Holland & Sipple backs up doubles titles

New South Wales players Guy Holland and Luke Sipple (right) have gone back-to-back by winning the 2010 Australian Junior Darts Doubles titles at the Inala Darts Club in Brisbane. Obviously they are very experienced players at this level having played at Australian Junior Championships for a number of years, but there are plenty of other talented players chasing these titles. To add to this win it is Guy Holland's third straight title having won the title back in 2008 when he won partnering with Mitchell Clegg.

Australian Junior Boys Doubles

The round robin competition is split into two pools, which resulted in some very close competition in the boy's event. Pool 'A' saw a very close competition with each pairing winning at least one round and losing one round. Topping the Pool was New South Wales players Guy Holland and Luke Sipple. They lost just the one round to the Tasmanian pairing of Troy Jackson and Blake Corcoran. They would move straight into the semi finals. To find a pairing to play in the other semi final the second placed pairing was still to be decided. Western Australia's Conan Ugle and Blake Hatchett had won four rounds as had the Northern Territories Jackson Wilson-Young and Ronnie Swan. A deciding tiebreaker of 1001 was played to separate the two pairings with Ugle and Hatchett winning the tiebreaker to make the second semi final.

Pool 'B' was just as close but the placings were automatic. Winning the Pool and winning all six of their rounds was Victoria's Matthew Francois and John Tuhi. They moved into the second semi final while Queensland's Leslie Blair and Robbie King made semi final one after finishing with five wins, losing just the one to the Victorian pairing.

With the completion of the preliminary rounds the semi finals in the Australian Junior Boy's Doubles were:
Luke Sipple & Guy Holland (NSW) v Leslie Blair & Robbie King (QLD) v
Matthew Francois and John Tuhi (VIC) v Conan Ugle & Blake Hatchett (WA)

The first semi final saw the defending Champions start a little scratchy. The first leg saw Guy Holland and Luke Sipple from New South Wales to the double first but they wasted darts trying to finish. This opened up the leg for their opponents in Queensland's Leslie Blair and Robbie King. The opening was grabbed by the Queenslanders with King hitting the double to inflict a break against the throw. This fired up the Holland and Sipple and they immediately broke back with Sipple hitting double 20 with his first dart to square up the semi final. The further this final went on the better Holland and Sipple threw. The Queenlander's were virtually matching the NSW pairing but just could not get in front of them. Sipple hit double 16 to win the third leg and then hit finished from 20 in the fourth for a 24-darter to take the contest.

The second semi saw a one sided result but the match was a lot closer than what the score line indicated. Blake Hatchett and Conan Ugle (right) won through 3 - 1 over Matthew Francois and John Tuhi from Victoria. The opening leg went with the darts to the pairing of Hatchett and Ugle with Ugle finishing from 66. The second leg saw the boy's from the west inflict a break with Ugle again finishing the leg, this time from 33. WA wanted one more leg and was away first but the Victorian pair had other ideas, and won the third leg with Francois finishing from 20 to get the break back and stay in the contest. The Victorian's were away first in the fourth leg but some big scoring saw Ugle and Hatchett at the double first. They were having double trouble and could not finish the leg as the Victorian's got closer. They even wasted a throw at the double before Hatchett finally hit double 1 to move into the final.

Boys Doubles Semi Final Averages
1st Semi Final
Luke Sipple 16.409 & Guy Holland 21.333 (NSW)
Leslie Blair 16.409 & Robbie King 17.737 (QLD)
2nd Semi Final
Blake Hatchett 15.733 & Conan Ugle 19.277 (WA)
Matthew Francois 18.818 & John Tuhi 17.777 (VIC)

The final would be contested by pairings from the same Pool for a shot at the title. The Final was shaping up to be a cracker with the New South Welshmen being slight favourites as they topped the pool at the end of the round robin and they defeated the pairing of Ugle and Hatchett 2 - 1 in those qualifying rounds. Interestingly it was nearly a repeat of last year's final with Conan Ugle being the only new face. Unfortunately for the Western Australian pair of Hatchett and Ugle they came up against a pair in pretty consistent form and all four players made for a very close final. New South Wales players Sipple and Holland (left) were away first but a missed finishing opportunity of 20 by Holland opened up a chance for the WA boy's to take the first leg, which they did with Ugle finishing from 68. They backed that first leg up with a solid second leg again Ugle finishing from 40 to take a 2 - 0 lead. At this stage all players were regularly finding the triple twenty so some great scoring was a feature of the final. The third leg had to be won by NSW or the title chase would be over. They powered in the big scores with WA right behind them. A clean 56 finish by Holland for a 20-darter saw them on the score board for their first leg. Leg four and again consistent scoring saw Holland and Sipple to the double first. This time Sipple evened up the final at 2 - 2 with a 52 finish. The final had come down to one leg of darts. Ugle for WA was away first and all players were feeling the pressure at this stage. Hatchett was hitting some big scores and then Ugle threw a couple as well. The Champs were in a bit of trouble being over 150 behind as the WA pair were lining up the double. However they wasted four walks at the double letting Holland and Sipple a shot at the double. Holland hit that winning double finishing from 8 and he had won his third title and Sipple his second. The Western Pair were extremely disappointed having wasted a great opportunity to win the Australian doubles title. All four players had played great darts and they all were so evenly matched producing a great contest.

