Darts by Tutu Wynn
AN undermanned 2NZ Diamonds — due to the absence of Moana Brown — just scraped in to an 8-7 win against hosts RSA (4) on Tuesday.
Paul Seymour, of three-180 fame, and this time concentrating on finishing doubles, secured the last and deciding game of the evening against unlucky Terry Coote.
The Diamonds started furiously in the pairs, Clay Tofilau and sister-in-law Peti Seymour succeeding 2-0 against top RSA (4) pair Ronnie Pomana and Rowe Mason.
Then Paul Seymour and son Hamiora Seymour-Tuhaka followed suit with the same result over Terry Coote and Mary Panirau.
With spirit and determination, RSA (4) fought back with three wins in a row, all 2-0 — Andre Grant and Sarah Brown against sole warrior Hugh Whitu, Pomana and Mason against Seymour father and son, and Coote and Panirau against Whitu.
Peti Seymour and Tofilau had three wins out of three in the pairs. Hugh Whiti secured a respectable leg against sharp pairing Pomana and Mason and Seymour/Seymour beat Grant and Brown 2-1.
The hosts were down 5-4 after the pairs and in the singles it was like ping-pong. Sarah Brown got a win by default, Tofilau defeated Pomana, Mason beat Peti Seymour, Whitu beat Grant 2-1, Panirau beat Hamiora Seymour-Tuhaka 2-0, and the game between Terry Coote and Paul Seymour took so long that it became the decider of the match . . . it went 2-1 to Seymour.
With three weeks to go in the grading rounds, the focus is on who will make it into A Grade. Eight teams will be in A Grade and seven in B Grade. A Grade teams will play reverse singles (21-leg matches), while B Grade teams will stay with 15-leg matches.
At present the teams on the cusp are RSA Rose and Thorns, in eighth place on 12 points, and Cossie 2 PHL, in ninth place on 10. Next week these two teams will meet head to head. Rose and Thorns have home advantage. Both teams still have yet to have their bye. For Cossie 2 PHL, the bye will be on June 28; for Rose and Thorns it will be on July 5.
On June 28, Rose and Thorns will be away to Roseland, the current second-placed team in the grading. On July 5, Cossie 2 PHL will be away to current 11th-placed team 2NZ 6-Shooters.
At the top of the grading table an equally exciting match between the first- and second-placed teams, Cossie DONE & Dusted on 22 points and Roseland on 20, will be played at the Cossie Club on Tuesday.
Coming upGisborne Club Darts Association tournament, drawn seeded pairs, TOMORROW at the Gisborne RSA. Registrations close at 10.30am. Entry: $5 for GCDA members; $45 for new members.
Information on the KISS Trophy featured in last Saturday’s article — Under the rules and format agreed to by the three founding clubs (Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club, New Lynn RSA and South Wairarapa Working Men’s Club Greytown), the trophy was to be a “travelling trophy”, left at the host club for the year.
The name KISS Trophy came from the Christian names of the donors — Kevin Dearness of Gisborne, Ivan (Stumpy) Hunt of South Wairarapa, and Sandy Wilson of New Lynn.
The trophy was designed and created by Cottage Handcrafts of Gisborne.