Players Cup transfer
By Tamra Easley
Saturday, June 27th at the Home Plate was marked by Jim Tederman, Willy Walker, Matt Blue and Snoop Spivey competing against Cactus Moon’s Tony Ashworth, Todd Jordan, Jeff Springer and Floyd Bangerter for the coveted Players Cup.
This would be Jeff’s third challenge in a month’s time against southend teams – he was hoping to go three for three.
Home Plate was the darting venue on this sunny afternoon. Even the steel tip league players were hosting their in house finals.
Jeff was a one-man wrecking crew in game four, he opened with a White Horse (T20-T18), and on his 3rd shot, took the game out.
Willy and Tony met up for the first singles game, it took exactly four rounds (6-mark, White Horse, 6-mark, Bulls) for Willy to single-handedly take the lead, 3-2.
Willy’s first High Ton (157) came in game six. Matt hit the first big sexy out 114 (T57, T57) to end game seven. Snoop pulled a few tricks out of his magic hat to come from behind and win the singles game between he and Floyd for a 5-3 lead.
Jim and Todd had their first singles match in game 11. Todd shot the first true 9-count (T19, T20, T19) on his way to winning Cactus’ first singles match, keeping the score within one game, 6-5. Snoop found an artistic way to end game 12; left with a 116 he hit a S5, T20, T17 to earn style points.
Tony initiated a flurry of T60s in game 13, though Willy unfurled another length of his superhero cape on the very next shot by taking the game out with a 167. Matt proved to be stylish with a timely T60 in game 15, Snoop took said game out with a 119. These were amazing darts back and forth in this match!
Tony showed us how to double out on a 105 (T15, S20, D20) to take game 16, erasing the three-game deficit by one, 9-7. No doubt inspired by all of that “steel tipping” going on in the other room! Home Plate knocked off the next team 901 game to take two out of three and restore their three game advantage, but not before Jeff slid in a T60 of his own.
Though Todd had a partner in game 19, Floyd didn’t have to do much for them to win the game, Todd shot a 3/Bed in the 18s, a White Horse (T17, T18, T15), then topped it off with a Hattie out for two games in a row for Cactus.
Willy shot a spectacular 701 singles game to go two-for-two in game 20 to increase the lead back to two games, 11-9. Cactus Moon took the next two games to finally bring the match back to even at 11-11.
Homeplate repaid them in kind over the course of the following two games to extend the score to 13-11. Then the match tilted heavily in Cactus Moon’s favor. Todd won his final singles game with an interesting 99 (D19, T15, D8) to once again balance the match at 13-All. Willy and Tony shot back-to-back 151s in game 27, Cactus marked this game in their win column to make it three in a row and kept to their winning ways in game 28. This brought us down to the final singles game of the match and what a game it was.
Matt shot a T80 only to have Jeff follow him with a 3/Bed (18s) and thus the match continued with them slinging six, seven and eight counts at each other round after round. The closely contested battle was finally won by Jeff to chalk up Cactus Moons 16th game and top off five in a row to put them on the hill, 16-13, going into the final team 901 games.
Home Plate took game 30, but Cactus put the match away in game 31 to bring the Players Cup to Everett, granting Jeff’s wish to go three for three!
