Alan Matthews' Top 8 national finish at Las Vegas

In the round robin group I played against Ray Carver 5th in the country, Bill Davis 3rd in the country, Darryl Montgomery 17th in the
country and Steve Hogan. From the bracket of 5 two of us would go into the final sixteen. I only lost to Ray Carver 3 legs to nil. 
I beat everyone else in the group 3 legs to nil to make my way into the top 16 cricket players in the country. My round robin bracket 
started off with Bill Davis. I shot well but Bill did not shoot as well as I have seen him in the past. Taking my 3 leg victory into 
the next round. I played Ray Carver. Ray beat me all three legs but I shot very well. I come close to averaging 5 marks per round and 
still lost. The key to his victory was winning the diddle to start the game. Then I had the bye round which was fortunate for me. It 
gave me time to regain my composure after losing all three. I then played Steve Hogan. He may have taken me lightly in the first leg 
and did not play the better strategy. I took advantage and come from behind to beat him in the first leg. The second leg I took a big 
lead only to lose it near the end. But I hit two 7 marks in a row to take the leg. This upset Steve a lot. He slammed his fist into his 
darts and they went flying. After the guy he hit with his dart when it flew from his hand gave it back to him, I told him it was his 
choice on the diddle. I wanted to play the game while he was still fuming from losing the first two legs. I won the third leg pretty 
easily. Then I played my last match against Darryl Montgomery. He has always played me tough but I had an advantage. He was completely 
out of the running for the second round. He had an injury to his hand, which took away from his game on the day. I only had to win one 
game to secure my spot in the second round. I started off slow but came back in the end to take the first leg. With the pressure now off 
of me I shot well and took the next two legs with relative ease. 

In the first round of the last 16, I played Steve Hertzfeld, the current national cricket champion. He was trying to repeat as champion. 
It was a hard fought battle in the best of five series. I won the first two legs only to lose in the third leg by a good margin. I should 
have won in 4 but let him back in. I held my nerve in the 5th game and took it away after he had one bad round. In these competitions one 
bad round can lose you the game. I found that out in the top 8 when I played Steve Brown. Steve is a former world number 1 and is currently 
in the top 10 in the US and top 32 in the world. I took the first leg against the throw and should have won the second but that one bad 
round near the end caused me to lose. He picked up his momentum and shot better in the third leg. I had a game shot but it eluded me and he 
took the game. In the fourth leg it was very close and once again I had game shot but I had to hit the round of nine to win. I only got 7 
of the nine and he took the game out.  

For me it was a very good experience. I shot well and lost but felt good about how well I played. Many of the players commented on how well 
I played and Steve Brown even stated that I should have won the match with him. He felt lucky to walk away the victor.  

As for the year 2003, I ended up ranked 33rd in the country. With points earned at 3 regional events, and 5 tournaments. So, far this year 
I am doing well with darts and have been traveling almost every weekend. Far more traveling than I did last year. The rankings will not come 
out for a couple months but I should be able to at least be in the top 50 in the country again this year.