WA strikes early at the Australian Junior Darts Championships

Western Australia has dominated day one of the Australian Junior Darts Championships. Following the Opening Ceremony, the first event for the week the Girls and Boy’s Australian Doubles were contested.

The round robin competition was split into two pools, which saw very close competition in the boy’s event. Pool ‘A’ saw a very close competition with the Queensland, New south Wales and Western Australia finishing equal on five wins but Queensland and New south Wales were also tied on 11 legs so a tiebreaker was required to separate the two pairings. One leg of 601 was played and the Queensland pairing of Tom Pourau and Greg Murphy hit the double first before their counterparts in Mitchell Clegg and Andrew Sica to see them complete the preliminary rounds on top of Pool ‘A’. All pairings in Pool ‘A’ lost at least one preliminary round match highlighting how close this group was.

Pool ‘B’ was a little more open with defending Champions Kyle Anderson and Damon Heta (left) from Western Australia the only combination to get through the preliminary rounds undefeated with 6 wins and 12 legs. With only one lose was Tasmania’s Dwayne Seabourne and Rhys Mathewson. That lose was to the WA pairing.

With the completion of the preliminary rounds the semi finals in the Australian Junior Boy’s Doubles were:

Dwayne Seabourne & Rhys Mathewson (TAS) v Tom Pourau & Greg Murphy (QLD) Kyle Anderson & Damon Heta (WA) v Mitchell Clegg & Andrew Sica (NSW)

The first semi final saw a very strong win by the Tassie pair of Seabourne and Mathewson. The score being 3 – 2 in a very close match. Both combinations were feeling the pressure in the first leg that the Qld pair won. This fired up the Tassie Boy’s and from here the match was really close with Seabourne and Mathewson (below) taking three of the next four legs to move into the final. The second semi saw the defending Champions come through and now had earned the right to defend the title they won in Altona Victoria last year.

The winning score line being 3 – 1.

1st Semi Final

Dwayne Seabourne 23.552 & Rhys Mathewson 19.139 (TAS)

Tom Pourau 21.851 & Greg Murphy 18.205 (QLD)

2nd Semi Final

Kyle Anderson 23.689 & Damon Heta 18.377 (WA)

Mitchell Clegg 18.317 & Andrew Sica 19.592 (NSW)

The two pairings from Pool ‘B’ moved into the final for another shot at each other. The Final was shaping up to be a cracker with all players throwing great averages in the semi finals. Unfortunately for the Tasmania pair the 2004 Champs were again in hot form. WA’s Anderson and Heta backed up on last years performance with an outstanding display of accurate darts. The first leg saw Anderson knock in a maximum score of 180 to set up the first leg. Heta finished the leg when he hit double 10 with his first dart at the double. Leg two was very close with both pairs having a shot at the double, but WA again prevailed with Heta finishing with a 78 pegout. The third leg saw both pairs matching each other in scoring but and with the Tassie pair sitting on 60 Anderson stepped up to the oche and won the title when he pegged 94. They had backed up last year’s performance and were now two time Australian Junior Boy’s Champions. The match was a lot closer than the 3 – 0 score line indicated.

Kyle Anderson (WA) 25.075

Damon Heta (WA) 21.621

Dwayne Seabourne (TAS) 21.778

Rhys Mathewson (TAS) 22.282

The Girl’s were not to be out down by the Boy’s. Their competition was just as close. Brie Peters and Raylee Parsons from Queensland finished in top place in Pool “A” after defeating all opposition. They completed the round robin with 6 wins and 12 legs. New South Wales Kylie Walker and Tania Walker with 4 wins and 9 legs were the other semi finalists.

In Pool ’B’ Western Australia’s Patricia Gary and Tarmeka Nestor (left) came through the round robin unscathed with a record of 6 wins and 12 legs. Joining them in the semi finals was the New South Wales pairing of Belinda Velanff and Hannah Williams whose only loss was to the WA Girl’s 2- 0 giving them a total of 5 wins and 10 legs.

With the completion of the preliminary rounds the semi finals for the Australian Junior Girl’s Doubles were:

Brie Peters & Raylee Parsons (Qld) v Belinda Velanff & Hannah Williams (NSW) (below)

Patricia Gary & Tarmeka Nestor (WA) v Kylie Walker & Tania Walker (NSW)

The first semi final saw a very close contest with New South Wales Velanff and Williams take on Queensland’s Peters and Parsons who were last year’s finalist. Velanff won the title last year with Cindy Parrott but had a new partner in 2005. The 2004 Champion was back into another final when they won the semi final 3 –2 with Williams knocking in all finishes.

Their opposition would come from Pool ‘B’ and was the Western Australia’s pair of Gary and Nestor. They were in pretty hot shape winning 3 – 1 with Nestor in great finishing form hitting the three pegouts to win the legs.

1st Semi Final

Belinda Velanff 19.717 & Hannah Williams 13.948 (NSW)

Brie Peters 19.831 & Raylee Parsons 17.014 (Qld)

2nd Semi Final

Patricia Gary 13.282 & Tarmeka Nestor 15.216 (WA)

Kylie walker 14.158 & Tania Walker 12.569 (NSW)

The Grand Final was played by some nervous Girl’s that developed into a very close contest with the match going the full distance. The final started with the NSW pairing of Williams and Velanff breaking away winning two of the first three legs with Velanff hitting the two finishes. The WA Girl’s were done though when Gary hit double 20 to even up the final. The deciding leg saw WA away and again Gary hit the winning double 10 to take an exciting final. These two are Rookie Players and have started the weeklong competition strongly by being crowned 2005 Australian Junior Girls Doubles Champions.

Patricia Gary (WA) 15.522

Tarmeka Nestor (WA) 15.505

Belinda Velanff (NSW) 15.734

Hannah Williams (NSW) 14.448

Tomorrow sees the first four rounds of the Australian Teams Championships.

The Tasmanian Darts Council (TDC) is hosting the 24th Puma Australian Junior Darts Championships for the Darts Federation of Australia at the Latrobe & District Youth Centre in Latrobe. Over 70 of Australia’s best youth players will be contesting these Championships, which run from the 10th-16th of January 2004.

Yesterday all of the Players Officials and Supporters got together for a BBQ and a renewal of friendships. Over 140 people attended making the first function of these Championships a huge success.