Mile High in Round Europe Darts! Pt1
One of the Highlights of Marks Debut year 2010 was what we christened Round the World Darts! During August and September of that years Mark competed in 5 event in Australia Canada and UK in less than 3 weeks it proved to be a sensational spell with Mile High reaching his debut final in Australia 2 x last 16 places in Canada and two more money positions in Crawley, it really did mark the start of a superb surge into the higher reaches of PDC darts.
Unfortunately, due to the omission of Australia from the calendar, a repeat was not possible, however we noticed a mini version was doable. So `Round Europe Darts’ was born!
This year Mile High and our colleague and friend Diamond White have taken on a 9 event 4 country odyssey!
Kilarney in Eire, Gladbeck in Germany. Benidorm in Spain and Crawley in UK all within 22 days. During which time 7 players championships, one irish classic and 1 Grand slam qualifier will be attempted.
Leg 1 - Kilarney
One of the favorite events of many this event saw the guys fly to Eire on Friday and returning Monday.
1) Irish Masters -
A fine warm up for the guys here with a last 16 place for Mark and a last 32 spot for Ian, both defeated in last leg deciders by Wayne Jones. Still money in the bank and some great warm up / fine tuning.
2) Golden Dart Pro Tour
The previous days warm up proved perfect as the guys performed strongly, Mile High reached another Pro Tour semi only to be undone by Mr Anderson again. Diamond also performed well with an unfortunate meeting between the two the only blot on the landscape.
Leg 2 - Gladbeck
Grateful thanks to Frank and family for putting up the guys and making this darting venture viable!
Flying out on the Friday and staying away through the following week into Benidorm the guys have a great chance to relax and practise in peace in the build up to the eagerly awaited Benidorm weekend. First though the Gladbeck double header!
3) Pro Tour German Darts Championship
Another great day for Mile High here, chipping away at all those goals set for the year with a superb set of wins, a 6-0 over Paul Nicholson being the highlight another £1000 points and another place on the Order of Merit. Twice being on a 9 darter may have proven a little distracting in the Qtr defeat to Artut the end result. Ian again suffered horribly in the draw but chipped away at his aims strongly.
4) German Darts Classic ( Pro Tour)
A tougher day this, fine wins to get started but the 6-5 win over the dangerous Per Laursen does not help your cause when waiting next is former world champ Steve Beaton. So a last 32 place for Mile High. Diamond again overcame a tough 1st round with victory of yesterdays semi finalist! Unfortunately a resurgent Roland Scholten took advantage of a few missed doubles to defeat Ian 6-4.
Mark and Ian are enjoying a couple of days in the company of some old friends in Germany & Holland and will then go straight to Spain for leg three. A strong start from both so far with both picking up £^s every day and heading towards there aims for 2011. Keep it going lads and well done so far!