Esperance went back-to-back at the annual Albany Charity Shield.
The Esperance darting fraternity descended on the Albany PCYC last weekend, renewing old friendships and making new acquaintances, but more importantly playing to raise money for various Albany charitable organizations.
The relaxed carnival atmosphere was greeted by 52 sides from Perth to Esperance across the Men’s and Women’s competitions.
It was a successful weekend for the Men’s teams as Esperance went back-to-back in division one closely followed by Ragnarök who were runners-up.
Both local teams met in the first round of the competition, and it was the chirpy Ragnarök that made the early running in the derby leading four games to two.
Esperance came back to win the match 6-5, captain Nathan Dixon winning the last leg of singles in a contest between the two sides which was worthy of a grand final matchup.
The sides then had the measure of teams from Albany, Kendenup, Mount Barker and Tambellup, close tussles being the theme of the weekend.
Mark Mottershead for Ragnarök kicked off the 180 tallies in the derby followed by teammate Matty Coker as Kalgoorlie ring-in Greg Martin scored one on the Saturday for the Esperance team.
This put the pressure on Greg Symes who responded with two in the last match of the weekend.
The ever-improving Coker scored the second highest peg of the weekend for division one with 116.
Dixon thanked chief Albany Charity Shield organizer Andrew Hook for a great weekend and remarked “we can’t wait to do it all again next year”.
All Ass No Class, also from Esperance, played in division two finishing third overall, some of the players gaining carnival experience for the first time.
In the Women’s top division, Hot Flights were runners-up despite having the best pegs record, Roxy Martin leading the way with the division’s highest peg of 108.
Flecks, a team made up of Esperance Ladies Dart Association Life Members, who now live all over WA, won two matches in division three, Chloe Wyatt scoring the highest peg of 86.
