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Home / Gisborne Herald / Sport

Rebels out to foil perfect-record bid

Gisborne Herald
18 Mar, 2023 06:12 AMQuick Read

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WINNERS: Matt Reedy and Mary Panirau won the Gisborne Club Darts Association Seeded Drawn Pairs. Picture supplied

WINNERS: Matt Reedy and Mary Panirau won the Gisborne Club Darts Association Seeded Drawn Pairs. Picture supplied

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One week of the grading round remains, and any changes in team placements will be only minor. A-Grade qualifiers have been comfortably settled. Done & Dusted own the overall bragging rights, having secured the grading-round trophy with a game in hand. What a game it should be!

If history is anything to go by, Georgie Osborne’s 2NZ Rebels will rise to the occasion. Rebels’ intention will no doubt be to stop Done & Dusted’s march to a perfect 15-out-of-15 record. Of course, Brian Leach’s team know that and will have a game plan of their own to succeed.

In the past fortnight, 15 maximum scores have been hit. Joe D Kiri and Tahuna Irwin, hit two apiece this week and Scott Cunningham and Tom Irwin scored one each two weeks running.

The size of victories in the past month has reflected the widening margins between A- and B-grade teams. This is purely down to passion for “one’s chosen sport”, not only individually, but collectively. Some players in Gisborne are playing five or six days of competitive darts each week. Individual success inspires team participation.

To a large extent, this also dispels the long-held assumption that darts and alcohol go hand in hand. From Tutu’s experience and that of other serious competitors and all the youngsters now storming on to the darts scene, that assumption is a bit of a myth. The reason? “If you drink too much pith, you’re more likely to myth.”

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* * *

Gisborne RSA hosted the Gisborne Club Darts Association Seeded Drawn Pairs. Twenty-eight players registered, with the top seed being paired with the bottom seed and so on.

It made for a fair competition which was reflected in the results and the friendly atmosphere. At the end of it, Mary Panirau and Matt Reedy walked away with the top honours. Runner-ups were Monty Reedy and George Vaotu’ua.

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Coming up: GCDA tournament — Men’s and Women’s Set Pairs

Times — Open: 10am to 10.30am registration.

Closed: 11am play starts.

Venue: Gisborne RSA.

GCDA members — C’mon!

* * *

More information has come to light on the KISS Tri-Series, the 30th anniversary of which was celebrated at Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club’s hosting of the tournament at Queen’s Birthday Weekend. Thanks to Kevin Dearness and Ernst Spreiter for their help.

In 1980, Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club and New Lynn RSA met for their first darts competition. New Lynn had already been playing Greytown’s South Wairarapa Working Men’s Club for some time. After five years, New Lynn found it hard to travel to two tournaments one year and host two the next, so the triangular tournament was established.

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The clubs still play for their original trophies — between Gisborne and New Lynn, New Lynn and Greytown, and Greytown and Gisborne — and a composite team made up of “spare” visitors and “top-up” locals means no bye is required.

A trophy was organised for the overall winner, and players present at the first tournament, in 1986, were asked for suggestions for a name. KISS was the name chosen. It uses the initials of the tournament organisers from the three clubs. This trio spent a decade running the tournament before leaving it in the hands of the next generation of organisers.

The initial K is for Kevin Dearness of Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club. He was the darts club secretary for 16 years and, as the Cosmopolitan Club representative, was a foundation member of Gisborne Club Darts Association (when it was known as the Gisborne Darts Council). Other foundation members were Gary Grant (Garrison), John Hampson (RSA), Dennis Rice (2NZEF) and Reg Proffit (Kaiti Bowling). They started Tueday night darts.

Gary Grant is still playing Tuesday darts with the RSA Rose and Thorns team. The Dennis Rice Trophy is still a popular annual darts event for set mixed pairs in Gisborne.

The letters I and S come from Ivan (Stumpy) Hunt, a stalwart of Greytown’s South Wairarapa Working Men’s Club. His son Peter is a well-performed New Zealand darts player. The last letter, S, comes from the late Percy (Sandy) Wilson, of the New Lynn RSA. He was a respected New Zealand player and selector in RSA darts circles.

Under the rules and format agreed to by the three founding clubs, the KISS Trophy was to be a “travelling trophy” left at the host club for the year. The trophy was designed and created by Cottage Handcrafts of Gisborne.

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