Finals Team Knock Out Cup: Junction Jackals v El Capitan
Well we couldn’t separate these two leviathans last week when they finished joint 2nd place in the league but in the final match of the season, there could only be one winner of the Team KO competition.
Last season El Capitan won the title but this year, Phil de Lacy and his merry men of the Junction Jackals deservedly won the cup. The El Galan boys won the toss and had first throw but El Capitan’s Aroldas Klimonis’ first darts were a cool 140 and then team mate Jim Waddell closed the first triples on D4. El Cap took the 2nd triples with Ed Klimonis checking out S16-D8. With Jackals’ hackles raised the tasty triplet of Lee Maiden, Andy Rutter and Alex Nikolov (S9-S18-D18) pulled one back.
Bolstered by his win, captain de Lacy played Alex first out in the pairs against Aroldas and David Rotella. The El Cap lads scored 100 apiece but the Jackals scored 122 and 121 and de Lacy finished with a flurry- S10-S20-D20 evening the score line up nicely. Maiden and Rutter succumbed to Rotella and Bettel’s 100 and D12 out in the 2nd pairs. In the last game before num-nums ‘super Nige’ scored 134- (perhaps because his sandals had parted friendship with his socks for the night)-and Junction landlord Andy Gildea sunk his first dart in for D20 to make the half time score 3 all.
After a tasty and slightly spicy portion of cottage pie, Aroldas could not do enough to stop Lee Maiden who scored a 140 and then a two dart finish on S17-D20. Andy Rutter was 300 ahead of opponent Mel Bettel in his singles but eventually he hit D5 with a sigh of relief. The third singles also went the way of the Jackals when the mad Bulgarian chalked up 100, 125 and D20 against Daddy Klimonis.
So the jackals were now 6-3 up and only needing one more leg from the last 3. Sockless Nige did his level best against captain Den Hall but the latter checked out on D16 to give El Cap a glimmer of hope. This glimmer soon faded when old adversaries de Lacy and Rotella met in the next game. Phil, equipped with his new darts, scored 92, 100 and took himself ahead of Rotella and could have left him high and dry had his first shot at the finish hit home. It didn’t, but further whittling got him down to D4 which he picked off to make it a 7-4 win for the Jackals.
In all their excitement, they forgot to thank Paul Birtwistle and the Tavern for hosting the event, so on their behalf, thank you very much and also a thank you Debbie Wright and Simone who chalked the first game and kept all the scores and finally for the support from other teams Massey’s, Hyenas and co who came to watch.
Finals Auxiliary Team Knock Out Cup: Ale House v Porter House Bees
Well the Ale House got off to a flying start courtesy of Andre Wing, Karl Mallinson and Del Lister’s D5 check-out against Tim Goodacre, Handsome Harvey Lane and Gilly Kirby. The tasty triplet of Havelock, Gray and Leaver (D20) saw off Graham Parker and Mr and Mrs Lane in the 2nd triples and then Havelock, Wing and Mallinson’s very impressive T20-S20-D16 (112) out-shot got them the 3rd.
Mallinson and Wing’s D4 got them 4 in a row by the end of the first pairs stinging the Bees into action. Gilly and John Lane’s S19-D4 opened the account for the Bees and then King Bee Parker got a 180 before checking out on S10-D16 for leg no. 2 with Michelle. So into the singles with a score line of 4 – 2 to the Ale House the Bees started to even things up with Tim (D1) and Graham (D1) taking the first two legs. Ale House’s Leaver then took one back with an impressive S18-D20-D18 (94) 3-darter only to have Bees’ Hirst square it up again (T13-D3).
Queen Bee Michelle added to the damage with her D8 out to take the Bees up to 6 legs, just needing the 7th for the win in the last of the singles. Captain Mallinson wasn’t having any of that and his D15-D6 made it a tie at the end of the usual league format. So, as in qualifying before, the Bees needed to win the 13th Golden game of 6- players in the 13th leg of 1001.
A great effort from both teams in this decider but the victory went to the Bees when John Lane sealed the deal with S16-S16-D8. Big thanks to Terry Kirby who chalked a lot of the games and to the Hen’s Teeth for putting on a lovely spread and hosting the match. It’s all over for this season now (TFFT) save for the Presentation Night next week.
With 160 players and guests attending it should be one hell of a night, including the Blind Team KO comp, oodles of trophies to be awarded and raffle prizes to be won before dancing away into the early hours! See you all there x
