Defending Titleholders in Box Seat.

Defending Champions Western Australia Men are just holding on in number one position at the completion of day two of the Australian Men's Darts Teams Championships at the Croatian Club in Adelaide at the 27th Puma Australian Darts Championships. Their experience at this level again came through today as their world-champion players lead the rest of the team through some strong play to remain undefeated until the last round of competition today when they suffered their first loss. South Australia is the only other team with a chance at the title with one round to play tomorrow morning. The WA Ladies team is in the same position - top of the table but they are undefeated. Their team has world-class players playing as well but tomorrow mornings clash with Tasmania will determine who will win the title. Tasmania is capable of defeating WA but the title looks to be going west yet again.

Men
The pressure was on Western Australia and South Australia from the start today. Neither team could afford a slip up at this stage of competition with them playing each other in the next round. Both teams responded to the situation with both teams winning 9 - 2 against their opposition. WA defeating the ACT and SA taking care of the NT. The remaining two matches saw some really close contests. NSW found some form and won their first match defeating Queensland 6 - 5 and Victoria received the points accounting for Tasmania 6 - 5.

Round five saw Victoria have a big win 8 - 3 over NSW. Queensland also came back strongly after the loss this morning to defeated Tasmania 8 - 3. This match was a lot closer than the score line indicated and some 10 x 180's were thrown in this match. The battle between the two Territories saw the ACT come out on top winning 7 - 4. WA continued its victorious ways with a 6 - 5 in a real thriller of a match against SA to remain the only undefeated match.

South Australia v Western Australia.
It was a bit like the AFL Football at the moment - SA v The West. This match was to be a reel thriller. Both teams had been anticipating a close contest going the full distance, and the crowd watching were also expecting a titanic struggle to win. They would not be disappointed.

The match started with the triples. SA claimed the first triple when Peter Machin hit double 2 while WA evened up the score line winning the second triple. Highlight of that triple was the 116 finish by WA's Brad Austen.

Next were the pair's games. These games can often determine who is going to take the early advantage. SA's Peter Machin and Andrew Townes won the first pairs winning 2 - 0 over Graham Hunt and Kim Lewis. Townes hitting both finishes. WA started strongly in the second pairs Tony David and Kerry Whear taking the first leg when David finished on 76. Their opponents were Damian Chalmers and Colon Edwards and they fought back strongly to take the next two legs to claim the second pairs. Chalmers was in great form here finishing those legs with 125 and 62. The third pairs has SA's Craig Atze and Kyle Anderson in a strong position in both legs played against Jo Comito and Brad Austen. But as they saw 'doubles win matches' and SA missed their chances in this game. The WA players took their chances with Comito finishing from 41 and Austen from 60 to bring the match score to 3 - 2 SA's way.

The six singles were going to decide this match. The first single saw an ex world champion against a rookie player at this level. Young Kyle Anderson was out after WA's Graham Hunt. SA's Anderson won the first leg finishing on 40. Hunt came back to win the second leg and showed his experience and talent to take the third leg all be it finishing on double one to tie up the match at 3 - 3. At the same time on board number two, Kerry Whear proved too strong for Craig Atze. Both had a few chances but Whear was the one to capitalize on those chances. WA's Whear was throwing great darts though hitting some really big scores during this game. The third single would go the full distance as well. WA's Brad Austen took the first leg with 40 finish. Andrew Townes came back to claim the next leg with a 56 finish and claimed the next leg also to square away the match at 4 - 4. 2002 World Champion Tony David played the next single against SA's Peter Machine. David took the first leg, cleaning up from 25 after just missing the bull on his previous shot. Machin came back taking the second leg with 70 finish. David took control of the third leg with some big scoring, but Machin was right behind him. David hit double 10 to put WA back in front. The final two singles were to be played with SA requiring both for victory, where as WA only required one to take the match. You just love to watch matches like this. The match was so evenly poised and going down to the wire. The fifth single had WA's Jo Comito up against Colin Edwards and the sixth single had Kim Lewis against Damien Chalmers. We will go to the singles first as the pace and scoring was pretty hot. Lewis started out hitting three tons in a row and with a 36 finish claimed the first leg. The second leg saw Chalmers hitting the big scores and just missed the bull at hit first attempt to finish the leg. He cleaned up from 25 to level the game at 1 - 1. Mean while over on the other board SA's Edwards had won the first leg with a 90 finish on the bull. Comito came back in the second leg to finish on 80. As with the other board, this games was locked away at 1 - 1. This match was on a knives edge. The Lewis Chalmers game was running just in front of the game. Players were matching shot for shot. The steadiness and experience of a seasoned campaigner like Kim Lewis stepped up to the oche and finished from 77 to win the game and the match for WA. A minute or so later SA's Colin Edwards finished from 46 to bring the final score line of 6 - 5 to WA. It was a tremendous game of darts played in great spirit by two great teams.

