Surprise contenders take out singles at Northland Darts Open

Northland Darts Open champions: Taylor-Marsh Kahaki, aged 14, the women's champ and men's champ Monty 'The Killer' Tuhua.

An up-and-coming 14-year-old has stolen the show at the Northland Darts Open over the weekend, beating one of the country's best players for the women's singles title.

Taylor-Marsh Kahaki, a darts player from Auckland, showed tremendous skill and maturity to progress through the 36-player women's singles field on Saturday where she took on national women's champion Judy Fenton in the final.

Both the men's and women's final were played as best of 11 legs. A leg is won by going down from 501 until you reach zero, finishing on a double which is located on the outside ring on the dart board.

The youngster started the final with authority, going up three legs to Judy's zero. Despite hitting some good shots, Fenton was unable to finish her doubles, allowing Kahaki to win consecutive legs.

Fenton was able to come back in the back end of the game, winning two straight legs to make the score 4-3 in favour of Kahaki. However, the youngster was too good, winning the ninth and final leg on double one to win the match and the $500 prize.

Dargaville's Gary Gilligan launches another dart towards the board in the singles competition of the Northland Darts Open, held at the Kamo Rugby Club. Photo / John Stone

The men's final was contested by two Aucklanders: Ken "The Rabbit" Moir and Monty "The Killer" Tuhua. Both players had progressed through hard draws, beating nationally-ranked players to qualify for the final.

Moir started the game well going up 3-1, until Tuhua was able to pull it back with some excellent doubling. The pair traded legs until the tenth leg where Tuhua completed the victory 6-4 with an average of 77.21 per three-dart visit.

The pairs tournament was played on Sunday with top-10 nationally-ranked players Craig Caldwell and Mark Cleaver taking out the top prize. Over 120 players featured on Saturday with 76 of them returning for the Sunday, making Taniwha Darts Association vice-president Howard Murden very pleased.

Last year's singles champion Craig Caldwell couldn't make it back-to-back, losing in the quarterfinals. Photo / John Stone

"When you register with 120 players, you never know if they are going to come, they might drop out for one reason or another," he said.

"But as people were dropping out, other people were snapping up their place, we actually had a waiting list."

Players in the tournament were not seeded which meant surprises in the later stages were guaranteed as the more-skilled players were more likely to play higher-skilled opponents early in the competition. Murden said the two singles winners were deserved finalists.

"Monty has been around a long time and he makes a lot of finals and goes deep in tournaments, so there's no surprise he's got the quality and ability.

"Taylor-Marsh is a phenomenal player and because the ladies section is so tight around the country, she was always going to be up there."

The competition's record number of entries were spread across twenty dart boards inside the clubrooms. Photo / John Stone

Held at the Kamo Rugby clubrooms, the tournament organisers had built a stage for both finals as well as live-streaming the games so spectators could see the action on the dart board close up.

Murden said adding these extra features for the finals raised the stakes for both the competitors and the viewers.

"It just creates that TV atmosphere at your own club, that's why people sit back and watch and we were just blown away with how many people came to watch."

Having recently moved from the Whangārei Golf Club to their new location, Murden thanked the Kamo Rugby Club for its assistance in getting the tournament up and running.

The competition's record number of entries were spread across twenty dart boards inside the clubrooms. Photo / John Stone

The hope from the organisers of this tournament was to make it a ranking event and part of the official New Zealand darts calendar. NZ darts council director and liaison officer Trixie Erceg was at the tournament and said it was likely the competition would become a ranking event.

"They've been going two years, they've got the numbers and now I'll give them some more direction but we are not here to turn them around and say no," she said.

Erceg said the tournament's turnout was a credit to the effort showed by the local association's committee members, particularly the president Paul Baker.

"I think they've done a brilliant job getting this all together for today and it's down to the dedication from the ones at the top which gets you to where you want to go."

Erceg would now be returning to the council to share her opinion before the council made a final decision on the competition's fate later this year.

For more information on club nights and future tournaments, visit the Taniwha Darts Association Facebook page.