Thursday, March 27, 2024
Column HR448
HAT 4 Luke… ZIP for Greaves
‘Twas an interesting week in the world of darts as Luke Humphries got the Hat Trick when he won last Thursday night’s Premier League tussle for the third time in a row. The Trick was accomplished last by Michael Smith in 2022.
The term Hat Trick is believed by many North Americans to have originated in hockey. Nay. Nay.
The term originally came into the light of day in 1858. Cricket fans were over the moon when H.H. Stephensen took three wickets on three consecutives delivers (which the members of the Colonies will consider a BFD). The fans took up a collection and bought him a hat.
The Colonies, of course, improved on the tradition when Detroit Red Wings (hockey) fans tossed an octopus on the ice. Nice improvement?
Humphries started his night with a cakewalk against a “defanged” Peter Wright 6-1, with an average of 106 and change. The toughest challenge of the night came from another snake in Nathan “The Asp” Aspinall (who has come alive of late) reaching the semis with a 13-darter against Rod Cross for the 6-5 win. Against Aspinall they were tied at 1, 2 and 4. Aspinall, Humphries was down 4-2 when he collected a pair for the draw. Humphries then took the lead in 12 darts and closed in 17 for the victory.
The final against Michael Smith started off with Humphries charging to a 4-nil lead with three of the legs in 12, 13 and 11. Smith collected a leg with a T13 finish after Cool Hand missed a pair to deny. At 5-1 Smith got his final leg with a T25 (25, T20, d20) finish on the way to a 6-2 loss.
No one has ever won four in a row in the Premier League in this short of time under the current format…
Humphries has stated that he has some Irish heritage in his background. If he has the Luck of the Irish working for him, he should feel right at home going from Dublin to Belfast this week. His opening match will be against Luke Littler followed by either Smith or MvG to reach the semifinals. The other side of the draw will see Nathan Aspinall vs. Gerwyn Price and Rob Cross vs. Peter Wright.
The PDC Women’s Series (1-4) provided news both on the oche and off. On the oche news was that Beau Greaves failed to win an event. This is remarkable considering that last year Greaves owned an astonishing 12 of 24 events (and in 5 of the events she wasn’t entered making her 12 for 19). During the run she took 5 in a row.
The opening event this year was a wake-up call for Greaves. Throwing first, Fallon Sherrock prevailed in every leg with the darts. In addition to her three-dart advantage Sherrock was aided by Greaves’ failure to score – averaging 85.63 and missing darts for the win.
The second of 4 events brought forth controversy (pronounce Con-Tra-A-Vis-See) when the Shaina Twain-like (I Feel Like a Women) Noa-Lynn van Leuven from Netherlands won the day by beating Katie Sheldon in the final 5-2. That was bad enough, but “it” also defeated Fallon Sherrock and Beau Greaves by the same 5-2 score. More on the “hub bub” later…
“Miracle” Mikuru Suzuki got her first win since the final event in 2021 prevailing over Lisa Ashton 5-3. In the 2022 series Suzuki had 4 finals coming up zero in each attempt. In the semifinals Fallon Sharrock jumped off to a 3-nil lead (where Suzuki missed darts to lead 2-1). Suzuki got a nice run of 4 with legs of 21, 21, 19 and 14. Suzuki would then waste a pair of darts for a 6-3 win but used 14 darts to get the 6-5 triumph.
Deta “The Queen” Hedman made her first appearance in a Women’s Series final since October of 2021. In that year she reached two finals with no wins. Suzuki lost the bull but broke twice for a 3-0 lead as Hedman’s scoring deserted her. Deta got a pair back with a break and a hold as the scoring elf jumped to Suzuki’s arm for 3-2. At 4-2 Hedman leveled at 4 with a pair including a 15-darter against the throw when Suzuki’s missed two match darts. Hedman had the darts in the decider as both struggled to finish – Suzuki used 4 to finish from 40.
Fallon Sherrock returned to the winner’s circle in the weekend’s final event with a 5-1 trouncing of Beau Greaves. Greaves never had a shot at a double averaging a 76.68.
On the WDF front at the Virginia Beach Classic Cali West won the ladies’ 501 singles 5-2 over Cricket winner Paula Murphy. Jason Brandon took a 5-4 win over Danny Young. Neither win will alter the course of the dart world.
Transgender darts player Noa-Lynn van Leuven, from the Netherlands, worked both sides of the street last week by winning both a men’s event and ladies’ event. On Friday, it was a Challenge Tour event at which she defeated both males and females – and then women in the PDC Women’s Series. No one can complain about the win in the Challenge Tour event, but the PDC Women’s event is a different kettle of fish.
The Old Dart Coach has always maintained that without the “ultimate equipment” change “trans men” should not be playing against “real” women. Agreeing and in protest two members of the Netherlands’ Nation Team, Aileen de Graaf and Anca Zijlstra, indicated they would not be available for any team competition as long as Van Leuven was a member.
The Dutch Dart Association (DBN) issued the following statement: ”We find it important that one hundred percent of people feel welcome at the DBN in a socially safe, healthy and inclusive sports environment. In that, it does not matter what your origin, political affiliation, gender, sexual orientation, race or religion is.”
The DBN either seems oblivious or doesn’t care that at least two members of their team “don’t feel welcome.”
One lady posted: “I have an uncle that’s a transexual and a daughter that’s a lesbian. I see no problem.” Now, if she had a gay family member she would cover the menu of the gene pool.
Tennis icon Martina Navratilova has been strong with her opinions, never backing down…
Navratilova posted: “No male bodies in women’s sports please, not even in darts. Again, women get the short end of the stick (no pun intended, I’m sure) either way. And it stinks,” Navratilova posted.”
Stay thirsty my friends.
