In New Zealand Bernie Smith qualified for the Hamilton Darts Masters with the former PDC World Championship player defeating another Ally Pally Kiwi representative in Ben Robb 7-6.
40 players participated in the qualifier at the Black Horse Hotel Christchurch with some big names eliminated along the way, including Darren Herewini and Haupai Puha, with the final eight matches taking the shape of Smith v Kayden Milne (which Smith won 5-2), AJ TeKira v Peter Eccles (TeKira winning 5-1), Hipi Tewhakaara v John Hurring (Tewkhakaara taking out a final leg decider to win 5-4) and Ben Robb v Stu Irwin (Robb walking away with a 5-2 win.)
The two semi finals were very different affairs with Robb securing a fairly comfortable 6-2 win. Robb started strongly with the first three legs. In the fourth both he and Tewhakaara started with 180s but Robb failed to take a leg for the first time in the match. Robb then took the next two legs to move to within one of the match. Tewhakaara held out in the seventh leg before Robb completed the job to win 6-2.
In contrast Smith and TeKira went to a deciding leg with Smith taking it to win 6-5. Aj Te Kira took the first two legs and then Bernie Smith took the next two legs. After eight legs the match was 4-4 and this was then turned to 5-5 before Smith won the deciding leg, and the match 6 legs to 5.
The final was another close affair and having already survived a deciding leg Smith got through another in the semi final it was the Kiwi veteran who took out the match and made it to the stage at Hamilton. Smith took the first leg out comfortably and despite strong throwing from Robb it was Smith who came away with leg two. Leg three saw maximums from each player and Robb taking the leg. Leg Four went to Smith (helped by a 140 and 125 visit) whilst leg five went to Robb. In the final leg Robb threw 140, 180, 100, 46 and Smith 140, 60, 121, 125, with Robb taking out 55.
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