Round six seemed to be a little anticlimatical after the previous round, but teams have to keep winning to stay in contention in the case of the top teams slipping up. And what happened? The two teams that were undefeated earlier and had just played a great match were under immense pressure this round. SA played the ACT and scrapped home 6 - 5 winning the last possible leg to claim the victory. WA were still undefeated but suffered its first loss in this round to Queensland. The WA team had its chance but lost the last two singles to loss the match. Tasmania got home with a 6 - 5 win in another cliffhanger with NSW while Victoria defeated the NT.

With one round of competition left only two teams can win the title - either South Australia or Western Australia. Both have to win - SA against Victoria and WA against Tasmania. If both win it will come down to the number of legs won over the two and a bit days of competition. At this stage WA has won a few more legs.

Ladies
In the ladies competition the Western Australian Ladies Team again started the day strongly with a victory over the ACT 11 - 0. Tasmania had its first loss when it failed to get the points against Victoria, going down 6 - 5. Queensland were still in there with a chance at the title when they hit enough doubles to win 6 - 5 against NSW. SA had a comfortable win over the NT 9 - 2 to record their second victory.

The ACT won their first match against the NT in this round. The ACT ladies finally struck a win with a score of 7 - 4. Queensland and Tasmania faced off against each other in this round. Queensland had suffered a loss to Victoria late yesterday and Tasmania a loss first up this morning. It was a close tussle between these two teams with Queensland coming out on top 6 - 5. This result opened up the championship chase a little. Victoria won its fourth match by taking care of NSW to the tune of 7 - 4 while WA continued to power ahead with another powerful performance over SA winning 8 - 3.

Round six saw a great clash between WA and Queensland. Queensland had every chance to win this match taking a 4 - 1 lead only to see WA come home over the top them to win 6 - 5. SA had a top win 10 - 1 over the ACT as did Victoria with the same score line over the NT. Tasmania suffered its third 6 - 5 loss for the day when NSW claimed this match.

Realistically WA should win the title again. Victoria has only lost one game and if WA happened to lose the last round tomorrow; the leg difference maybe too much for Victoria to catch up. If Victoria loses to South Australia tomorrow the battle for second place will be very tight with possibly three teams in contention.

Competition continues tomorrow at the Croatian Club starting at 10.00am with the last round of the Teams Competition, followed by the Australian Pairs Titles

Today's Results:
LADIES
Round Four: WA 11 - ACT 0, TAS 6 - VIC 5, SA 9 - NT 2, QLD 6 - NSW 5
Round Five: VIC 7 - NSW 4, QLD 6 - TAS 5, ACT 7 - NT 4, WA 8 - SA 3
Round Six: SA 10 - ACT 1, WA 6 - QLD 5, VIC 10 - NT 1, NSW 6 - TAS 5

MEN
Round Four: WA 9 - ACT 2, VIC 6 - TAS 5, SA 9 - NT 2, NSW 6 - QLD 5
Round Five: VIC 8 - NSW 3, QLD 8 - TAS 3, ACT 7 - NT 4, WA 6 - SA 5
Round Six: SA 6 - ACT 5, QLD 6 - WA 5, VIC 6 - NT 5, TAS 6 - NSW