The chase for a spot on the World Series of Darts Stage in Auckland began on Friday night at the DPA event held at the Commercial Club Albury. The event, and whole weekend, was proudly supported by Winmau who had their Blade 6 Triple Core boards in use for the first time at an official DPA event (thanks also to Consolidated Leisure and Support who are the official Winmau distributor in Australia for their support.)
58 players took part in the opening of the Simon Whitlock Trophy (covering all four events played over the weekend) and the first event of four over the next few months to win the one position available for local domestic players on the World Series Stage in New Zealand.
The top 16 saw Brandon Weening and the ever-green Bill Aitken both win 5-1, over Adam Leek and Dylan Oaff respectively, Weening with a 97.12 average. Brody Klinge and Joe Comito eliminated Karl Schaefer and Danny Porter respectively, with both the final scores reading 5-2. Josh Townsend, Koha Kokiri and Mitchel Beswick defeated their opponents (Peter Willmot, Dave Hanel and Mitchell Clegg) 5-3. Harley Kemp had two perfect visits and cleaned up in 11 darts to take a 4-3 lead against Adam Faulkner and then cleaned up in 14 darts on throw to win the final match of the round, 5-3 as well.
The quarter finals saw wins to Brandon Weening (5-2 over Joe Comito), Koha Kokiri (5-2 v Harley Kemp), Josh Townsend (5-4 over Mitchel Beswick) and Brody Klinge (5-3 v Bill Aitken.) The semi finals saw Weening take on Kokiri and Klinge go head-to-head with Townsend. Klinge broke in the first leg and fired through four consecutive before Townsend finally held his throw in 14 darts in the fifth leg, Klinge securing the match on his next throw 5-1. Weening dropped the first leg to Kokiri but on throw he was back level after two legs before both players broke their opponent to leave the match even after four legs. Weening then won two consecutive legs before Kokiri held throw to move a leg away from parity once more. When Kokiri left twenty at his fifth visit Weening cleaned up the leg and the match, 5-3 the final score.
Thus, two Victorians went head-to-head in the final, with the winner holding top spot in the race to Auckland after one event and leading the chase for the Simon Whitlock trophy over the weekend. The match itself was a one-way affair as Weening held throw before winning the next four legs straight to move within a leg of the match. He could not convert a chance at 164 in the sixth leg though and Klinge held his throw on his next visit. In the seventh leg Weening was not really challenged until a 134 on his third visit gave Klinge a slight lead. He was unable to make the most of it on his next visit and a 140 saw Weening require 60 for the match. He cleaned that target up with his next two darts on his last visit to the oche to take out the final 6-1
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