{"id":6056,"date":"2023-08-16T10:36:32","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T10:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/2023\/08\/column-hr421-the-week-that-was\/"},"modified":"2024-02-14T22:17:51","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T22:17:51","slug":"column-hr421-the-week-that-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/2023\/08\/column-hr421-the-week-that-was\/","title":{"rendered":"Column #HR421 THE WEEK THAT WAS…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, August 16, 2023
\n<\/strong>Column HR421\u00a0<\/strong>
\nTHE WEEK THAT WAS…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rob Cross would have to have been angry when he traveled with his mates from the PDC for the\u00a0World Series in New Zealand and Australia.\u00a0 He won both the New Zealand and the New South Wales Darts Masters pretty as you\u2019d like.\u00a0\u00a0In New Zealand, Cross was in peril against truck driver Jonny Tata from the land of Vegemite and tossing shrimp on the barbe.\u00a0\u00a0Tata had defeated Peter Wright in round 1.\u00a0 Wright led 2-1 when Tata drove back 4 in a row hitting the winner with an 84-check after missing 3 in the previous leg.<\/p>\n

Tata\u00a0started strong against Cross,\u00a0taking\u00a0the opening leg in 15 darts then leading 3-2.\u00a0\u00a0Cross took three for a 5-3 lead.\u00a0 Tata would level things at 5 all in 15 and 14 darts.\u00a0 Cross let the air out of Tata’s\u00a0hopes for the 6-5 win.\u00a0\u00a0Nathan Aspinall put together an amazing 7 legs to reach the final against Michael Smith.\u00a0\u00a0The Asp was deadly with an average of 110.22, checking 7\/11 in a 7-3 win.\u00a0 He had 1-11, 2-13 and a\u00a015-darter. Smith averaged 107.45.<\/p>\n

Cross reached the final with an easy 7-3 win over Gerwyn Pirce.\u00a0 Ahead 4-3, Cross needed only 13 for 5-3 then\u00a0checks of T20 and T40 to reach the final against Aspinall.\u00a0 There is a rule in darts that if you have a higher average and better check rate you should win.\u00a0 Rules are made to be broken.\u00a0 Cross did just that as he was outscored and out finished taking a nail biter 8-7.\u00a0 How could that happen?<\/p>\n

Cross\u2019s scoring in spots allowed him to miss finishes while at the same time lowered his average.\u00a0 Cross won the first leg then missed 5 for the second.\u00a0 When they were level at 2, Cross missed 2 – giving the leg and the lead to Aspinall 3-2.\u00a0\u00a0With 14 and 13 darts Aspinall\u2019s lead was 5-2.\u00a0 Cross had a miss but won a leg for 3-5 then repeated, making it 4-5.\u00a0 In 13 darts Aspinall made it 6-4 only to have Cross grab one back in 14 and then level in 15 with a 64-check after Aspinall missed one.\u00a0 Cross then missed 5 doubles allowing The Asp to move ahead 7-6, one leg from victory.\u00a0 In 14 and 15 Cross ended the affair with an 88-check as The Asp never saw a double.\u00a0 The win was worth \u00a320,000.<\/p>\n

As things moved to New South Wales, which is never confused with Old South Wales, the locals celebrated the first round as Damon Heta and Simon Whitlock advanced.\u00a0 Whitlock had a struggle as he finished only 6 of 22.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nathan Aspinall saw doubles cost him 3 legs, losing 6-5.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0not missed finishes but when they occur.<\/p>\n

Damon Heta took out\u00a0Gerwyn Price 6-3.\u00a0 In the semis Heta had a doozy against Dimitri Van den Bergh.\u00a0\u00a0With the Belgium throwing first they both held for 4-3.\u00a0 Heta had the chance to level with a T25 to leave 16.\u00a0 Three misses gave Van den Bergh the chance to break, which he did for 5-3.\u00a0 With the chance to take the lead again\u00a0Van den Bergh busted 48 for 4-5.\u00a0 Heta leveled at 5 moving head when Van den Bergh couldn\u2019t check from 48 once again.\u00a0 They would go to a decider as Van den Bergh broke for 6-all.\u00a0 Heta needed 14 darts to win 7-6 and earn a trip to the finals.<\/p>\n

