Darts has taken a beating of late with all the negative press far exceeding the positives. You sometimes hear of people losing their monies due to cancelled flights, delays in receiving prize monies etc however as per it never really happens to you, until now.
Having paid for flights with a suitcase and entries for the 3 competitions I was looking forward to heading back over to West Fries on 6th March. However with just over 1 week to go rumours started spiralling suggesting the event had been cancelled. Even then I was not to worried as most times it is just hear say and rumours to cause yet another outcry. However not this time. It was indeed correct.
I do not know the full reasons behind what happened but many of BDO & WDF darters have all ended up out of pocket. Some even losing out on hotel costs which they had paid in good faith. It is so expensive doing the circuit at the best of times but losing this money not only leaves a bad taste but you thinking about who can be trusted.
With things having taken a turn for the worst it was about time it changed. It was Longridge finals night time again at St Wilfrids Panel Darts. With the draw done I knew that in order to defend my 2 year champions title I had to get through 7 other qualifiers including superleagers and county ladies alike. It would not be easy.
My first game had a sticky start with me struggling to hit the double. Angry with myself I made sure I did not do that again & subsequently won 3.1. My second game was against Blackburn Superleaguer Jackie Boatswain and without dropping a leg I was in the final for the 3rd year running. This year against my ex county team mate Ged Fielding.
I took the first two legs in 20 darts. The third started with one of my darts bouncing out of treble twenty and another falling out the board. This made me lapse in concentration and you cannot do that against Ged as she was playing awesomely and had had an extremely tough draw to get to the final.
Ged pulled it back to 2.2. She had first throw at the winning double however just missed. I stepped up & calmly took out 60 to retain my title for the third year running. Along with the trophy I won £200 which helped soften the blow following the monies lost from West Fries.
Happy after winning myself and partner drove to our County darts pick up point to try to get some sleep in the car as it was not practical to drive home to drive back on ourselves a couple of hours later.
Sleep eluded me. As soon as our coach came I got on & had a little sleep on our way to Northamptonshire. Once there fatigue really set in. After the ladies had played I headed back to our hotel for a couple of hours sleep or I would not be able to go out with the team later that evening.
Feeling refreshed after my sleep I got up & we headed out for an 80's night. Returning to our hotel just after midnight my bed was calling.
Fully refreshed all my comrades heading back to continue to build on the strong start the ladies and gents had given us on the Saturday. I was drawn out to play third. I felt very calm and confident. I hit the right scores at the right times. I continued to add to my County 180 tally making it 6 so far this season ( bearing in mind t took me 5 yrs to hit my first ). I completed my 6 out of 6 victory with a nice 3.1 result and shared Lancashires lady of the match with the fantastic Amy Eden.
The A team were both only able to obtain a draw. However the work the B teams had done helped us the the overall victory for the weekend.
Another fantastic weekend with fantastic players & friends. Looking forward to the next at the end of the month.