This article is the second half of the interview with our players who travelled to Shanghai to participate in the IDF (International Darts Federation) Darts World Cup Shanghai on 6-9 November, 2012. The event is a premier world class darts tournament held in Shanghai and sponsored by Dartslive. It attracted participants from more than 20 countries from around the world ! Team Singapore was represented by Paul Lim, Harith Lim, Kelvin Yap and Loh Yi-Shin. We had a chat with two of our players Loh Yi-Shin and River Ang to share their experiences in Shanghai with our readers. Read the first part of this interview with Harith Lim and Paul Lim
Q. What ambitions did you initially have when travelling to Shanghai?
River - As participation in Team Event was based on nationality, I played with the Malaysian team. I was hoping to win the PRO Singles event. However, I manage to beat only 2 players in that event, one from Canada and another was from Malaysia.
Shin - My ambition was a lot simpler, I just wanted to improve my own rating and not be a burden to the guys in the competition as I knew I was still way off from the international ladies standard. No wild dreams there.
Shin - Following the reply above, I should have harboured some wild dreams as there were some mixture of standards for the ladies in the competition, depending on the luck of draw. Overall, I would guess the ladies' rating range from 8-14.
River - Most of the players are world class standard, especially the Croatians!
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| Team Singapore - (left-right) Paul Lim, Kelvin Yap, Harith Lim, Shin |
Shin - Our first game was against Philippines and the psychological block was there as I knew the standards of the players personally, thinking that they were much stronger. It was mainly my fault as I could not check, holding up my partners when they could have the chance to check the 01 games. I lost all my games. If I were to just win one game, the scoreline could have been totally different as in the end we only lost 5-8. After this game, however, with the positive encouragement from my teammates, we managed to bounce back comfortably for the rest of the matches with Switzerland and Taiwan. In the team event against Switzerland and Taiwan, I was more stable in the check out and the scoring. It helped as my stronger partners would then have no worries while scoring and checking.
River - I played with Team Malaysia which consist of Amin, his wife and his son. Amin asked me to play with them. We didn't do very well though and didn't progress far.
Q. After proceeding into the Single knockout round, Team Singapore crashed out against Slovenia. What happen there?
Shin - In the round robin games, we had to play all 13 matches. However, in the Single knockout, the team that reach first 7 games will win. We were holding our own steadily against Slovenia until one game was lost. And after that, we eventually lost. Not exactly a crash out, but somewhat similar to the opponent breaking our serve in a tennis game. And once the game was lost, the set was lost. No reprieve. That’s the hard part of it.
Q. River, tell us about your Singles Cricket event where you finished in 3rd place?
River - I was most satisfied with my performance during the PRO Singles Medley as the bull was single bull and in the x01 games, it was Double In/Out. I had to walk-over my semi-finals game due to the clash with Team Malaysia game and ended up at 3rd place in the Singles OPEN. Actually, if have I proceeded on with the Singles event, I could have been the default champion as the 2nd and 1st place was walked over too. I felt the organizer did not manage this very well.
Q. Shin, how was it like playing with Paul Lim in the team event ?
Q. Share with us some of the most memorable games that you had with any players during the event?
River - My best game was with Johnny (Canada) and John (also Canada) during the PRO singles Medley.
Shin - My most memorable game was with Switzerland in the Team event – I started with a ton 80 for my cricket game with Kelvin, and never looked back. I only had to play 3 rounds to win that game. Ton 80 (round 1), T18-T17 (round 3), T15-DB-SB (round 5). Smiles...
There was another memorable moment during the Singles event against a Canadian player – it was 1-1 and I was leading in the third game until my tip broke badly. It was badly stuck in the shaft and I couldn’t get it out no matter how I tried for 5 mins. Then the Canadian captain (David Fatum) came over to help me and it also took him 10 mins and yet the tip was still stuck. What struck me was when the lady player was getting a bit impatient and asked him how long she had to wait, he replied : “As long as this takes, you just have to wait while remembering who you are to win the game later.” And with that (another 10 mins later), after replacing the tip and continuing the game, she went on to overtake me and check the game. Great sportsmanship from both parties.
Q. What did you do in Shanghai other than darts?
Shin - This was not my first trip to Shanghai, thus, I was not into much sightseeing. I was very focus on darts for this trip and did not stray out far from the Hotel Ramada and the tournament venue. My only sightseeing for this trip was walking to and from the Hotel and Venue….. There were lots of great food near the hotel already.
River - I stayed in the same hotel as the other players, Hotel Ramada. I didn't go anywhere else as I was there just for the tournament. I played in every event that I could participate. I also ate a lot with Paul, Harith and Kelvin as he was the only one who can read the food menu!
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| Enjoying sumptuous food - (left-right) Harith, Paul, Kelvin, River and Shin |
Q. Share with us some of the new friends that you made during the event
River - I made friends with mostly Asian, Chinese-speaking players like Xiao-Hei from Taiwan and Deng Ying from China. They are all very good players.
Shin - Roger from Switzerland; Sdjenka, Strnnd and Gregor from Slovenia. All players with great sportsmanship.
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| Team Singapore with Team Switzerland |
Q. Any other word of encouragement you would like to share with the others
Shin - Go into the competition with an open mind, don’t get overwhelmed or vice-versa. Singapore is not too far off the Stage!
Q. What can local players do to raise their dart standards in order to reach a higher placing in the World Cup?
Shin - Self-discipline to practice and practice. And practice using the game format. We are so used to playing bulls here, but it was split bull over there, which means do not use bulls for 01s. And double in-double out. Most of the time, qualifying events here are not played in the format that we will be competing in. I would like the qualifying events held in the same format as the competitions, however, it will be a challenge for the organizers, I guess.
River - Singapore already have many players that have good potential to become world class players, to name a few like Raymond Seah, Alan Chau, Johnny Seow, Max, Jin Kuang, Jimmy Te, Ben Tan, Darryl Lim, Tony Teo, etc.
Photos courtesy of Harith/Shin
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