World Series of Darts Qualifier Mar 5th 2006 continued

We are now down to the finals and only two men are left standing. But as the highlander would say, there can be only one. I was determined that today that man would be me.

A short intermission was taken so that ESPN could get all the cameras set up and the crowd seated. During this time I went off alone to collect my thoughts and prepare for an epic match.

My opponent was Joe Slivan from Florida. I knew he had been playing very well all day and watched from my semi-finals as he blanked the legendary Tony Payne one round earlier.

The coin flip favored me and I held my start in the first leg. In the second, Joe faltered and then I made a major mistake missing 3 darts at D16 to break his throw. The third, fourth, and fifth legs all went with the throw. The match score stood at 3-2 my advantage and I knew if I could win the next game against the darts I would qualify.

In the sixth leg, Joe opened up with 60, 120, 140 and 78 to leave 103, while I responded with 96, 58, 140, and 97 to rest on 110 remaining. Joe only managed to erase 53 of his total leaving 50 left and giving me darts at a 110 finish for the match. My first dart struck the T20 but the next dart went high at the 10 and I had to settle for leaving 32.

It looked like the match would head to a deciding game 7. But Joe went out of the 18 hitting a S4 on his first dart before he corrected with a 14 leaving him one dart at D16 to stay alive. Joe's final dart went wide, and I cleaned up my last 32 for a spot at the Mohegan.

What an exciting final. Maybe not the best darts either of us threw all day but very competitive none the less. I was as relieved as I was happy. And now its time to focus on the Mohegan and a million dollars!