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Handicap Cup 20/7/09

The Rugeley Monday Night Darts League Handicap Cup KO was played last night at Mansfield House where all the players appreciated the price of the beer! It was a good turn out with only the Albion team missing, which meant that the Red Lion went straight through the preliminaries.

In the first round of the KO it was basically the top half of the league versus the bottom half. The problem for the top teams was that they were all handicapped by 180 points for each player. This meant that the top team, the Pear Tree Club, started on 541, but their opponents (the Vaults) started their legs on 361. Starting on a nominated double made it very difficult for the club players to catch up if they didn’t start with their opponents. The Vaults made the most of the handicap against the Club and took the scoreline to 2 all at the last leg with Steve Culley up for the Vaults. Things got very serious then for a few moments resulting in a close leg, but Steve won, putting the Vaults through.

The handicap start also proved too much for second team in the league, the Prince Of Wales “A” team, who were taken out by the Castle B. George Hylton and Hans Smythe, for the Castle took out Tam and Johnny G for the Prince. John always tells everyone that he always wins when he plays second, but he nearly got the brush last night! Third up was Jim who had a splendid break of 120 against Chris Orme, followed up by a 180, helping him to win in a magnificent 16 darts and giving the Prince a chance. Geof was next up and just missed an 18 darter on X 10 against Mark Perry, but lost making it 3-1 to the Castle “B.”

The Semi Finals saw the Castle “A” V the Vaults. Tom Hylton was up first for the Vaults and beat Colin Boulton for the Castle in a close game. Adam Johnson went up 2^nd and had a good lead against Tom Mottram for the Vaults, but a 112  break plus a ton helped Tom to catch up. Unfortunately for the Vaults Tom had 59 and hit a treble 19, then missed the double 1, enabling Adam to win for the Castle.

The 3^rd leg saw Nick Harvey start with120 and brush Keith Stratful who was playing for the Vaults. Steve Johnson played next and put up the gate at 3-1 for the Castle.

The other Semi Finalists were the Prince “B” against Libbys United. The Prince, (The old Moderation side) couldn’t finish in the first leg although they were well in front and the leg went to Libbys. In the 2^nd Grant couldn’t finish either, nor could Scraggy in the third and the Prince went on to take it 3 –1 to reach the Final.

The Final was The Prince Of Wales “B” side against the Castle “A.” Colin Boulton was playing catch up against the Prince player who started on 201 whereas the Castle was on 401. The start proved too much for Colin and his opponent came down quickly and dropped in his double 6 to win. The tension then seemed to get to both players in the second game with neither player starting for many throws, but Adam eventually broke with 120 and then the other lad came down quickly with him. However, a magnificent 153 finish from Adam took the leg in a style worthy of the best players in the World. Nick Harvey was up next for the Castle and narrowly missed the Bull on what would have been another superb finish of 122, but rather luckily left a very tidy 36 which he got next throw.

Steve Johnson was again up last for the Castle and his years of experience showed as he didn’t crumble when his opponent was on double 1, but persevered and took the leg to clinch it for the Castle.

I think it is fair to say that although the Castle lads are a popular team, everyone was routing for the Prince Of Wales “B” team who had finished bottom in the league. It would have been great if they had won, but it still proved that the handicap principal certainly worked for them and evened up the differences between the top teams and the bottom enabling them to come runners up in the Knock Out.

Brothers Robert and Don Harvey performed a much-appreciated task in fine style by taking the raffle round and raising £136 that went into league funds. The winning ticket was number 251 bought by Scott Whittle of the Red Lion who gratefully received the bottle of Grouse.