Darts to fly at Swanson RSA
Darts will be flying in west Auckland this week as players compete for a spot at the World Series of Darts.
Winners from the competition at the Swanson Memorial Returned Services Association on August 3-5 would compete in the Auckland Dart Masters, from August 11-13.
There are three qualifying places up for grabs.
The qualifiers would be part of eight oceanic representatives to compete against eight Profession Darts Cooperation (PDC) players at The Trusts Arena, Henderson, event, the PDC website said.
Wayne McBeath was a director at Dart Players New Zealand and said this was the third Auckland Dart Masters event.
McBeath said more than 50 people were expected at the qualifiers and anyone could come along to watch.
He said sometimes people came ‘‘out of the woodwork’’ who had never competed before.
The qualifiers included groups of five or six players that would play against each other in a ‘‘round robin’’, McBeath said.
In the groups of six, players would need three wins to qualify for the ‘‘knock out’’.
Players in groups of five would need two wins.
McBeath said to be a competitive darts player you needed skill and natural ability.
But at the end of the day it really came down to practise, he said.
If you had a natural ability to become really good it was like any sport, you had to ’’put the time in’’.
A PDC press release said that last year’s winner of the Auckland Dart Masters, Scottish player Gary Anderson, had been invited to compete at the Auckland Darts Masters.
The top two players from the Dart Players New Zealand ranking, Rob Szabo and Warren Parry, had been selected to compete as Oceanic representatives.
Cody Harris from Auckland had also been selected as an Oceanic representative.
The eight PDC players would also compete in at the Perth Dart Masters and Melbourne Dart Masters.
The event was open to female and male players.