Winds blowing with an icy nip in the air and tentatively the Morecambe mob all boarded the Ben My Chree to make our annual pilgrimage over to the Isle of Man. With the growing un ease of the Corona virus we carried on in the typically British stiff upper lipped ways to continue as normally as we could until we are told otherwise.
The sailing over was the worst in all the years I have had. Was mother nature giving us a clue as to the troublesome times yet to come?
It was such a relief getting in to our fantastic hotel The Mannin. Our rooms ready for us @ 7 am. A well needed few hours sleep before the start of my Drawus Horribilis!
The first draw I had was against World Masters lady qualifier Priscilla Steenbergen. In our head to head meetings honours are even. With Dutch Champion Aileen De Graff looking on I convincingly won 4.1 and checked out the final leg with a nice 123 on the Bull! My next opponent after this resounding win was the Fantastic talent of Beau Greaves. It was a truly awesome game scoring wise. It was cat and mouse all game but Beau hit the bigger finishes. Her final leg is testament to her darting prowess a nice 13 darter.... even though I had hit 125 to get me onto a two dart finish, I wasn't given to opportunity.
2020 saw England darts re introduce the Mixed pairs. I was playing with fellow Lancashire team mate Lee Shewan. We set off great guns taking victory against fellow BDO circuit lady Angie McDonald & The Walrus ( Santa look a like ). Unfortunately we were knocked out next round by BDO tour colleague Maggie Sutton and Mr Ben ( Ben Hazel ).
The next draw for me was against Australias Corinne Hammond again our head to head would mean the game could go either way. This time was Corinnes time. Some top scoring from both where we rarely missed at least one treble twenty each visit. However her finishing was sharper.
Ladies pairs was again with fellow Lancashire lady & good friend Ally Smith. My top end draw continued, in our very first round we hit more huge names in Vicki Pruim & Anca Zilstra. Again another top game with us narrowly defeated, losing 2.1
Although the results hadn't gone my way I was happy with how I had played. I need to get my scoring & finishing consistently together so that this years results can be reversed in my favour at our next meetings.
Following our return home from the Isle of Man the addition to the Coronavirus pandemic, Flight & comp cancellations came. Not only countries having to close borders, planes grounded & people asked to self isolate to stop the spread of this worldwide pandemic. Frustrating times for myself as for others but life & health is more important than darts.
I will be using the time off to harness doubles so when we come through it all and its time to pick back up where we left off I will come back both scoring and finishing on point.
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