England defeated the USA team 6-5, Saturday April 15, 2007 in a thrilling match.
The match was the 25th anniversary of the telephone darts challenge, the longest running international darts match in the world.
Organized & directed by the American Darters Association stateside the match was held in downtown St. Louis, Missouri at the Dubliner Lounge.
England was conducting its throws from the other side of the pond at the Princess Alexandra Pub in Northampton, England.
Each team consisted of 10 players, the team ADA was Captain Glenn Remick, Karl Remick, Patrick Bonner, Jason French, Chris Greene, Vladimir Mrn Vjavac, John McDowell, Rob Meier, Bill Reid, Paul Schaeffler, and Jim Yates.
The match started with three doubles 601. In the first doubles the ADA’s JasonFrench and Vlad Imir defeated Paul Barrett and Steve Corless with a 25 darter.
French’s points per dart average was 21.8, and partner Vladimir was 19.5.
England then took the next two doubles to take a 2-1 lead in the match heading into the singles.
In the first of six singles 501 best of three legs, England’s Jeff Billingham defeated Rob Meier in three legs. With the Brits up 3-1 in the match it was Chris Greene’s chance to turn things around for USA and he did with a three leg win over Dave Dorman (18.3 ppd). Chris’ 20 dart third leg was a great One (59,45,97,87,140,29,44) cutting the match lead to 3-2. Chris three leg average was 19.9 points per dart.
England’s Don Ward’s two leg sweep of Vladimir Mrn Vjavac (17.3) gave histeammates a 4-2 lead in the match. Don’s 18 dart 501 in leg two was capped with a checkout from 84.
Dan Eaton defeated ADA’s Patrick Bonner in straight legs to break the match open with a 5-2 lead. Dan’s 22 dart first leg was highlighted by a near miss on a 164 out shot, leaving 35. His second leg was a swift 17 darter. Patrick averaged 21.48 points per dart in the two legs.
It was now rally time for the USA, as Jim Yates drilled England’s Stewart Worthin straight legs tossing a 25, and 19 dart 501 respectively. Jim opened the leg with a 180, and followed it with a 100 to take a commanding lead in the game, and pulling the USA boys to within two games in the match at 5-3.
Bill Reid then kept the pressure on with a sweep of Trevor Brittain. In leg one after 12 darts apiece Trevor had 76 remaining compared to Bills 278. But Trevor ran into double trouble and Bill tossed a timely 140, then as cool as the other side of the pillow checked out on his 25th dart.
In leg two Bill erased the final 303 points with ten darts to cut into England’s lead at 5-4.
The next part of the match was triples 601, in the first game John McDowell, Paul Schaeffler, and Karl Remick were defeated by the Brits Stewart Worth, Dan Eaton, and Jeff Billingham. That made the score 6-4 assuring England of a match victory.
The eleventh game was played by ADA’s Bill Reid, Jason French and Rob Meier. The USA took that one in 34 darts. Rob’s 133 left his teammates sitting pretty late in the game. A special thanks to Budweiser for providing sponsorship for this historic match and the staff of the Dubliner who were great hosts.
NOTES: The following is statistics from the match for the ADA team, player name, points per dart avg., scores 60-99, 100-140, 180’s.
Jim Yates 21.8-6-2-1:
Chris Greene 19.9-9-4-0:
Patrick Bonner 19.7-2-4-0:
Bill Reid 19.3-6-2-0:
Jason French 19.3-2-2-0:
Paul Schaeffler 19.2-2-1-0:
Vladimir Mrn Vjavac 18.2-6-1-0:
Rob Meier 17.7-10-1-0:
Karl Remick 12.8-0-0-0:
John McDowell 7.1-0-0-0: