Oliver wins prestigious darts contest
DEON Oliver, of Port Elizabeth, won the first Last Man Standing Darts Tournament at Grand West Casino in Cape Town last week.
He kept about 3 000 spectators on their toes with a thrilling performance in a tournament which featured 170 of the best darts players in South Africa. The competition was hosted in an attempt to find Devon Peterson, who is the only professional darts player in South Africa, a partner for international competitions.
Peterson and Oliver will now be a duo that will compete at the Betway World Cup of Darts in June in Frankfurt, Germany.
In a round robin that included 11 players, Oliver only lost one leg in the tournament.
He took his singles match to the knockout stages after falling behind in the second stage by three to one.
He displayed resilience to win the game three to four.
He then went through the rest of the field and won the final against Shawn Hogan who has competed internationally and is a national darts player.
Oliver walked off with prizes worth R80 000. Oliver is chairman of the Eastern Cape Darts Federation, which is on a mission to revive darts in the northern areas, together with the Nelson Mandela Bay Darts Association.
“We realised that darts is a dying sport in the northern areas.
“We introduced the programme two years ago at Gelvandale High School and it has grown ever since.
“The programme also tries to fuse life skills and sport for the young adults we facilitate,” Oliver said.
The talented darts player will compete in the Eastern Cape Federation Darts trials next month.
Oliver and Peterson will use the competition as preparation for the darts world cup in June.