EDO England Masters

Anastasia was back at the Ricoh Arena to put things right from yesterdays performances in the British Classic and Grosvenor Finals where she felt she did not perform to her best. After some advice and positive criticism from GR8 of Darts member Chris Mason, Anastasia wanted to prove that she could perform well again today and throw some GR8 darts.

The day started of very well with Anastasia winning her first four games 3-0, scoring highly and consistently   finishing well which is what Anastasia and her fans have come to expect from the current double World Champion. The scoring seemed to have left Anastasia for the first two legs and opponent Dee Bateman took full advantage of this and cruised into a 2-0 lead. Anastasia dug deep and started to play like she had been all day with some encouragement from vocal supporters of hers and got the game back to 2-2. The last leg went well again for Anastasia until the doubles. she missed many darts at the doubles but with her high scoring power she had enough shots at the double to hit double 5 to clinch at 3-2 victory. 

Anastasia was again on stage to play her semi-final against Welsh international and ever present Lakeside player Julie Gore. The game turned out to be a real ding dong of a game with both players powering in high scores and some good finishes. Anastasia hit a crucial 86 (18,18,bull) to make it 2-2. Julie ran away with the next leg and was 3-2 up. Anastasia was well behind in the 6th leg and fired in a 180 and a 60 finish to take it to the deciding leg. Julie had already missed a few darts at the double to see out the game and Anastasia was lucky to still be in the game. The last leg was again not a very good scoring leg or a leg to write home about on doubles. Anastasia was lucky enough to win the leg and go through to the final to play England international Lisa Ashton who had beat Deta Hedman in the other semi final. Anastasia knew she had rode her luck to reach the final and felt for Julie but sometime luck is what is needed in this game and Anastasia grasped it with both hands on this occasion.

The final was a high scoring game with Lisa and Anastasia trading 100's and 140's throughout the legs. The first four legs were shared and then Anastaisa took the lead with a good leg to go 3-2 up. The last leg again was a high scoring leg and Lisa was at the doubles first. Lisa missed her chances to get the game back to 3-3 and Anastasia took out 40 after missing it on a 120 out shot the throw before to be crowned EDO England Master Ladies Champion 2012. Anastasia successfully defended her title that she won in 2011 when it was played in Blackpool.

http://www.englanddarts.co.uk/EnglandMastersLadiesSingles.pdf

Anastasia currently sits at number 2 in the BDO ranking for Lakeside 2013 seeding places. Deta Hedman currently has a healthy lead in the number 1 spot.

This is Anastasia's first win as part of the GR8 of Darts team and is looking forward to working with all the players involved and would encourage all fans to take a look at the website and sign up to be part of the GR8 of Darts team. http://www.gr8ofdarts.co.uk/join-us.html

Grosvenor Casino Grand Finals

Saturday night saw Anastasia take part in the Grosvenor Casino finals night of which she qualified for last week after her victory in the Leeds Grosvenor Casino. The event started around 8.30pm for Anastasia as she was held up from playing in the final if the British Classic.

There was 32 ladies present for the finals night along with 32 men also playing alongside the ladies in the superb casino.

Anastasia cruised through her first to games comfortably with a 4-1 and a 4-2 victory before coming up against Unicorn team mate Tricia Wright who has returned to action after a lengthy layoff due to injury and surgery on her throwing shoulder. The game was nip and tuck for the first 4 legs with all legs going with the throw. Anastasia then stepped up her game and showed the scoring power and clinical finishing that has always been part of her game and ran away with the last 2 legs for a well deserved 4-2 victory. In the semi-final Anastasia was to again play Deta Hedman for the second time today. Unfortunately for Anastasia she did not continue the form that she had shown in her previous game and ended up loosing 4-2 for the second time today.

Deta Hedman went on to win the ladies singles beating Surrey player Apylee jones 4-2 in the final.

http://www.englanddarts.co.uk/GrosvenorGrandPrixLadiesFinals.pdf

This was a great tournament run under the EDO banner in the Grosvenor Casino's which was open to all darts players from both the BDO and PDC. All people hope that this was a success for the Casino and hope that this will run again in 2013.

