Countdown to the 2009 Southern Masters

In one months time the top players in the SDA will meet and compete to be crowned the first ever Southern Master.

The preparations of the players have been mixed. One of the new additions, Gary Rogers has had a frustrating time losing consistently to Pinder over recent weeks although he did get a 5-2 legs victory. This was preceded by a 5-0 loss and followed by a 5-3 loss. His preparation has also been hampered by the removal of his dartboard and the changing of his darts. It waits to be seen how costly these changes are.

Not much has been heard of the other new player, Tom Bailey, although rumours have been surfacing that he has bought new darts and dartboard in order to get some much needed practice. His only recent outing was a humiliating 10-1 defeat to Pinder.

Talk coming from the Riggs camp is that he is hitting 140 scores for fun in practice. However he been unable to get much game time practice as he has been preoccupied with study and it will be interesting to see whether he can take his form from the practice board to the match board.

Hitchen's build up was thrown into chaos this last weekend when he was only able to get 5 legs in with Barnett of which he lost all but one. Hitchen will have to hope that those long nights spent on the soft tip board can help him when it comes to the real thing.

Barnett claims that he has now found his ideal technique, throwing like the great Bobby George, although this may have changed by the time people read this. Unlike Riggs his practice was not affected by study and he has even had time to invent a Golf practice game and is working on a Snooker version.

There is absolutely no word from the Blind Jonny camp and is unknown whether he is busy practicing or just knocking one off over button with one hand and playing the harmonica with the other.

As for the Pinder camp, things are looking good with several 50 plus average games and several convincing victories. The one fly in the ointment is that practice time has had to be given to writing a wedding speech and general wedding organising.

Brief overview of the 2009 SDA Premier League

Talks of the SDA first began to surface around the time of the 2009 PDC World Championships. The talks intensified in February 2009 when the two driving forces behind the Association, Lawrence “Wolfman” Barnett and Jimmy “The Gent” Pinder got together at the Coppice Club. After these talks it was announced that the SDA Premier League would take place in March 09.
The original line-up for the event included Gorgeous Gavin Simons and Jon “The Don” Croft had to pull out/bottled it. Luckily Lol and Jim were joined by Ian “Bigfoot” Brownrigg, Rob “The Robber” Hitchen and at very short notice Blind Jonny Rowley.
The group stage was shrouded in controversy and aggro, particularly in the match between Jim and Rob when a call by the scorer possibly cost Rob the match. Later on in the group stage, when victories were essential for qualification, Rob became embroiled in a row with Ian over some over enthusiastic cheering.
At the end of the group stage Jim came out on top with a 100% record, followed by Lol, Ian, Rob and bringing up the rear Blind Jonny.
The semi-finals kicked off with Jim in inspired form hitting the first 180 in SDA history in a convincing 4-0 victory. The second semi-final saw Ian rue the missed doubles as he was defeated 4-1 by Lol.
The final looked like it was going to be a one sided affair as Jim raced into a 4-0 lead, but Lol showed his courage as he fought back to 4-2. However the recovery was short lived as Jim took the next leg, the match and the 2009 Premier League title with a Double 8.

The SDA Southern Masters 27th June 2009 Fixture List (North Cray Arena)

Players: James Pinder (world no.1), Lawrence Barnett (world no.2), Ian Brownrigg (world no.3), Rob Hitchen (world no.4), Jonny Rowley (world no. 5), Gary Rogers (n/a), Thomas Bailey (n/a).

Group Stage

Matches will be best of 3 legs.
Two points will be awarded for a win
Top four go through to the semi finals
In the event of players being level on points it will go to leg difference.
If they still can’t be separated it will go to points scored

Semi Final’s

Matches will be best of best of 7 legs
First in the group will play fourth (first has the throw)
Second in the group will play third (second has the throw)

Final

The final will be best of 9 legs
Players will bully up to see who throws first.

The first Southern Masters is a ranking event, and all the stats will be loaded onto the SDA database and posted out to other members. There will also be a trophy presentation for the winner and second place, whilst last place will win a cooking utensil.

Match 1: Gal vs. Jonny
Match 2: Lol vs. Tom
Match 3: Jim vs. Riggs
Match 4: Rob vs. Gal
Match 5: Jonny vs. Lol
Match 6: Tom vs. Jim
Match 7: Riggs vs. Rob
Match 8: Gal vs. Lol
Match 9: Jonny vs. Tom
Match 10: Jim vs. Rob
Match 11: Riggs vs. Gal
Match 12: Lol vs. Jim
Match 13: Rob vs. Jonny
Match 14: Tom vs. Riggs
Match 15: Gal vs. Jim
Match 16: Lol vs. Rob
Match 17: Jonny vs. Riggs
Match 18: Tom vs. Gal
Match 19: Riggs vs. Lol
Match 20: Jim vs. Jonny
Match 21: Rob vs. Tom
Semi Final 1: 1st vs. 4th
Semi Final 2: 2nd vs. 3rd
Final: SF1Winner vs. SF2Winner

The SDA Grand Slam of darts 2009 fixtures: 25th July 2009 (The Coppice Club):

Group Match 1: Lol v Blind Johnny (Group A)
Group Match 2: Jon Boy v Rob (Group B)
Group Match 3: Riggs v Adam (Group A)
Group Match 4: Will v Jim (Group B)
Group Match 5: Blind Johnny v Adam (Group A)
Group Match 6: Rob v Jim (Group B)
Group Match 7: Riggs v Lol (Group A)
Group Match 8: Will v Jon Boy (Group B)
Group Match 9: Johnny v Riggs (Group A)
Group Match 10: Rob v Will (Group B)
Group Match 11: Adam v Lol (Group A)
Group Match 12: Jim v Jon Boy (Group B)
Semi Final 1: Group A Winner v Group B 2nd place
Semi Final 2: Group B Winner v Group A 2nd place
3rd/4th place Match: SF1 Loser v SF2 Loser
Final: SF1 Winner v SF2 Winner