NATION NEWS
Mixed results for Bajans in darts
Published on: 7/19/06.

SMARTING FROM THE CRITICISM of under-performing on the first day, the Barbados darts team experienced another day of mixed fortunes at the Digicel 16th Caribbean Cup now on at the Sherbourne Conference Centre.

They were only kept in contention by the consistency of their female players and the outstanding performances from debutants Donnie Inniss and Sheldon Jordan.

In their first match, Barbados drew 6-6 with the highly-rated team from the Bahamas and then trounced St Lucia by 9-3.

However, they were soon brought down to earth by Cayman Islands who beat them 8-4 before they bounced back to defeat Guyana 8-4 in their last game of the day.

Barbados owed a huge debt to Maureen Shepherd and Michelle Stephens. These two women have consistently produced darts of the highest calibre under pressure for years, and as a doubles pairing, after seven matches, remain undefeated in this year's competition.

Further analysis will show that they win virtually all their singles matches and are rarely defeated when involved with the men in mixed doubles or triples.

The cracks that came to the surface in the performance of the men on the first day were very apparent on the second. Things could have been a lot worse for the team without the mature performances from debutants Inniss and Jordan who showed the more experienced members of the team just how to hold their nerve under pressure.

Barbados are slipping behind the leaders and needed a massive improvement both in the team matches and the individual knockout tournaments to improve on their third place standing achieved at the last Caribbean Cup held in Florida.

However, hopes of producing winners in the knockout competitions took a huge dive as the visiting combinations took most of the remaining places in the doubles and triples events.

In the women's doubles only the holders Michelle Stephens and Thelma Alleyne won their matches and the same was true in the men's section where only Jordan and Inniss remain in contention.

In the mixed doubles, operating in different halves of the draw, there were victories for Winston Cadogan and Michelle Stephens and Sheldon Jordan and Elouise Martin.

The teams still in contention in the round of 16 of the mixed triples are: Sylvan Graham, Thelma Alleyne, Sheldon Jordan and the team of Roger Edwards, Maureen Shepherd and André Payne. (PR)