Congratulations to the EDO for organising a great finals night and also the qualification tournaments.

BDO British Classic

Saturday started off with the BDO British Classic taking place from imp at the Ricoh Arena. This was to be Anastasia's first tournament under the GR8 of Darts team There was not a great amount of entries for the tournament this year even with the ladies price fund being doubled for the top end of the game compared to last years event in Kettering. Anastasia had some tough games through the day due to Anastasia giving her opponents to many chances during the games and not having her usual killer instinct on the oche. Anastasia admitted to not having full concentration on the ochre for some unknown reason and rode her luck in games against Wales international Gaynor Williams and Norway international Rachna David.

Anastasia done enough to fight her way to the stage semi-finals where she was up against Dutch international Tamara Schuur. This game started with Anastasia scoring highly in the first 2 legs but the concentration did not seem to be there on the doubles and the score was 1-1. The standard of high scoring was now not as fluent as in the first 2 legs but with some clinical finishing Anastasia was able to get it back to 2-2. Anastasia again started leg 5 well but the doubles eluded her yet again at the end of the leg to go into the lead. Tamara scored her way down and took advantage of a increasingly poor performance of 6 missed doubles by Anastasia to move 3-2 ahead. Anastasia dug in deep with that Russian grit and determination and managed to level up at 3-3 with a fine leg of darts. The 7th and final leg was a nervy affair for both ladies with snatched and pushed darts happening for both players. The experience seemed to play a part in the last leg and Anastasia was able to win and see herself into the final where she was to play World number 1 Deta Hedman.

The final was not of the high standard that these to ladies are used to performing to and that was evident in the scoring and again in shots at doubles.There was not very many 100+ scores during the first few legs but consistent 81,85 and 60 scores. The game went to 2-1 and Deta pulled out a good leg to take the lead at 3-1 after Anastasia had missed 3 darts to level up at 2-2.Anastasia started to dig in deep to try and gain some respect from the match and produced a 14 dart leg which was the best of the game to get the score to 3-2. In the 6th and what turned out to be the final leg, Anastasia scored the better out of the 2 players and left 58 of a great 138 shot and was hoping for a shot at the double to level up at 3-3 and force a deciding last leg with Deta sitting on 149. Deta stepped up and hit 60, 57 and 32 to seal the win with a great finish and was crowned BDO British Classic 2012 Ladies Champion.

http://www.bdodarts.com/uploads/news/0/BritishClassic2011/TheFinalsBDOWinmauBritishClassic2012LadiesSingles14072012.pdf

Anastasia was not to happy with the way she played throughout the day and knew there had to be an improvement for the following day for the EDO England Masters. A chat with GR8 of Darts stable mate Chris Mason was what was needed as he pointed out a few things that Anastasia was doing wrong during her throw from what he had previously seen her doing from video recordings and watching live games. Anastasia took on board Chris's words of wisdom and was all set to use them tomorrow.

Anastasia wins EDO event in Leeds

Anastasia participated in the EDO Grosvenor casino qualifying event yesterday in Leeds in a bid to win a place in the grand finals which take place at the Grosvenor Casino Coventry which is situated at the Ricoh Arena.

Anastasia played some great darts during the day and was pleased with a 161 finish in her last 16 game. In the last 8 game Anastasia was to play Trina Gulliver which turned out to be a high scoring game and a great battle. At 2-2 Anastasia started the last leg with scores of 140,140,140 and this was enough to give her the goes at the double required to win the game.

In the semi final Anastasia was up against another great player in Englands and Lancashires Lisa Ashton. After a slow start which saw Anastasia trail 2-0, The scores started to flow along with the finishing and Anastasia ran out 4-2 winner with some great clinical finishing.

The final turned out to be a bit of a one sided affair with Anastasia running out the winner in a comfortable 4-0 win over Sue Gulliver. Anastasia scored steadily and again finished well in the legs. Sue never really got going in the final or played to her best.

This win means Anastasia has gained automatic entry into the Finals event in Coventry on 14th July through winning one of the ranking events.