Youth Masters Shine in Alice

The 25th Australian Junior Darts Champions at the Living Waters Primary School in Alice Springs concluded today with the Australian Youth Masters and Mystery Mixed Doubles being played. The results from the Australian Youth Masters saw a new Champion in the Boy's Masters and a second title in the Girl's.

(Above - Youth Masters Players)

The Australian Youth Masters commenced in 1992 and pits the best boy's player and girl's player from each state against each other in a round robin competition.

Girls Youth Masters 2006
She may only be 15, but she's quite a talent. In the Girl's Youth Masters, Queensland's Brie Peters won back her crown as the top junior girl's player by winning the title for the second time.

This is Peters's 4th year representing Queensland and continues to make a big impression on these Championships. From Toowoomba she had a great event today, winning all of her round robin matches. It appeared pretty easy going for her today, losing just three legs of darts for the whole competition. Those to take just one leg off her were defending Champion Simone Keogh of South Australia, Coralie Fitt-Munro Northern Territory and Victoria's Penny Gritty. She finished with an overall average 18.476.

Today's effort topped off a great week for Brie. She has won or been involved in winning the Girl's Singles, Girl's Doubles, Girl's Teams and now the Masters.

Kylie Walker, the 16 year old from New South Wales completed this Australian Junior Darts Championship with a second place in the Australian Youth Masters. From The Entrance he has had a very good week. She lost two matches and they were to Peters 3 - 0 and to Tasmanian Lauren Seabourne 3 - 2. She completed the competition with a final average of 15.370.

2005 and defending Champion Simone Keogh finished in fourth place. The young South Australian could not quite get her game going today. She still finished with the second highest average per dart (16.045), but could not find enough wins. The 17 year old ends her junior darts career here after four years representing her State, but definitely has the talent to go on and make a successful at senior level.

Place, Average & Wins
Winner: Brie Peters (QLD) (18.476) 6 wins - 18 legs
Second: Kylie Walker (NSW) (15.370) 4 - 14
Third: Lauren Seabourne (TAS) (14.333) 4 - 13
Fourth: Simone Keogh (SA)) (16.045) 3 wins - 10 legs
Fifth: Penny Gritty (VIC) (16.392) 3 - 10
Sixth: Coralie Fitt-Munro (NT) (12.712) 1 - 7
Seventh: Tarmeka Nestor (WA) (12.126) 0 - 3

(Above - Boys Youth Masters Field)

Boys Youth Masters 2006
Tom Pourau won his first Australian Youth Masters title here in Alice Springs. This young talented from Redbank in Queensland made his second and final year at Australian Junior Championships this year. The experience he has gained playing in senior competition in County Darts in South Queensland helped him today. He started a little slowly but managed to win those early rounds 3 - 2 against South Australia's Luke Warren and Western Australian Robert Carpanoni. He lifted his performance in the remaining four rounds to win the Masters undefeated throughout the competition. He lost one leg of darts to Kyle Munro in round three and from then on never dropped a single leg through the rest of the competition. The 17 year old completed the event with an overall average of 21.033.

Dwayne Seabourne of Devonport finished off his fourth and final Australian Darts Championships with a second place win 5 wins and 15 legs in the Youth Masters. The 17 year old lost only the one match to Tom Pourau and finished off with an overall average of 20.228. Disappointment for Dwayne as he had hoped to finish off his career in junior darts with an individual title. He had represented Australia at the World Youth Cup in Perth last year and placed second in this event last year losing to Kyle Anderson. He had gone so close on a number occasions just failing to get there.

Third place with an average of 21.044 the highest average for the event, with three wins went to Western Australian Robert Carpanoni.

Place, Average & Wins
Winner: Thomas Pourau (QLD) (21.033) 6 wins - 18 legs
Second: Dwayne Seabourne (TAS) (20.228) 5 - 15
Third: Robert Carpanoni (WA) (21.044) 3 wins - 15 legs
Fourth: Kyle Munro (NSW) (17.673) 3 - 12
Fifth: Allan Spence (NT) (16.619) 3 - 10
Sixth: Michael Cassar (VIC) (17.184) 1 - 5
Seventh: Luke Warren (SA) (17.507) 0 - 9

Host Drawn Mixed Doubles

This tournament is open to all players of the current year's Junior Representative teams except those players selected to compete in the Australian Youth Masters. Performances in the Australian "Host Drawn" Mixed Doubles do not count towards the Australian Junior Championship Champion State.

Players are divided into four pools and play a round robin preliminary series, within each pool. No player may be drawn to pair with a player from the same State, unless, it is a fill-in player from the host State.

This is a fun event for everyone involved and after the Pools rounds were completed the top pair from each pool made up the semi finalists. Making the semi finals was Jackie Upton (TAS) partnered with Nathan Shelley (VIC) whom were defeated by Kayla Kennedy (QLD) and Jamie Hales (TAS).

In the other semi final Northern Territory's Robyn Richardson and Baydon Widdercombe from Victoria missed making the final when they went down to Nikki King (VIC) and Western Australian Kayne Wyatt. Kayla Kennedy and Jamie Hales were victorious in the final winning 2 - 1.