GR8ofdarts

Gr8ofdarts

GR8ofdarts have introduced a fantastic new membership package for those who want all the benefits of the website but without the welcome pack, for just £14.95 a year you get full membership towww.gr8ofdarts.co.uk with all the following:

Your yearly membership includes all of the following:

·         Discounted tickets to all of our events

·         Full access to the member areas of our site

·         Competitions with great prizes

·         Exclusive deals on Dart merchandise

·         Meet the players

·         Tips and advice on your own game from the team of pro players

·         Be part of our practice league and watch your game grow with player specific training routines

·         Exclusive access to GR8 of darts merchandise

·         Discount from our affiliate darts manufacturers and distributors

·         Betting tip, and great sign up bonuses from our affiliate bookmaker

·         Watch over 100 hours of classic matches including Bristow, Deller, Gregory, Harrington, Fordham & Mardle and many more.

Go to www.gr8ofdarts.co.uk and be part of this unique darting website all for just £14.95 a year.

Antwerp Open

This past weekend I was in the country of Belgium playing the Antwerp open which is the second to last tournament for me to gain some World ranking points for Lakeside World Championships and last chance to get points for the Zuiderduin Masters which is classed as another major in the BDO/WDF calendar which takes place in Holland in early December.

I followed my usual travelling routine of flying to Amsterdam and staying with good friends in Veldhoven for the weekend.

I played in the Mixed pairs with Stephen Bunting on the Saturday morning and I am happy to say that we came out the eventual winners on the day. We got to the final without to much hassle and never dropped a leg till we made the final. In the final we were pushed a little harder and was happy to come out 4-3 winners over Darrel Fitton and his partner.

Next in the day was the Ladies pairs. I was without my usual partner in crime Lorraine Farlam as she was in England participating in the LDO "Ladies Darts Classic". I would have liked to have been able to attend this event but I had already booked flights to Holland before this tournament was finalised earlier in the year. I will speak more about this later.

In the pairs I teamed up with a friend, Monique and we were unfortunate to loose in our second game 3-2 against the very experienced pairing of Dutch internationals, Prins & Schuur. Was nice to play in this game and one leg I was able to hit 2x180.

Sunday was the real reason I had come over to play as it was the Ladies singles. It was a seeded draw and as it turned out because of other seeded players entering and not being able to turn up, the bottom half of the draw which I was in had 4 of the 5 seeds that attended.

I had some comfortable games during the day and some tight games which were of my own doing due to lack of concentration at times. I had played well in the semi-final against Unicorn and Russian team mate Irina Armstrong and was 4-0 up when I let the concentration slip. I had just enough left at the end to come through a 5-4 winner and progress to the Final where I was playing Rachna David from Norway. I won the final which was best of 3 sets, 2 sets to nil, Again I was good in patches and bad in others. This was again due to concentration and I also feel the long wait for the stage finals did not help me, But I cant complain with the win and the 22 points I gained.

I have almost certainly guaranteed myself a second seed at Lakeside in January with the recent victory as my nearest rival Julie Gore is a fair few points behind now on the rolling table.http://www.bdodarts.com/tables.aspx?tid=8 (This table has WDF World cup points to come off)

In the Zuiderduin ranking table I have finished third as I have heard I'm not guaranteed to be in this tournament due to the way they give out places in the rankings and wild cards. I'm hoping that I have a place in this but I will just have to wait and see what the organisation decide to do with the invites.http://www.dartswdf.com/Zuiderduin/Zuiderduin-2012-RW.html

As I was reporting earlier my normal partner Lorraine Farlam was attending a tournament in England run by the newly formed Ladies Darts Organisation. This is a organisation that is pushing the ladies game forward independently after it being held back for long periods of time by others in the game. It was unfortunate that I was not able to attend this event but I will be giving it my full support in the future and would urge all Lady players from all over the world to get on board and join as members. I have included the link for the website for you all to have a look at. http://www.ladiesdartsorganisation.com

My next travels take me down to the Sussex cost to play in the EDO England Classic taking place in Selsey. I believe their may be some live internet streaming so I hope you will be able to catch me live over the coming weekend if I'm lucky enough to make the stage finals. http://www.englanddarts.co.uk

Don't forget that you can book me or any of the other GR8 of darts players by enquiring at http://www.gr8ofdarts.co.uk

Well I have typed enough and now its time to get back to the practice.

Thanks for reading and hope to see you all soon.

Anastasia xx

IDPA Super Series and British Open

This passed weekend I was on my travels to Bridlington to play in the IDPA super series and most importantly the BDO British Open.

I played some steady game son the Friday evening in the Super Series beating on my way to the final, Zoe Jones, Michelle Webber, Trina Gulliver and in the final I was happy to come out victorious against Julie Gore from Wales. This was a nice warm up tournament for me as I have been spending the last 2 weeks in Russia with my family and sorting some other darting business out for my darting trips later in the year which I will report on nearer the time.

Saturday at Bridlington was the ladies pairs and I joined up with my usual partner Lorraine Farlam. We played many steady games throughout the day and won thorough to the semi finals on the Sunday evening where we were due to play the pairing of Trina Gullivers and her wife Sue Gulliver.

Sunday was a late start for me as I was seeded number 3 in the ladies draw, Not quite sure how they worked the seedings out with be currently being world number 2 but I was placed as 3rd seed for the day. I played some great darts throughout the day, I had some troubles with my concentration as the venue was very noisy at times. I made it through to the last 8 where I was to play Tamara Schuur from the Netherlands. I raced into a 2-0 lead and then my concentration lapsed again. I eventually lost the game and the last 2 legs Tamara outplayed me on the board and deserved to win in the end. Tamara has been playing very well of late and was recently runner up in the Sweden open last week which I did not attend. Tamara is fighting for the last automatic play off place for Lakeside and at the moment on current form is looking good to get there.

I had to wait around for several hours after I had finished my singles to play in the ladies semi final. We eventually took the stage around 3hrs after waiting and we were very comfortable winners winning 4-0 and not really being pushed to any great degree. In the other semi final was Deta Hedman and Dee Bateman vs Julie Gore and Rhian Griffiths, This was a real battle of a game and Julie and Rhian eventually came out winners 4-3 with it going down to a nail biting finish.

The final is most probably one final I want to forget. It has to go down as a bad day in the office for me and Lorraine. We were in, out and shake it all about. We could not at all find any consistency at all between us and we eventually ended up loosing what can only be described as a poor final from all players concerned 4-2. Congratulations go to Julie and Rhian as they become British Open pairs champions 2012.

Next up I have county this weekend (9th September) for Cheshire vs Lancashire and my next tournament after that will be a trip to Antwerp for my second to last ranking event for Lakeside 2013 where I am currently sitting in 2nd place with a bit of breathing space between myself and 3rd place.

Thanks for reading and I will keep you all updated of my darting adventures.

Anastasia xx