An anticipated match for both, long time doubles partners in local legion leagues and open tournaments, Wayne Dragstra and Kevin Markowski found themselves at the oche for a CKPDL quarter final match Tuesday night. The stage was set as Dragstra, unbeaten in every CKPDL match he has ever played knew it wasn't going to be a cakewalk. Kevin pulled himself from a 12th place standing in mid July to earn entry into the playoffs by finishing the league in 8th place. Kevin's darts have more than improved over the past couple months Dragstra was quick to point out.
The match opened with Dragstra taking the first leg of the first set, but followed with an onslaught by Markowski notching 3 consecutive legs to win the set. Markowski showed he wasn't fazed by Dragstra's consistent triples and double outs and finding himself up. Set number 2 went back in Dragstra's favour as he closed it out with the next 3 out of 4 legs.
Going into set 3, Markowski turned it up again and found himself staring down the double to earn the third set... he nailed it! At this point, Dragstra knew he had to turn it on... Markowski just wasn't going away!
Set 4 went 1 leg to 1 until Dragstra nailed two solid outs to tie it up at 2 sets apiece. Leg one of the 5th set went to Markowski, leg two to Dragstra, both keeping their respective throws. With great crowd approval, Markowski then again found the double to win leg 3. He now found himself 1 leg away from eliminating the 2008 CKPDL champion, the 2009 CKPDL league champion, and the best dart player the league has entertained. The leg went back and forth with solid 80 and 100 shots bringing both players to the out. Dragstra had first crack at double 20, but missed on the third dart setting the stage for Markowski's upset.
"When he was at that double, all I could think of was... just give me one more shot", Dragstra was quoted later. The first dart just missed the double 20 high, the second hitting a single... with every effort he could muster, Markowski aimed and threw at the double 10, only to wire it on the outside. Dragstra collected his focus, walked up and banged the double top to tie the final set at 2 legs apiece.
CKPDL rules state that a player must win a final set in the playoffs by 2 clear legs... Dragstra had to break Markowski's throw, and then seal the deal by winning his throw on the final leg... and that he did! Dragstra's experience and consistency at the board brought him to a close narrowly winning a match that will go down in CKPDL history by a score of 3-2.
Bill Myers, the CKPDL convenor, was closely watching and had nothing but encouraging words for both players.
"It goes to show you that the calibre of all the dart players in the league have improved! On any given night, someone can give someone else a hell of match!"
Special thanks to Ang Carron for chalking the match between his fellow Thameville legion darts mates. dc |
