Past Australian Representative Ivy Hampton passed away suddenly
in Darwin today (19th of August 2003) after a long illness. She
had only just caught up with old darting friends at the 24th
Australian Darts Championships in Darwin on Saturday. 
Ivy Hampton was inducted into the Northern Territory Sporting
“Hall of Fame” in 1997 along with 9 other fellow Territorians.
Ivy was the sole female selected.
The “Hall of Fame” is located at the entrance of the N.T Institute
of Sport at Marrara.
A journalist once described Ivy Hampton as
“…having a hawk eye, strong arm and nerves of steel”. In
her heyday Ivy was
ranked as Australia’s No. 1 and won the right to wear an Australian
blazer on two occasions.
In her time “… over a distance of 2.37 m she could throw a
dart more accurately than any woman in the Pacific region”.
Ivy was
born in Tennant Creek and went to live in Alice Springs and
started playing darts for the R.S.L. Club and as they say “the
rest is history”!
Prior to the Northern Territory becoming part
of the National League, Ivy participated in the South Australian
Country Championships and won the South Australian Singles
in 1975 and 1977 and joined with Joe Hoad [a well known South
Aussie] to win the S.A. Mixed Doubles in 1976.
Ivy was selected to represent the Territory
in 1978, and she went on to represent on 12 occasions. She
achieved the top spot in the Australian averages on three
of these and was winner of the International Pacific Masters
in 1980, and runner-up in Ladies Singles in 1986.
Ivy was selected to represent Australia at
the first Pacific Area Cup.
The Pacific Cup was a three-day event with the final event
being the Men’s & Ladies
Singles. Australia did not have a representative in the Men’s Singles final
and the weight was on Ivy to take out the Ladies Singles for Australia to win
the Cup. She met the very talented Selly Tain from Papua New Guinea. Papua
New Guinea had already own the Teams event, and everyone knew that Ivy had
a very tough task ahead of her in her first International.
The people who were there that day will never
forget the nerves of steel displayed by Ivy with the game
at three legs all going into the final of the best of seven.
In the last game Selly was on a 32 peg and Ivy needed 100,
she threw 5, 57 and double 19 to win and take the title and
a win for Australia! Perhaps the thing that stunned the very
dartwise audience was that remarkable ability that Ivy had
with her mental counting. Her first dart was intended to
be a 60 and drifted off into the 5 zone. Most dart players
would pause, re-think what they have left and try and finish
the game. Not Ivy there was never any pause as she instantly
computed that she had 95 left and finished with a treble
19 combination. She was so fast mentally that she never broke
her rhythm even though she was a very fast player. The caller
barely had time in count the shot, call game before Ivy had
retrieved her darts shook Selly’s hand and was heading off
the stage. You could see most people in the audience counting
what was left but for Ivy the game was over. For a fundamentally
shy and retiring personality Ivy had the remarkable ability
to handle pressure as though it never existed.
As well as Australia taking the Gold, Ivy also
claimed Gold in the Ladies Doubles with Cherry Bradshaw from
Western Australia. She also had two Bronze one in the Mixed
Doubles with Barry Atkinson [South Australia] and the other
in the Teams event. Ivy’s personal tally was 3 Gold and 2
Bronze.
Ivy went on to represent her country again
in the 1982 Pacific Cup in New Zealand. In that year Australia
won the Cup with Ivy collecting two Bronze and a Silver medal.
At that time the Pacific Cup was the only World
Tournament for the women. Since then the World Darts Federation
have included a World Cup for Women. Ivy will be remembered
for her contribution to women’s darts not only in the Territory
by all over.
She lived for darts.
She will
be sadly missed by family and all her fellow darties. |