Against Danny Noppert, Rob Cross continued his invasion with a 6-4 win.\u00a0 Tied at 4, Noppert managed only 40 from 80 as Cross erased 56 for 5-4.\u00a0 The Cross winning leg saw 4 missed finishes by both players – when Cross then avoided\u00a05 misses to peg his 19th dart for a 6-4 win.\u00a0 Cross\u2019 semi found him sharing the oche with Peter Wright who got there with a 6-3 win over Michael Smith.<\/p>\n

Cross was \u201cEn Fuego\u201d destroying Wright 7-0 with an average of 109.59.\u00a0\u00a0Wright would go 5-nil finishing (which a little miss leading as\u00a0four of those came in one leg).<\/p>\n

Damon Heta had been quoted saying “what a thrill it would be” to win his home Masters.\u00a0 The plan was flawed as Cross jumped out to a 7-nil lead winning 8-1. Cross dominated the trip Down Under.\u00a0 \u201cKeen observation, Sherlock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another darter that had \u201cone of those weeks\u201d was Stowe Buntz as he took three CDC events in fine fashion.\u00a0 Twice unlucky was Alex Spellman.\u00a0 Buntz broke a level at 4 game with 3 in a row for the 7-4 win.\u00a0\u00a0In their second final Buntz led 6-4.\u00a0 Spellman used a pair of 16-darters, added by a Buntz missed bull, to force a 13th leg.\u00a0 Buntz tossed his second 14-darter for the 7-6 win.\u00a0 Buntz’s third win came against Jim Long 7-2.<\/p>\n

In\u00a01979, the World Cup II was held at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas.\u00a0\u00a0The WDF \u201cpowers that be\u201d banned the press from attending.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 It seems the \u201cpowers that be\u201d got their collective feathers ruffled.\u00a0 Reportedly, newspapers and other media had described darters as\u00a0\u201cilliterate, boozing slobs playing a silly child\u2019s game good only for comic relief on the late news or the back page.”<\/p>\n

The WDF\u2019s reasoning?\u00a0 Apparently, since the\u00a0World Cup II is a serious sporting event, the press had to be banned to\u00a0protect the dignity of the event.<\/em><\/p>\n

The World Cup II\u00a0was<\/em>\u00a0serious as those attending drank the Sahara out of beer.\u00a0 Two enlightened darters found a baggage cart loaded with several cases of beer at the bottom of the escalator.\u00a0 The person with the cart could not deliver the beer to the floor up the escalator (as that was another union).\u00a0\u00a0So, the two lads bought four cases of beer, went up the escalator and back to the venue.\u00a0 Made a little profit.<\/p>\n

Ron and Howie weren\u2019t too dumb!<\/p>\n

The GOLDEN ERA DART PLAYERS love that Bob Anderson has donated a “new, never used” Limestone Bob Anerson dart shirt for the auction on January 19th.\u00a0 Thanks Bob.<\/p>\n

Riding the coattails of the GOLDEN ERA DART PLAYERS STACY BROMBERG SENIOR OPEN on January 19-20, 2024, the ADO has decided to follow them on those dates.\u00a0 The GOLDEN ERA DART PLAYERS are always there to help the ADO.<\/p>\n

Did you know that prior to 1977 the throw line was called the Hockley?\u00a0 True fact.\u00a0\u00a0Then in late 1977 or 1978 the BDO changed it to Oche.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 No EYE DEAR.<\/p>\n

Darn good thing as Toeing the Oche would have been Toeing the Hockey.\u00a0 Silly.<\/p>\n

Stay thirsty my friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rob Cross would have to have been angry when he traveled with his mates from the PDC for the\u00a0World Series in New Zealand and Australia..\u00a0 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Reed","author_link":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/author\/howie-reed\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Rob Cross would have to have been angry when he traveled with his mates from the PDC for the\u00a0World Series in New Zealand and Australia..\u00a0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":17,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"howie-reed","display_name":"Howie Reed","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/111howie.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/111howie.jpg"},"first_name":"Howie","last_name":"Reed","user_url":"http:\/\/www.dartoidsworld.com","job_title":"","description":"Astute, often controversial, and always humorous, the Old Dart Coach, Howie Reed (a former rodeo cowboy and advertising executive), is heralded as the Dean of Darts Chroniclers - the most prolific and widely followed writer ever about our sport. He goes back decades with the legends and knows where the skeletons are buried (just ask any of the ADO and WDF old-timers!). Here are four well-known facts about the Old Dart Coach: 1) he is a Republican, 2) he loves the ladies, 3) he can drink most anybody under the table, and 4) he throws darts as bad as Dartoid."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6108,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6056\/revisions\/6108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6056"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=6056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}