Yesterday was simply an amazing day of darts ! It kicked off with The Count threatening to withdraw from playing his match unless certain clauses were removed from the contracts the semi final contenders are asked to sign. The offending section apparently related to winnings from the World Champions being withheld if any of the four jumped ship to The PDC.
Christian Kist 2012 lakeside winner, the most consistent player of the tournament, showed some bottle in the final
Wolfie argued on BBC that the players were aware of “the deal” before the tournament began and seemed bemused as to why Ted would bring this up now. On the other hand “The Count” joining the PDC was darts worst kept secret, we all knew months ago. So it does seem bizarre there had to be this case of last minute brinkmanship from Ted to get what he was entitled to.
Once the legal wrangling was resolved the match itself was equally as fascinating. Hankey and Kist smashed in 96 tons, 57 Ton + scores and 14 180`s. Hankey`s “plan” that he alluded to at the start of the match was working a treat and he appeared to be cruising into the final at 5: 3 up in the race to 6. Kist fought back and forced a last set decider and with it the demise of “The Count”.
It all went wrong for Ted in the last set. The air conditioning started bothering him and he had bounce outs. Kist kept his cool and played out the last set in style to cap a remarkable tournament for the Dutch debutante.
The second semi-final was equally as good but without the legal wrangling! Tony O`Shea finally won through after yet another last set decider. The players actually left the stage for 10 minutes before the last set kicked off as the air conditioning problem returned and Harms insisted on having the board swapped as O’Shea was getting so many bounce outs. This was an incredible act of sportsmanship and for all those out there who for whatever reason don’t get the BDO this camaraderie between the players and of course the skills on display in both matches were a good demonstration of all that is good about it.
We will use the stats from yesterday’s games as the occasion did seem to have an effect on both players.
Christian Kist
Christian`s fantastic form dipped slightly yesterday under the strain of the occasion and Hankey`s tactics which was understandable. Despite twice losing 4 legs on the bounce during the match Kist stuck to the task and went on his own winning streak by bagging the last 6 legs of the match. Even Hankey’s self inflicted destruction didn’t bother him and we learnt a lot about the Dutch star’s temperament yesterday.
3 dart av 89.72 Ton+ 29 180`s 4 Number of darts needed to win a leg 16.08
V
Tony O’Shea
O’Shea used every ounce of his experience as well as some new “tricks” he has learned in a tense and tight match against “Sparky”. Consistency on the doubles deserted both players for large sections of the game and this is something O’Shea will need to rectify today.
3 dart av 85.35 Ton + 32 180`s 6 Number of darts needed to win a leg 16.75
We Say
Dry ice machine stuck at lakeside - like the old smokey days of darts!
Hey baby, ooh aaah, sorry about that just getting ready for O’Shea’s walk on!
Who is going to manage the occasion the most effectively? Kist is a Lakeside “new boy” and must have smashed through his pre-tournament goals already but to suggest he has nothing to lose is also wrong. There is a £100,000 cheque waiting for the winner and “just” £30,000 to the runner up! Will this huge payday weigh on the Dutch debutante’s mind? Physically he is in good shape and will have probably recovered from yesterday`s events already.
O’Shea has dreamed of this title. Year after year he has been coming to Lakeside and finally his dream is one match away from happening. Will this be a motivating factor or actually work against him? He has been developing the mental side of his game and his breathing to assist him; they seem to have worked for him so far. Physically he admitted to being exhausted after the time spent on stage and may not be at his peak come “kick off” today.
This is going to be tight and we are going for Kist to extend the wait for “The Silverback” for another 12 months!
Odds
Kist 10/11 O’Shea 11/10
Result and Stats
Tony O’Shea 5-7 Christian Kist
| DARTS | LWAT | TONS | TON+ | 180 | HIOUT | BLEG | AVERAGE | TEAM | PLAYERS | SCORE | LEFT | LEGS | SETS |
| 0 | 10 | 69 | 33 | 5 | 116 | 12 | 29.26 | ENGLAND | TONY O’SHEA* | 0 | 501 | 0 | 5 |
| 0 | 11 | 58 | 45 | 8 | 121 | 12 | 30.00 | NETHERLANDS | CHRISTIAN KIST | 0 | 501 | 0 | 7 |
| Gameformat: Best of 13 sets, 5 legs. | |||||||||||||
| Darts: 16, 16, 19, 17, 13, 17, 17, 15, 15, 18, 17, 17, 13, 14, 18, 24, 14, 15, 12, 15, 21, 17, 15, 14, 12, 14, 17, 14, 19, 15, 12, 16, 15, 15, 20, 18, 17, 21, 17, 19, 17, 18, 15, 18, 15, 17, 18, 17 | |||||||||||||
| Outshots: 32, 16, 20, 20, 24, 38, 16, 62, 61, 32, 32, 32, 40, 70, 64, 25, 24, 68, 121, 75, 32, 20, 120, 78, 81, 25, 12, 76, 40, 65, 81, 10, 76, 40, 84, 56, 52, 40, 9, 16, 75, 64, 76, 10, 116, 50, 25, 32 | |||||||||||||