Thursday, October 1, 2009
Column 376
One year ago, this October, in darts
Thirteen-times world champion Phil Taylor is over the moon again (honest) as he kicks off October with another professional tour win – his thirteenth of the year – with a victory over James Wade in the final of the Irish Players Championship.
Dennis Priestley then picks up his third tour victory of the year, the following day, with a win over Raymond van Barneveld. The Menace worked his way through John MacGowan, Louis Blundell, Colin Monk, Jelle Klaasen, and Mervyn King en route.
The World Grand Prix takes center stage in Dublin and begins with a shocker as James Wade is dispatched in the first round by Tony Eccles. More big names fall as the tournament progresses and by semi-final day only Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Terry Jenkins, and Mervyn King are still standing. By the same 5 set to nil score line Taylor and Barneveld handle Jenkins and Hamilton respectively to set up a tasty final – which Taylor then wins for his eighth World Grand Prix title. The television cameras swarm the world champion and (surprise) he says he’s over the moon.
Tony O’Shea and Anastasia Dobromyslova win at the Welsh Masters. New Zealand’s Bernie Smith and Australia’s Corrine Hammond take titles at the New Zealand Masters.
The first Scottish Players Championship sees world-ranked number three, James Wade, two-times world champion Dennis Priestley and former world-ranked number one, Colin Lloyd, all go down in the first round. Ultimately it’s the quiet and unassuming Alex Roy who finds the finish line and pockets the £5,000 winner’s check – nailing a 161-finish in the final leg to seal victory over Denis Ovens, Roy’s first title since 2005.
The second Scottish Players Championship the next day sees James Wade take care of business with a 3-1 defeat of Mark Walsh. Despite losing the first set, Wade steams to victory without dropping a leg in the next two sets, slamming the door shut with a 140-finish in the final leg.
Phil Taylor claims victory in the inaugural Championship League Darts final in Essex final with a 7-5 victory over Mervyn King and pockets just over £20,000 for his effort. Taylor of course is over the moon (really).
Colin Osborne takes his first Players Championship title of 2008 (having twice been the runner-up) with a final-leg win over up-and-coming Spanish star, Carlos Rodriguez, in the PartyPoker German Darts Trophy final in Kirchheim.
Rusty Stewart wins the Oceanic Masters.
In America, Scotty Burnett wins twice at the San Francisco Open while Andrea Taylor nearly does the same – but falls to Stacy Bromberg in the cricket final. In Manchester, New Hampshire, at the LCPL Ryan T. McCaughn Memorial, Bob Baechler and Pam Briggs each win twice. It’s Robbie Philips, Joe Chaney, Stacy Bromberg, and Christina Medina who clean up at the Halloween Open in Austin, Texas. At the Gold Coast Shootout in Ventura, California, Dan Santos, John Denich, Diana Needham, and Charis Friedlander score wins. Jerry Marelli and Lee Knispel win at the Stadium Shootout in Mentor, Ohio. David Fatum and Stacy Bromberg go on a tear at the London Bridge tournament in Arizona, each winning twice. At the Seacoast Open in Andover, Maryland, Avery Berry, Joe Swick, Nancy Huntoon, and Marilyn Poop outlast the field – while during the same weekend, also in Maryland, Chris Linkous and Darin Young split at the Make-a-Wish Open and Jennifer Lynch doubles. Finally, at the Mid-Columbia Open in Kennewick, Washington, Pat Breithaupt gets the job done over Kevin Luke while Leslie Nelson dispatches Darci McVay.
Meanwhile, except in the Phil Taylor household, the economy continues to nosedive. President George Bush takes action by signing the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act which accomplishes nothing, so he reverts to Plan “B” and bombs a developing country. Senator John McCain, introduces Joe the Plumber (who it is reported, “…turns out to not be named Joe, not a plumber, a citizen of Belgium, and biologically, a woman) who shares his personal secret for economic survival: “Collect unemployment”.
In a Las Vegas courtroom a jury convicts O.J. Simpson of multiple counts of armed robbery and kidnapping. Facing decades in the brink, the judgment ends the former football star’s “unrelenting mission” (as he put it to the judge) to “Yo, yo, yo, dude – find the mo fo who done wasted the mo fos I stabbed to death in 1994.”
Finally, in an incredible but mysterious discovery on the scientific front that dominates front page news for days, astronomers at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii photograph a “powerful object floating just over the surface of the moon”. The mystery is solved when the object is identified as “some bloke from Stoke-on-Trent”.
From the Field,
Dartoid
