Drifters came back from the brink of de­feat to re­main league lead­ers of the T&T Darts As­so­ci­a­tion's (TT­DA) 501 League of Darts af­ter match­day five took place on Tues­day (March 11) at No 36 New Street in Port-of-Spain.

Drifters had the daunt­ing task of tak­ing on sec­ond place De Orig­i­nal Game Shot (DOGS). The en­counter start­ed off very fiery with DOGS lead­ing 3-1 very ear­ly on and looked like they were go­ing to end the Drifters' per­fect run. The lead was fur­ther ex­tend­ed to 5-2 and Drifters were on the brink of de­feat, but thanks to the bril­liant in­di­vid­ual per­for­mances of cap­tain Kevin Ja­cob and Scott Man­nette, Drifters were able to make it 5-4 and even­tu­al­ly were able to hold on to se­cure a vi­tal draw keep­ing their per­fect run se­cure while they lead the pack on 33 points. Joshua Bal­four (D.O.G.S.) bagged the high­est check­out of the evening with a 134 fin­ish (Triple 20, Triple 14,dou­ble 16).

E-Z Lines are up to third af­ter de­feat­ing Sea Wolves 9-1 in what was a clin­i­cal per­for­mance by the reign­ing cham­pi­ons. Ho­n­ourable men­tion must be made of Al­lan Alkins of Sea Wolves who de­feat­ed cap­tain of E-Z Lines Adam Da Cos­ta in what was a ma­jor up­set, es­pe­cial­ly af­ter over­com­ing a bar­rage of 180's. Jus for Fun Vikings round­ed off the top four af­ter de­feat­ing Scor­pi­ons 8-2. The vic­to­ry keeps them in the race and the A Di­vi­sion re­mains tight at the top.

The bat­tle for pro­mo­tion is heat­ing up in the B Di­vi­sion. Pub House Pi­rates find them­selves in pole po­si­tion af­ter a hard-fought come-from-be­hind vic­to­ry over Bul­lz I. Bul­lz I start­ed the con­test off in great style lead­ing 4-1; how­ev­er, the ex­pe­ri­enced play­ers of Pub House Pi­rates all stepped up and were able to win five legs straight, pulling the mo­men­tum back in their fa­vor and se­cur­ing a bril­liant 6-4 vic­to­ry, sav­ing them­selves from the jaws of de­feat.

Shang­hai Bulls are up to sec­ond af­ter an­oth­er 9-1 win­ning per­for­mance, this time against Flight­ed Friends. The Bulls were shocked ear­ly on, los­ing the open­ing leg, but they dug deep and went on to dom­i­nate the con­test. Pax­ton Com­mis­sion had a great night record­ing a ton-plus check­out of 114 (triple 20, sin­gle 14, and dou­ble 20). Jus For Fun Snipers re­main in third de­spite hav­ing a bye.

The ac­tion con­tin­ues with match­day six sched­uled for March 18, with two big games in the top flight: Drifters take on E-Z Lines while DOGS face Jus For Fun Vikings. In the B Di­vi­sion, Jus For Fun Snipers take on Pub House Pi­rates in what is a cru­cial match that can have a dra­mat­ic ef­fect on the race for pro­mo­tion. It all takes place at No 36 New Street, Port-of-Spain, at 8.30 pm.

Re­sults

DOGS 5 vs Drifters 5

Jus For Fun Vikings 8 vs Scor­pi­ons 2

E-Z Lines 9 vs Sea Wolves 1

Shang­hai Bulls 9 vs Flight­ed Friends 1

Pub House Pi­rates 6 vs Bul­lz I 4

Reck­less 7 vs Bull­dogs 3

Triple Vi­sion 8 vs Top Shot 2

Ran­dom Squad 7 vs Mu­cu­rapo Mus­ke­teers 3

Tyes­day's (March 18) match­es

Drifters vs E-Z Lines

Scor­pi­ons vs Sea Wolves

Jus For Fun Vikings vs DOGS

Pub House Pi­rates vs Jus For Fun Snipers

Mu­cu­rapo Mus­ke­teers vs Shang­hai Bulls

Flight­ed Friends vs Triple Vi­sion

Top Shot vs Bull­dogs

Reck­less vs Bul­lz I

Stand­ings

A Di­vi­sion

Pl*Club*P*W*D*L*PTS

1*Drifters*5*3*2*0*33

2*DOGS*5*3*1*1*32

3*E-Z Lines*5*3*1*1*32

4*JFF Vikings*5*3*0*2*30

5*Scor­pi­ons*5*1*0*4*15

6*Sea Wolves*5*0*0*5*8

B Di­vi­sion

Pl*Club*P*W*D*L*PTS

1*Pub House*5*5*0*0*33

2*Shang­hai Bul­lls*5*3*0*2*31

3*JFF Snipers*4*4*0*0*27

4*Reck­less*5*2*1*2*26

5*Ran­dom Squad*5*2*1*2*25

6*Bul­lz I*4*2*0*2*24

7*Triple Vi­sion*5*2*0*3*22

8*Top Shot*4*2*0*2*21

9*Flight­ed Friends*4*2*0*2*17

10*Mus­ke­teers*4*0*0*4*12

11*Bull­dogs*4*0*0*4*11