Mark Cleaver and Stu Irwin took out the Pirate Life Doubles Matchplay as the event returned to the calendar for the first time in over 15 years. The Kiwi pair defeated the Aussie duo of GG Mathers and Mal Cuming in the final.
Mathers and Cuming had seen off Dave Marland and Jamie Browne in straight sets (winning both the singles) in the quarter finals. Jamie Roberts and Alan Skayman defeated Kevin Osbourne and Stephen Tormey in the same manner but Haupai Puha and Darren Herewini needed a doubles match to eliminate Brandon Weening and Bailey Marsh as did Cleaver and Irwin to eliminate the two Josh’s (Walters and Roberts) team.
The first semi final saw Darren Herewini lose out to GG Mathers so it was up to Haupai Puha to win to put the semi into a third match. Cuming held his nerve, however, to see off Puha in a deciding leg and make the final. In the other semi final Cleaver won but Irwin lost their games and thus a doubles match was required. The two had excellent team work and with Cleaver’s strong finishes they were able to win the game 3-0 and move onto the final.
In the final Mark Cleaver and GG Mathers were all level when Mathers was unable to check out from three visits. Cleaver came away with the leg and was then able to hold throw to win his match. Stu Irwin then took on Mal Cuming, who had been in fine form throughout the day. On this occasion it was Irwin who held his nerve and even managed to throw six perfect darts in the final leg of the match before cleaning the leg up two visits later.
Mark Cleaver was pleased “It has been a tough day today, the darts that we saw thrown last night indicated to us we had to pick up our darts today and whilst we did not play at our finest we did all that we had to do to win it. I love this venue and loved winning here today.”
Stu Irwin added, “We have always combined well together and played a few doubles matches today but in the final we played two outstanding players. Mark set it up with an extraordinary effort defeating GG and set the final for me. I was able to step up my own darts against Mal, it was a great catalyst to improve my own darts and I produced more of the stuff I had at the beginning of the year. We are ecstatic to win the event.”
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