Hundreds vie for titles

THE BATTLEGROUND: Action from the Castlecliff Club during the mixed pairs competition on Wednesday.PHOTOS/STUART MUNRO

THE FIRST champions have been found and more are to come over the next two days as the North Island Chartered Club Darts Championships heat up at Castlecliff Club and the Wanganui Darts League.

More than 550 players representing 56 clubs from throughout the island have registered for the championships, being held in Whanganui for the first time in 17 years.

Bronwyn Hyde from the Castlecliff Club darts adjunct said the men's and women's pairs finals were going on last night after press time, as was the junior competition which is the smallest division.

The mixed pairs competition was held on Wednesday and won by Auckland's West City club representatives Kay Moir and P Wikaira.

Play will continue today with the ladies' and men's singles divisions, with the championships finishing tomorrow with prizegiving.

"That will be a big day," said Hyde.

The event has been well supported by club members and spectators.

"There's a couple of hundred people down here at the Castlecliff club," said Hyde.

Among the men's pairs contenders, and likely the singles, is the Porirua Club's Rob Szabo and Craig Caldwell.

While Szabo has not had a lot of luck at this North Island tournament, he has been a national singles champion and appeared on the televised 2014 PDC World Darts Championship.

He and Caldwell then went to the 2014 World Cup of Darts and lost to Spain, but Szabo went back in 2015 with Invercargill's Warren Parry and beat Canada 5-4 in the first round for New Zealand's first victory at the Cup since 2010.

Szabo has also qualified for this year's World Championships.