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Darts Across The Sea started in 1982 and continued for many years with only the occasional gap under the guidance of Glenn Remick and his English counterpart, Horace Handley.
I have known Horace since the early 1980’s so I was honoured when Horace asked me to continue this game as his successor going forward, and I’m sure Karl feels equally as honoured to continue his father’s work.
I've competed in this match quite a few times but was unable to raise my game enough to qualify for the team this year, every time I raised my game my best buddy Don Ward raised his game and knocked me out – some buddy! – (Only kidding Don).
However as Team England captain and the organiser on this side of the pond I still had a team shirt. (Shirts were provide with the aid of our main sponsor Northampton Saints Rugby Football Club who donated a signed Team shirt from their LV Cup win earlier this year which was raffled)
The funny part of this was that I earned a new darts nickname during the course of the match. While preparing for the match I was ironing out the wrinkles in my new shirt, but alas I had the iron too hot and immediately burnt through the shirt – Calamity!!!
Making the best of a bad job I wore the shirt as best I could to try and minimise the obviousness of the burn. However my team mates have now christened me with the nickname “Scorcher”, so that’s what will appear on the back of my darts shirts going forward. Everybody had a good laugh.
To get the event started Karl and I threw 12 darts to determine which team had the opening throw. I managed a narrow victory for England and St. George. I was privately hoping this would be a good omen.
After the 2008 result went so badly for England and so well for the USA we were hoping to put things to amends. As it turned out we got off to a good start with Dean Payas, Dan Eaton & Rob O'Keefe winning the opening triples 901 game against Brian Obrecht, Mike Smith & Paul Schaeffler. 1-0 England.
Mike Hurwitz & Jon Rimert soon calmed England’s early ambition with a pair’s victory over John Hopkins & Robbie Commerford. Honours even 1–1
Then came what I believe is a first for Darts across the Sea (but I can be corrected if anyone knows better) Team England’s ladies, Julia Childs & Cath Kaye took to the field against their USA counterparts Heather Lechner & Chrissy Akins in a pairs game. 2-1 England. Heather soon made amends by taking the points from the ladies singles match against Julia Childs Honours even 2–2.
England’s Paul Watford put in a commanding performance on his debut with an emphatic 2 – 0 win over his American opponent Duane Timmermann (Duane later admitted on Facebook to not being impressed with his darts and wanting to come over for a re-match)
3-2 England
England’s Martin Gamble continued the good work when throwing his first three darts of the evening he hit 180! He then went on to win comfortably 2-0 taking the first leg in just 16 darts. 4-2 England
Martin Gamble & Don Ward then played a pairs game narrowly winning 2-against USA’s Paul Schaeffler & Derek Dressler to take England into a 5-2 Lead.
Don Ward then sealed the result for England with a 20 dart first leg and although Jon Rimert was hot on his heels in the second leg, a 22 dart game was enough for victory.
England 6 USA 2
Derek Dressler soon bought England back to earth with a good 2-0 win over England’s Dean Payas 6-3, England’s Rob O' Keefe returned the favour with a 2-0 win over USA’s Brian Obrecht 7-3.
The game was wrapped up in style by the USA’s Duane Timmermann, Tony Akins & Mike Hurwitz beating England’s John Hopkins, Robbie Commerford & Paul Watford in the final triples game to end the match. Final result ENGLAND 7 USA 4.
England’s man of the match was Paul “One Dart” Watford averaging 24.9 ppd on his debut.
It was nice to see a few faces from “Darts Across the Sea” from years gone by supporting us this year including Bill Burt, Paul Smith and Horace.
Some of the original people involved including Glenn and Trev Brittain have alas fallen by the wayside over the years but their memories and spirits continued with us in this match.
A big thank you to:
The Princess Alexandra Public House, Northampton, Mr Dave Dorman
Our hosts in USA – ABC Billiards, O’Fallon
The Remick family & all of the members of the ADA
Looking forward to many more of these events
Jeff Billingham - Captain & Organiser -“Team England “
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