The new BDO World Champion, Christian Kist, wasn^t the only person celebrating when the 2012 BDO Lakeside World Professional Darts Championships came to a spectacular conclusion on Sunday.
As the winner of the inaugural World Championship Fantasy Darts competition, 25 year-old Kirk Bevins was also savouring that winning feeling.
The former Channel 4 ‘Countdown’ champion of 2009 and Yorkshire referee is now heading to Las Vegas for a brilliant holiday for two, with £500 spending money courtesy of the hugely popular Fantasy Darts game, which was played alongside the 2012 BDO Lakeside World Pro.
Entrants picked their ultimate darts team, scoring points for wins and checkouts and Kirk finished 175 points clear of his nearest rival.
His victorious ‘Granivore’ team scored 3,410 points over the course of the tournament and also topped the Thursday to Sunday leaderboard, winning a dartboard and a set of darts courtesy of Winmau.
Kirk left it late to make his winning selection, waiting until the first day of the 2012 BDO Lakeside World Pro to select his six-player squad.
Ted Hankey, Martin Phillips, Martin Atkins, Robbie Green, Tony O^Shea and Anastasia Dobromyslova were on his original list and were soon joined by eventual champion Christian Kist and his fellow Dutch countryman and Semi-Finalist, Wesley Harms.
Kirk used one of his two transfers to bring Kist into his side on just the second day of the competition, following the 25-year-old^s First Round win over Jan Dekker.
The Dutchman was Kirk^s leading points scorer, racking up 800 of them, while runner up Tony O^Shea bagged 655 and 2012 Women^s Champion, Anastasia Dobromyslova adding a further 650 points.
Our World Championship Fantasy Darts winner also topped his Private League, ^York Darts^, a 13 team competition that included his second team ^Yorkshire Pride^, which finished 267th overall with 1,750 points.
You can see the winning team here: http://bdodarts.fantasyleague.com/Team.aspx?p=764
You can see the final standings in the overall leader-board here: http://bdodarts.fantasyleague.com/Leaderboard.aspx?lvl=gamesite&pd=overall
Kirk Bevins won Countdown in 2009 (winning all 8 heat games with a record breaking total of 925 points, including the only ever perfect game. There were two series winners in 2009 and then he was brought back in a special show to decide the champion of 2009 and won that too!
Here’s a quiz question for Countdown fans: The letters shown in Kirk’s photograph scored him 9 points.
The answer: Reedlings.
Kirk says: “I am a referee for Yorkshire and enjoy calling games because I have a numerical background. To win Countdown was a lifelong ambition and a dream come true, but to win the BDO’s very first World Championships Fantasy Darts game is special and something that can^t be taken away from me.
“I^ve entered several competitions in the past, but this tops the lot! It took a lot of strategy, looking at players^ recent form, studying the draw, the seeds and the bonus points one could pick up to top the pile. Checking out competitor^s teams also helped, and when I was in 8th place I^m thankful only one of those above me had Kist, while six had Norris.”
It means that in winning Lakeside 2012, Christian Kist also produced the points to crown Kirk Bevins as the BDO’s first ever World Championship Fantasy Darts winner.
