A day of planes, trains and automobiles could only mean one thing. The longest slog to Assen for the WDF World Masters. The final attempt of the year to get world ranking points towards the darting pinnacle The Lakeside.
First stage for all the Global darters was getting through the grouped round robin stages. To keep my seeding going into the main comp I needed to top my group.
After a good start and a nice 14 dart leg my game slowed somewhat but I did what I set out to do winning all my games and only dropping 2 legs in all the games.
To next stage was going into the Platinum ranked competition as the seed. But that is as far as I went. My game totally eluded me. There were some good darts but a lot more inconsistent ones. I was beaten by the lovely lady Stefanie Rennoch from Germany. I ended the Masters in the last 64. A few more ranking points but not nearly as many as I'd have liked.
The WDF Dutch Open started Saturday. This was a straight knockout competition. After being seeded and 4th game on my board I first faced the tremendous young talent of Roos Van der Velde.
In to the next stage I faced the fantastic Canadian Angela Aucoin. If I am honest I was very lucky to get through this game. Angela rarely missed the treble 20 and she was by far the most consistent scorer in the game. Pulling out a nice 110 finish gave me the belief that I was still very much in the game and that I had to dig in.
Happy to have gone one step further into the last 32 ladies in the world I was then due to play on the stage. Again, against Stefanie Rennoch who had beaten me the day before and who had also had experience of playing on the Dutch Stage. Despite trying my hardest, I was still far from my best game. For my game please watch from 4 hours 44 mins in.
Had I done enough to stay in the running for the prestigious Lakeside.....?
Yes I had! After a very turmultuous year I was so relieved to have hung on in there to relieve my darting dreams again on The Lakeside stage. I have had the biggest kick up the rear realising I cannot get results if I do not put the time in and this has showed in the last few months. From now until Lakeside it will be Practise, practise and more PRACTISE!
I can't write about this weekend without mentioning my room mates Kirsty and Natalie. What an absolute blast we have had. Even though we are all out for ourselves when it comes to games it just shows what good commeradery we have amongst the darting family.
Despite Kirsty and I finishing our darting campaign and knowing that we get to fulfil our Lakeside Dream yet again we did all we can to support our roomy Nat. Natalie is one of the sports most kind, genuine and talented ladies. She has an amazing darting portfolio but the only thing eluding her is getting to Lakeside.
After 4 full days of darts it came down to a miss by the narrowest of margins to mean she wouldn't automatically qualify on points. Needless to say we were all devastated for Nat but reminded her of how awesome she had played at it was not over for her as she now needed to go win the semi final in the qualifier on Monday. As throughout the week, I will be there with her all the way. If anyone deserved a place there, Nat does.
Hopefully, once we know the dates you will all come support me and all the other players who have spent a lot of time, money and effort travelling the world to fulfil the Ultimate darting dream.
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