The 10th anniversary of the Cobar Darts Open was played at the Cobar Bowling & Golf Club over the weekend and attracted a record number of competitors, including three State players, as well as players from interstate.
Blind Drawn Doubles, Men’s and Ladies’ Doubles and Men’s and Ladies’ Singles events were contested over three days commencing on Friday night.
The annual event, which has an excellent reputation in darts circles (and also offers $3,500 in prize money), is growing in popularity with 68 individuals contesting the Singles games this year while there were 70 players nominated for the Doubles tournament.
The NSW Darts Association approved event was also a chance for players to pick up points to improve their NSW and Australian player rankings.
Brayden Sperling from Port Piri SA, a semi finalist in last year’s tournament, runner-up in the Men’s Doubles in 2021 and Men’s Doubles winner in 2019, was the man to beat this year.
Sperling accounted for State player Luke Wilson in Round 2 and another State player, Cobar’s Tony Brown in Round 4, before going on to beat Raymond O’Donnell in the final to claim the Men’s Singles title.
Cobar’s Craig Jones made it to Round 3 before he was knocked out by former Cobar player, Graeme Fridd, who was then eliminated in Round 4 by O’Donnell.
Sperling also won the Men’s Doubles competition with his Port Piri team mate John Nottage after they beat Bob Pinder and Daniel Lill in an all South Australian final.
Former Cobar player Shane Haddy (with team mate Anthony Mace) and other former Cobar player Steve Motton (with partner Jeremy Jackson from Maitland) made it to Round 2 in the Doubles tournament where they were eliminated.
Jayne Waylon (from Port Piri) claimed the Ladies Singles title and just missed out on also claiming the Ladies Doubles title.
Waylon and her Port Piri team mate Annalise Riley were beaten in the final by Sara Howie (Mt Druitt) and Amber Bryant (Orange).
Cobar’s Samantha Hooker and Paige Coleman unfortunately came up against Waylon and Riley in the first round where they were eliminated from the competition.
Cobar’s Cec Hargraves, who was drawn with South Australian playing partner, Daniel Lill, finished as the winners of the Blind Drawn Doubles tournament on Friday night.
A record number of 180 throws were recorded by the men over the weekend (47 times) with Sperling responsible for seven of those.
The highest Peg Outs of the men’s competition were 160, recorded by Rodney Crawford, 122 by Motten, 116 by Gordon Evans and Sperling had 112 and 110.
Waylon had the Ladies Highest Peg Out with 118, Riley had 108 with Muswellbrook’s Kiara Jackson (97) and Rhiannon Kerr (96) also recording high scores during the weekend
