Top players hang on to their titles at darts champs

POPULAR: More than 550 players took part in the North Island Chartered Clubs Championships at Castlecliff on Saturday.

The leading contenders retained their titles and the locals made it pretty high up the leaderboards at the conclusion of the North Island Chartered Club Darts Championships on Saturday.

More than 550 players representing 56 clubs took part in pairs and singles competitions over four days at the Castlecliff club, who were hosting, as well as the Wanganui Darts League.

Bronwyn Hyde from the Castlecliff Club darts adjunct said having the competition here for the first time in 17 years proved very popular with the attendance of competitors and patrons alike.

"We had a lot of people in on the Saturday."

On Thursday evening, Porirua Club's Rob Szabo and Craig Caldwell, who have represented New Zealand at the World Cup of Darts, lived up to their favourites tag to win the men's pairs, defeating Waitara's Steve Gooch and Mark Cleaver in the final. "We had to get through lots of teams. When we got to the final, they had nothing left for us," said Szabo. "I'm not sure if it was the [club's] stage or our experience that made the difference. It's almost like the nationals, there's so many players, so I treat it like a nationals."

Kate Keefe and Toni Toka of the Taita RSA won the women's pairs, beating Upper Hutt's Michaela Makiha and Paea Thompson in the final.

Szabo, who is waiting to hear about his qualification for this year's World Championships, could not make it a double with the men's singles crown as he was struggling with a head cold. "I'd been crook all week and by Saturday I got to the quarter-finals and it was too tough for me."

Manurewa RSA's Cody Harris went on to retain his singles crown, comfortably dispatching Porirua's Darren Herewini in the final, five straight.

The ladies singles was also won by defending champion Judy Fenton (Whangamata), who beat Tararua's Megan Smith in the playoff.

Szabo said the local organisers had done a fine job.

"I thought the venue was great. It was very warm, but that's because it was warm outside."

In the best of the locals, St John's club's Harley Smith won the Junior Youth division.

Two Castlecliff team's got fifth equal in the men's and mixed pairs.

A Wanganui RSA team was third equal in the plate round, while a Castlecliff team was runner-up in the ladies pairs plate.

"That's good results, when you look at 300-plus [entries] per event," said Hyde.

-Local results

Junior Youth: H Smith (St Johns) 1. Men's Pairs: B Jacobson, J Hinga (Castlecliff) 5=. Mixed Pairs: A Simpson, J Teki (Castlecliff) 5=. Men's Plate: M Waldren, A Hakaraia (Wanganui RSA) 3=. Ladies Pairs Plate: J Teki and D Bromley (Castlecliff) 2.