Collie was well-represented at the WA darts championships after sending two teams from the Collie Men's Darts Association to the competition at Belmont Recreation Centre on May 4 and 5.
Based on team averages, Collie 1 were placed in division 1, with Collie 2 playing in division 4.
The placement marked the first time the Collie team had made it to division 1 and it was the only country association to do so.
Drawing Rockingham in the first game, the format was best of three legs, triples, doubles and singles.
With all games except the last going to the third deciding leg, Collie was unlucky to lose 11/0, with the final scoreline not reflecting how close the match really was.
In the next game, Collie 1 blew out the cobwebs, with Captain Gary Keep, Peter Rowe and Lee Chapman all firing and defeating favourites Fremantle 8/3, after leading the game 7/0.
This was followed by a win with the same scoreline against an extremely strong South Suburban team on the back of great performances from Ijah Coyle, Paul Bebbington and CJ Naysmith.
On Sunday morning, May 5, Collie 1 again excelled against Quinns Rocks by completing a 7/4 victory.
The highlight of the day was Ijah Coyle's singles victory against former English representative David Platt.
With Collie sniffing a chance of a medal, and one game to go against Port Kennedy, the boys fought out a tough game to come away with a 6/5 win, with Lee Chapman defeating former World Youth Champion Tyson Hoeful.
With the victory in the last game, and Collie 1 only losing the one game to Rockingham, the Collie 1 team was named silver medallis in the state championships.
This involved a huge effort against the biggest metropolitan associations in Western Australia.
Lee Chapman made the top 8 averages in the state for all players, coming in 7th overall at 80.38 for the weekend.
Lee also managed to make the state squad for 2019, and will trial for the state team this weekend.
The team would like to thank Joshy Franks for coming as their book-keeper.
Collie 2 had a tough weekend against quality opponents in Division 4, losing 3 games by the narrowest of margins, 6 games to 5, and winning two games 7/4 and 8/3.
Although they were unlucky to be out of the medals, the boys can hold their heads high as they only lost their games by the smallest margin.
Collie 2 was very well led by Jarrod Northover, Robby Smith and Danny Smythe.
Collie 2 was rounded out by young up-and-coming players in Connor Stallard, Trevor Turvey Jnr and Paul Boswell, who also played very well for their first time at states.
Jarrod averaged over 69 for the weekend.
