The 25’s and under Australian Championships were held in Westbury Tasmania in a venue the local Council has allocated to Darts Tasmania as their home venue.
The day before the official Championships began a singles event, the Meander Valley Masters, was held which was open to any age eligible player. The standard of play throughout the day was extremely top class and surely many of these players will go forward into Senior State teams. The Ladies final was played between Kaitlan Brown of W.A. who averaged 18.044 per dart and the winner Edwina Dryden of W.A. who averaged 22.021 per dart. This was followed by the Men’s final between Simon Bryant of Vic who averaged 26.909 per dart and the winner Sam Ballinger of Vic who averaged 29.910. They were both great games to watch.
The first official day of the Championships commenced with the flag presentation and an Official opening by the Mayor of Meander Valley Council. The drawn mixed triples followed this and it was pleasing to see these young players participating in the right spirit and enjoying the game. At the end of the day the team of Steve Powell Vic, Shelby How Tassie and Alex Jones W.A. ran out winners from Kayden Marsh W.A. Emma Miatke Vic and Jordan Narkle W.A.
Day 2 was the newly named Neville Cowen Men’s fours and the Dot Spiller Ladies fours. This event is based on the World Cup Fours and right from the first dart players showed it was going to be a tough competition. The ladies saw W.A. and Victoria fighting it out to the finish with W.A. eventual winners ending undefeated, with Victoria 2nd, with just the one loss. In the men’s event the team of Victoria were a standout undefeated team and N.S.W. survived a playoff to come in 2nd.
Day 3 turned out to be another great competitive day with the Men’s and Ladies doubles on the program. There were many top games played throughout but the finals for the ladies saw a 4-3 win to the Victorians Jacinta Roberts and Taylor Tate against the West Aussies Edwina Dryden and Kaitlan Brown. Once again it was all Victoria in the Men’s final Sam Ballinger and Stuart Coburn running out 4-2 winners against Steve Powell and Aaron Simpson.
Day 4 the players decided to play all five team games and have a free day on the next day to give them a breather for the singles on the final day. The ladies competition was played with a will to win by all players and in the finish was hard fought for the first and 2nd place. The W.A. team of Erin Dawson, Edwina Dryden, Kaitlan Brown and Hannah Bellottie held it together and won all games with the team from Tassie Harley How, Shelby How, Tahnae Griffiths and Shey-Anne Riley edging Victoria out for 2nd spot.
The Men’s team event was well controlled by the Vics Sam Ballinger, Stuart Coburn, Steve Powell and Aaron Simpson with the W.A. team of Alex Jones ,Gavin Councillor, Mitch Clark and Kayden Marsh finishing 2nd with their only loss against the Vics.
The top 6 averages for the ladies were Edwina Dryden W.A., Kaitlan Brown W.A., Hannah Bellottie W.A., Jacinta Roberts Vic, Harley How Tas and Taylor Tate Vic. For the Men the top
6 were Sam Ballinger Vic, Stuart Coburn Vic, Steve Powell Vic, Mathew Leahy N.S.W., Aaron Simpson Vic and Gavin Councillor W.A.
Final day The Australian 25’s and under Men’s and Ladies Singles were held with another strong competition in the Men’s event. It was no surprise when the final four were the Victorian players with Aaron Simpson defeating Stuart Coburn in one semi and Sam Ballinger defeating Steve Powell in the other semi. Both games were of a very high standard. Aaron made Sam work hard in the final but the eventual winner was Sam Ballinger.
In the Ladies singles there were lots of good games in the qualifiers but the two favourites were through to the final. Both players played a really good final with Edwina Dryden W.A. winning a close game against Jacinta Roberts Vic
The Champion Lady was Edwina Dryden and the player’s player was Jacinta Roberts.
The Men’s Champion Player was Sam Ballinger and he was also named as the player’s player.
It has to be said that every player participating in these Championships gave 100% and their behaviour at the venue was never questionable. It was very satisfying to watch players who were struggling at the start of the week grow and improve their game over the seven days and that alone should be enough reason to help the 25’s and under Championships to grow. In the long run it must surely help the Sport of Darts.
The Tasmanian Officials did everything they could to make this a good Championship and they certainly succeeded.