Boys Doubles Final Averages
Luke Sipple (NSW) 21.525
Guy Holland (NSW) 24.926
Blake Hatchett (WA) 21.142
Conan Ugle (WA) 23.707

Australian Junior Girls Doubles

The Girl's competition was just as close. In Pool "A" Queensland's Rebecca Webster and Elle Ward were dominate, winning all of their five round matches to top the pool and move into the first semi final. The rest of the pairings were very evenly matched but coming in second place to make the second semi final was Tasmania's Hollie Targett and Rhyannon Preece with 3 wins. Three of the other pairings. The tightness of the competition was shown in this Pool with every combination winning at least one round with South Australia who finished in sixth still having a win.

Jucinta Dann and Krissy Smith of Western Australia finished in top place in Pool "B" being undefeated. They were pretty dominating dropping just two legs during the pool rounds. A tiebreaker was required to find second placing. South Australia's Asha Gurd and Kelsey Warren came through that tiebreaker defeating Tasmania's Hayley Smith and Chloe Hoskins to advance to the semi finals. As in Pool A in this Pool B every pairing won at least one round.

With the completion of the preliminary rounds the semi finals for the Australian Junior Girl's Doubles were:
Rebecca Webster & Ella Ward (QLD) v Asha Gurd & Kelsey Warren (SA)
Jucinta Dann & Krissy Smith (WA) v Hollie Targett & Rhyannon Preece (TAS)

The first semi final saw the Queensland Pairing and defending Champions of Rebecca Webster and Elle Ward playing off against South Australian's Asha Gurd and Kelsey Warren (left). The Queenslander's were away first but a great finish of 74 by Warren saw them inflict a break against the throw. They backed that first leg up by taking the second leg, this time Gurd finishing by hitting double 10 to take a 2 - 0 lead. The Queenslander's won the third leg after some good scoring gave them the clear advantage in this leg. They now had to break the South Australian's throw to stay in contention for the title. This they did with Ward finishing on double 4 after both Gurd and Warren had wasted darts at the double. The final leg saw Gurd lead off. All players were matching each other with the scoring, giving the South Australian pair the slight advantage of first darts at the double. Only one was required as Asha Gurd hit double 16 to advance to the final and the defending Champions were gone.

Legs went with darts for the first four legs. A tiebreaking leg was required to separate the two. The Webster Ward combination were away first in the decider, and throughout the whole leg, both pairs were matching each other score wise. With Hatch and McNicol ready to take the leg sitting on 32, Ward pegged 47 to stake their place in the final. It's hard playing your teammates in a competition like this, but both pairs played some great darts in this semi final.

The second semi final saw the pairing that took their opportunities win the legs. Both pairs missed chances at the doubles after both pairings were matching each other when scoring. The first leg killed off any decent averages as all players were showing early nerves and they struggled to hit double 3 and double 2. Eventually Preece finished the leg from 4 and from that point on the semi final lifted in standard immensely. The second leg saw Dann and Smith hitting the big scores and they powered away to take the leg comfortably with Dann finishing this leg needing just 2 darts to finish from 82. Leg three went to the west as well again with a nice 74 finish by Dann. Missed darts at the double cost Dann and Smith in the fourth leg as Targett finished from 32 to steal the leg after being behind on the scoring leaving the semi in the balance at 2 - 2. The deciding leg saw Dann away first starting strongly with a ton. This was followed by an 85 by Targett, setting the trend for this leg. WA was just a touch stronger with their scoring to give them the advantage they needed to take the leg. This time Smith finished on double 8 after Dann had left 16 after trying to finish from 32 to her previous shot. They had done enough and were into their first final.

Girls Doubles Semi Final Averages
1st Semi Final
Asha Gurd 15.152 & Kelsey warren 17.423 (SA)
Rebecca Webster 17.163 & Ella Ward 15.941 (QLD)
2nd Semi Final
Jucinta Dann 17.165 & Krissy Smith 11.323 (WA)
Hollie Targett 13.490 & Rhyannon Preece 11.928 (TAS)

The Grand Final was played by some nervous Girl's in front of a large crowd. It was the last match of the competition and both pairings had come out of pool "B". Asha Gurd pairing with Kelsey Warren was away first with all players throwing good steady darts. Nothing really outstanding but plenty of scores in the 80's and 90's. SA was to the double first and took the leg with a 20 finish. The same scenario in the second leg but this time the lead off was thrown by Dann and she finished from 40 to make it 1 - 1. The crowd was at full attention with plenty of support for both pairings as the tension mounted. South Australia nearly squandered a chance in the third leg after missing a shot at the double. The trouble for WA was that they missed the next shot at the double as well. Kelsey Warren saved the day for SA here hitting double 2 to take the leg. Leg four and the South Australian pair was starting to find the triple twenty a little more consistently then their opponents, but their first chance at the title went missing when they missed darts at finishing from 20. This let Dann in for a shot at finishing from 20 as well which she accomplished to see the final at 2 - 2 in legs. As in the boy's final down to one leg of darts to claim the title. South Australia was away first but loose shots by all four players showed the nerves had set in. The experience of Jucinta Dann came through here with three big scores in a row to give the advantage to WA. Those three shots had put a gap between the two pairings but that did not matter as Dann finished from 58 to hit the winning double and to win the title.

Girls Doubles Finals Averages
Jucinta Dann (WA) 19.260
Krissy Smith (WA) 15.024
Asha Gurd (SA) 17.125
Kelsey Warren (SA) 14.762