Lynsey’s first WDF tournament of 2024 saw her travel to Bucharest on Friday night with teammates Davie Kirwan and Evander Stevenson (and her new shirts!) for the Romanian Darts Festival. A 10.35pm flight had them landing in Bucharest at 4.10am local time so it was inevitably bound to be a long day regardless of how the darts went!
From Lynsey…
“On Saturday morning I started the Romanian Classic with a 4-1 win against Romania’s Cristina Racoveanu. Scoring was inconsistent, as were the doubles, but I was happy to get through and survive the heat! Next up was a 4-0 victory over Bulgarian Valeria Stoilova… scoring was better and more consistent, but doubles still needed polishing up. I then faced Hungary’s Greta Tekauer in the last 32. After 5 attempts of us both hitting a 25, Greta eventually won the bull up. I missed 9 darts at a double to take the first leg and then drew level with a 19 darter. At 2-1 down I missed darts at a double to hold my throw and equal the score again and went on to lose the match 4-1. Overall I was relatively happy with how the day went, still lots of room for improvement on the consistency side of things but was more than happy with a last 32 after travelling through the night and having three hours sleep. The playing area was very hot and dry/stuffy, and with all liquids being banned from the hall it was a hard slog for all players. Previously I’d have struggled a lot more than I did but the techniques learnt from Stuart at 360 Performance Academy helped no end this weekend and I was excited to see what the next event would bring after some food and a decent nights sleep! (The Burger Factory is the place to go btw, outstanding!!)
Sunday morning brought the Romanian Open and the second silver singles event of the weekend. I started my campaign with a 4-1 win over Finland’s Sari Sauvola. Scoring was much more consistent, 6 missed doubles prevented me going 3-0 up but I fought back to win the next two legs and the match. Next up was an eventful game against Lindsey Smet of Belgium… Started off with system issues – Lindsey’s name was not showing on the tablet so we couldn’t start the game, after 10/15 mins this was sorted and we started the match, though half way through the first leg, the marker a few boards down fainted and collapsed onto the oche. Thankfully she wasn’t hurt but definitely gave everyone a scare! After as many darts at a double as it took us to get there Lindsey eventually won the first leg. I refocused myself from the distractions and took a 2-1 lead in 23 and 18 darts. Lindsey then brought it back to 2-2, before some steady scoring and finishing saw me over the line. Next up was the Last 32 against Christiane Muzik of Austria. First leg started oh so well, I wired double 18 for a 14 darter, then had six darts all on the wire of double 9, before losing the leg after Christiane went 137, 78, check! D’oh!! That was a sore one!! I fought back to win the next three legs on the spin before Christiane made it 3-2. Steady scoring and no messing on the finishing saw me through the last 16 to face No1 Seed Deta Hedman. First leg I left myself 52 after 21 darts and Deta pinged out 86 to win it, second leg Deta was a woman on a mission and took out 142 for a 15 dart leg, I missed my chance to make it 2-1 and Deta extended her lead to 3-0. I then clawed a leg back to make it 3-1 before missing 6 darts to make it 3-2. Deta put me out my misery and hit the double to take the match 4-1. Happy to say I lost to the eventual winner of the tournament and despite being frustrated at not taking my chances to give her a better game, I was happy to get to the last 16 and take home some more ranking points.
Couple of weekends off before we go again at the Scottish Open in the Normandy Hotel, Renfrew. Always a good weekend and nice to play in my hometown! Hoping for some decent performances and more ranking points!”