VDC Junior Championships
VDC Junior Championships
2009
VDC Junior Championships
Held at Geelong Darts Club, 28th. & 29th. November, 2009.
SATURDAY, 28th.
A really good turn up for the Inaugural VDC Junior Championships. They came from as far away as Portland, Benalla, Ballarat, Latrobe Valley and Yarrawonga!
With 10 girls and 17 boys, names were drawn for the pairings for the Mixed Doubles. This left 7 boys without partners. So they played a Round Robin of Singles while the Mixed Doubles were being played. The Winner of this “fill in” was Torin Hellmore from Yarrawonga with Matthew Francois (one of our State Juniors) as Runner-Up.
Drawn Mixed Doubles
With 10 pairs, a Round Robin was played of 2 groups with the top 2 pairs from each group going through to the Semi Finals.
In the Semis, Sam Ballinger & Belinda Penberthy defeated Neil MacReadie & Tamara Doughty and Jacob Seidel & Ashley Manico defeated Nathan Travaille & Kia-Lee Johnson.
In the Finals, Sam & Belinda defeated Jacob & Ashley in a hard fought match. Well done!!
Girls Doubles
In the Girls Doubles, Renee Plucinski & Megan MacReadie were outright Winners, while Sarah Brown & Kia-Lee Johnson defeated Tamara Doughty & Jessica Bryant in a play off for Runner-Up.
Boys Doubles
In the Semi Finals, Sam Ballinger & Curtis Horvatek defeated Nathan Doughty & Michael Strobel and Neil MacReadie & Torin Hellmore defeated Kevin Johnson & Jason Pieters.
In the Grand Final, Neil & Torin defeated Sam & Curtis ( 4 – 3)
180s
Sarah Brown x 2, Torin Hellmore x 2, James Young x 1, Blake Doughty x 1 and Jason Pieters x 1.
Sam Ballinger “pegged” 164.
A long day for some of the players who had never played in this type of competition before but all seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed their day if the jokes and laughter were any indication! By the end of the day, Kia-Lee Johnson ( a new, young player) was renamed “Miss Giggles”.
SUNDAY, 29th.
Today we had 10 girls and 19 boys (not all the same faces, as some had other commitments for the day). The Girls and the Boys played “age graded “ Singles – Under 14, Under 16 and Under 18.
VICTORIAN CHAMPIONS.
GIRLS UNDER 14
Jessica Bryant (Yallourn) – Champion.
Kia-Lee Johnson (Geelong) – Runner-Up.
GIRLS UNDER 16
Belinda Penberthy – Champion.
Renee Plucinski – Runner-Up.
Both Belinda and Renee are members of our State Junior Team.
GIRLS UNDER 18
Sarah Brown (State Junior) – Champion.
Tamara Doughty (Morwell) – Runner-Up.
BOYS UNDER 14
Matthew Francois (State Junior) – Champion.
Curtis Horvatek (Ballarat) – Runner-Up
BOYS UNDER 16
Jacob Seidel (State Junior) – Champion.
Torin Hellmore (Yarrawonga) – Runner-Up.
BOYS UNDER 18
Sam Ballinger (State Junior) – Champion.
Stuart Coburn – Runner-Up.
Stuart was a State Junior last year and just missed out this year and he and Sam played their game (best of 7) right down to the wire, with Sam taking the match with a 148 peg. These two young men will be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years as they progress into the Senior ranks!!
All of the Juniors played really good darts and most of the games were very close. I do hope they retain their interest in the sport and keep on playing. It would be a shame to lose such promising young sports men and women!
180s
Sam Ballinger x 1 and Neil MacReadie x 1.
All of the players received sets of flights (very kindly donated by Formula Sports). There was also 6 sets of new darts (also donated by Formula) to be given away, so each player drew a number and the darts went to the players whose numbers were drawn at random.
A really great weekend of darts,
Thank you to June Sinclair, our Junior Co-ordinator and Ken Penberthy, our State Junior Boys Captain who were the Tournament Controllers. They were ably assisted by Shirley McKinley and John Plucinski the Junior State Team Manageress and Manager.
Special thank you to Geelong Darts Club for hosting this event.
To Karen and Michael, who ran the Bar (no alcohol) and the ladies (and gentleman) in the kitchen, this event would not have been the success that it was without you. Thank You!!
Veronica Wilson
Secretary
VDC.
