When I entered the KBD last night to get ready for a great night of darts, only 3 of the 4 scheduled matches were written on the boards... the 4th - Middlebrook vs. Kelly was for some reason not there. Finding out a short time later, Jeff Kelly after arriving to warm up for his match received a phone call from his wife explaining that his young daughter had injured herself and needed to go to the hospital. Being the stand up dad that Jeff is known to be, he explained the situation to league convenor Bill Myers, and left the venue to attend to his family. Jeff didn't know if he would be able to return to play the match out. A phone call from Jeff about a half hour later proved that everything was okay at home and that he would play the match.

"I'd rather play it tonight, especially being a playoff match and all... make-up matches can be so difficult and sometimes coupled with another match in the evening." Kelly was quoted.

Middlebrook, being the class act that he is, was more than willing to accomodate Kelly in whatever way he needed.

Kelly arrived back at the club in time to start by 7:30, and the game began.

An opening leg by Jeff found Middlebrook reaching big to come in with 6 unanswered legs to take the first two sets. Kelly came back strong with 3 of the 4 next legs taking set 3 and making it 2 to 1 for Middlebrook. But Clayt's experience and consistency kicked in late in the match to sew up legs 1 and 2 of the 4th. A last ditch effort by Kelly, winning leg 3 of the 4th was just not enough as Middlebrook took out tops to move him into a semi final.

Middlebrook proved that he's ready to move on to the final four, with his sights on the cup he narrowly to Wayne Dragstra last year in the finals. Jeff Kelly more than proved himself this year, climbing the ladder to hold a steady 6th place finish in the league, ousting many worthy opponents along the way, Middlebrook being one of them.