Tori Kewish will end her junior darts career as the top girl player in the nation.
The 17-year-old conquered the only frontier that eluded her as a junior when she took out the girls’ singles title at the Australian junior championships in Brisbane earlier this month.
It was the last chance for Kewish to claim national glory before a permanent move to the open-age ranks, where she is already rated one of the top rookies.
The Hoppers Crossing resident had tried and failed in previous attempts as a bottom-ager at the nationals, but this time she drew on all her experience at the event to go through the pool stage unbeaten.
She then progressed through the sudden-death quarters and semis before beating WA’s Angela Clark in a one-sided final.
“It felt really good,” Kewish (below), who has represented Australia at junior level, told Star Weekly.
“It took me four years to do it, four championships to take the title, so I felt relieved to be honest. It was the best I’d played in a long time.”
Kewish is a rising star in darts after she started playing “with dad and his mates”, who insisted she had what it takes to play at a high level.
She made her first Victorian junior state team at the age of 14 and now has a major sponsor in Puma and a set of darts named after her under the label ‘Puma Plus Tori Kewish’.
It would have been a hollow finish to Kewish’s junior career had she not capped it with a national title.
The championships brought together the best of the best from across the land, and one by one Kewish sent them packing.
She said the key to her success was keeping a level head and playing with a smile.
“I was relaxed and I think that’s what did it,” she said. “I tried to have a good time and just let it happen.”
Kewish believes she had an advantage over the rest of the competitors because of her links to Geelong Darts Club.
She is often pitted against Victoria’s top senior players when she heads up the Princes Highway for premier league competition on Friday nights.
One of the members of the club is Eddie Sims, who has competed at the world championships.
“It’s helped my darts a lot playing against someone like Eddie Sims, who was No. 1 in Australia for many years and played for Australia a couple of times,” Kewish said.
“It’s the most competitive I can get to play in Victoria.”
For all of Kewish’s talents, her transition into open-age darts will likely be put on the backburner for 12 months.
Like many women’s sports, darts is not flush with money, so only the best in the world can earn a living from it.
Kewish’s idol, Russian star and world No. 2 Anastasia Dobromyslova, is a rare female to have carved out a career in darts.
Kewish will have her head buried in the books this year, working hard in year 12 at Werribee Secondary College to achieve the highest possible ENTER score to get into university.
“Darts isn’t as big a priority as school at the moment, but I’ll play as much as I can,” she said.
She will miss this year’s Australian titles because of school commitments but will target the 2016 edition, to be held in Victoria.
“I’ll definitely give it a go next year,” Kewish said.
Asked if her goal was to become the top female player in the nation, Kewish would not rule out that ambition.
“It would be good to try and do that,” she said.
