Hunter Eyles
Tahuna Irwin retained his youth champion’s title and Hunter Eyles won the junior boys’ title at the Clubs New Zealand North Island Darts Championships in Hamilton last week.
They were among 30 players from Gisborne’s Brezz’n Darts Sports Club who took part in the championships, held over four days at the Hamilton Workingmen’s Club.
All four semifinalists in the junior boys’ section were from the Brezz’n club. Ihaka Kaio-Wynyard beat Tristan Reeves 3-2 in one semi, and Hunter Eyles beat elder brother Irie 3-1 in the other.
Hunter Eyles had been on a roll all night. In section play against Sam Harman from the Upper Hutt Cosmopolitan Club, he had thrown a 12-dart finish — a 70 start, back-to-back 180s and a 71 to finish.
In the final, Eyles beat Kaio-Wynyard 3-1 to earn his first Clubs NZ junior boys’ title. Kaio-Wynyard was runner-up, with Irie Eyles and Reeves third-equal.
In the youth boys’ section, Brezz’n had two players in the semifinals — Erik Pu and eventual winner Irwin.
Pu lost a close match to Upper Hutt Cosmopolitan Club’s Crewz Stone-Nepia, but Irwin beat Waihi Memorial RSA player Josh Walters.
In the seven-leg final, Irwin went three games up, but Stone-Nepia fought back to make it 3-3.
Stone-Nepia had a chance to close out the deciding game, going for a double finish with two darts, but he was off target and Irwin stepped up to finish the game and retain his title.
In the junior girls’ section, two players from Brezz’n were in a four-way playoff to decide the second to fourth placings. First place had already been decided — Weymouth Cosmopolitan Club’s Taylor Marsh-Kahaki had gone through undefeated to retain her title.
As a result of the playoff — in which four players contested a one-leg 1001 match — Pukekohe Cosmopolitan Club’s Terranne Moana finished second, and Brezz’n players Christina Tamihana and Shannan Eyles finished third and fourth respectively.
In the women’s singles, Brezz’n players Juanita Reeves, Tiana Kauika, Bobbie Eyles and Kino White got through to the main round but were eliminated in the knockout stages.
In the men’s singles, Tahuna Irwin, Corey Kaio, Irie Eyles, Jonathan Griffiths, Ihaka Kaio-Wynyard, Erik Pu, John White, Leroy Eyles and Sonny Laulau reached the main round but they, too, were eliminated in the knockout stages.
Hunter Eyles had success in the men’s plate round, though. Out of over a hundred players, he finished runner-up.
Mixed pairs Irie Eyles and Mere Edwards, John White and Rawinia Edwards, Erik Pu and Kino White, and Leroy Eyles and Bobbie Eyles reached the main knockout round.
Juanita Reeves and Shannan Eyles, and Bobbie Eyles and Rawinia Edwards were the only Brezz’n women’s pairs to qualify for the main knockout round.
Of the men’s pairs, Corey Kaio and Tahuna Irwin, Leroy Eyles and John White, and Erik Pu and Ani Tangira qualified for the main knockout round, but only Kaio and Irwin, and Eyles and White qualified for the last 64.
The Clubs NZ national championships are at the same venue in July.