slip through his fingers and promptly finished of the score of 8 to take the match 6 – 4.

Final averages for this Group G match saw Tony David finish with a 28.20 and Co Stompe finish with an average of 27.58. This win saw him top Group G and move onto the next round.

Tony David has joined 15 other players to progress to the second round of matches. Once again the players are placed into groups for more round robin action before the quarterfinals. Tuesday evening David has a tough match against the inform Finlander Jarkko Komula, then Wednesday evening up against Dutchman Andre Branjties who defeated Martin Adams today and his final match Thursday evening is against his old sparing partner in England’s Ted Hankey.