A Soft Tip Adventure

Posted: 18.11.15 in Darts Performance Centre Blog category

Open Des Hautes-Vosges 2015, La Bresse, France.

We have recently produced a set of soft tip darts and one of our testers, Richard Plowman asked if we could get some shirts for him and his team mates for a soft tip comp in France. We did and this is how they got on:

RP: November 5^th to November 8^th saw the running of this annual event in France. Teams and players from across France, Belgium, Portugal and other parts of Europe attend the Open Des Hautes-Vosges. This year saw two teams from England took part. Team England A, Scott Marsh, Tommy Sanwell, Adrian Gray and Tony Martin, and Team England B sponsored by Darts Performance Centre, Richard Plowman, Damian Edmonds and George Thompson.

England B should have had a fourth man, but sadly personal circumstances meant we travelled one man light. There was a moment when we thought we may have had Anastasia Dobromyslova as our fourth player, yet as entries had already been closed we were informed we would have one of our Portuguese friend’s team, a player named Diogo Marques.

The long journey saw us arrive quite late on the Thursday, but we managed to sneak a quick drink at a local bar and meet up with familiar faces and have a catch up and finalise who we had playing for us (Diogo).

Friday morning saw the first events seeding qualifier, COUNT UP. This was 4 rounds of Count Up (score as much as you can in 8 throws) and depending on how much you scored would determine your seeding for the Double Elimination Singles.

Adrian finished as top seed and won 100 Euro’s. So England started off on a winner!

The players could play in one of three levels. Amateur, Master or Pro. George entered the Amateur, with the rest of us playing in the Pro. Adrian, Tommy, Tony and Scott all breezed into round 2, and Damian and I went out at the first round. I had played a Portuguese player, Goncalo Padeira, who is a very good player and he managed to win 2-1 after I had missed a dart at double 11 to win the match myself.

So, with Damo and me having lost we had another chance due to the double elimination format. Sadly, Damo crashed out again. I, however, won my next 3 matches, beating Kurt Van Der Ruycht along the way to a last 24 (double elimination remember, so 2 draws which combine into 1) meeting with Tommy, who had been beaten in the 3^rd round. A close game which saw Tommy win 2-0 thanks in part to my ability to miss doubles by a single dot.

Tommy went out in the next round. Scott however was flying!! As was Adrian. Scott made it through to the final unscathed where he would face either Boris Krcmar or Adrian. Boris (who Scott beat in the semi’s) beat Adrian and made it to the final. Boris won the final 2-1, but as it was double elimination Scott had another chance to win. Which he did in impressive fashion. Winning 2-0 and picking up 360 Euros.

Onto the main singles, or ‘Killer’ singles. The seeding this time was determined using the SHOOT OUT game. Each player had 2 rounds to determine their seeding.

I had a first round meeting with a good friend we’ve made the last 2 years, Rui Costa. I won that match 3-0. My second round match was another win of 3-0, and this meant I played Tommy again. I got my revenge and won that match 3-1. That put me into the last 16, one win away from 100 Euros in prize money. My next game was against a French player by the name of Erkan (I forget his last name), and he was a very good player indeed. I found myself 2-0 down, and with some grit and steely determination I managed to turn the game around and win 3-2. Into the last 8 and a meeting with another England player, Adrian Gray. Adrian simply blew me away 3-0 and I had to settle for a last 8 spot and the 100 Euros it rewarded me with.

Scott bowed out at the last 16, Tony had an early bath, Damo got thumped first round and Adrian eventually lost to Boris in the last 4. George, who played in the amateur level, went quietly about his business and reached the last 16.

Pairs on Saturday, Groups of 5 teams with the top 4 in each making the last 32. George and Damo crashed out in the group stage, myself and Diogo escaped from our group in 3^rd spot, Adrian and Tony hammered their group as did Scott and Tommy. Myself and Diogo got thumped in the last 32, which left the A side as last men standing. Scott and Tommy went on the win the event beating Tony and Adrian in the last 4 along the way.

Sunday saw the team event. England A qualified easily from their group, with us in the B side finishing 4^th and scraping through via default as 1 team in our group failed to show. So, both teams in the last 16. We got thumped again in the last 16 with George having a nightmare by his own admission. The A side played some really good darts and ended up winning the event 5-4 against a very good side which had Boris in the team. England managed to come away with almost 5000 Euros in combined prize money. Not bad if I do say so myself. Again I would like to thank Paul Gillings and Darts Performance Centre for sponsoring the Team England B playing shirts. Much appreciated.

The atmosphere, friendly people and healthy sporting competition made this a very enjoyable and memorable experience. We shall be going again!!!!!

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