Karen Scott and James Walklin made a successful opening to the darts season, emerging the respective women's and men's champions of the National 501 Open hosted by the T&T Darts Association (TTDA) last Tuesday (January 23) at the home of darts, Kosmos Members Club in Port-of-Spain.
In the women's category, Scott took on Petricia Messiah in the final. Scott took an early lead but Messiah fought back to make it 1-1 and forced a deciding leg, after some great exchange of darts Scott was the winner and crowned the T&T National 501 Double In/Double out women's champion 2024.
In the men's division, Walklin took on Joshua Balfour. This final was a battle of the two most in-form national men's players.
Walklin looked very comfortable early on taking a 1-0 lead but Balfour kept his composure making it 1-1. Walklin again took the lead but Balfour being the tenacious player he is brought it back to 2-2 forcing a deciding leg, after some nervy throws and a few missed attempts at double. Walklin with double twenty left, took it out on the first time of asking to be crowned the T&T National 501 Double In/Double Out men's champion.
Similar to the Premier League where the Community Shield is the curtain raiser, the National Open marks the official start of the new season of darts. A new format was proposed and this will be the format throughout the season. The league will be a 501 tournament so as to keep all national players sharp for the upcoming Caribbean Darts Cup to be held in Jamaica in July but to keep everyone even sharper the league will be a “double in /double out” format meaning in order for the game to proceed the players must hit a double to start the game and as usual hit a double to win the game. The participants for the National Open were split into men's and women's categories and played a round-robin tournament.
The official league of darts is carded to begin on Tuesday (January 30) at Kosmos Members Club.
