Bermuda's darts team finished a disappointing eighth at the Caribbean Championships in Fort Lauderdale last week.

Although coach Eldon Lewis said yesterday he could not fault his squad of players in terms of effort, he pointed to the decision of half the team not to enter the professional $20,000 Cherry Balm tournament which preceded the championships as a major reason for the lacklustre performance.

Many of the Bermudian contingent were content to sit out the weekend event for fear of becoming "darted out" before the 11-day regional championships got underway.

"A large number of players from the other Islands decided to get practice during the professional tournament and we were playing catch-up once the Caribbean competition got underway," he said.

"I have to say, though, that the team did themselves proud in terms of effort and dedication and they were terrific ambassadors for their country. But we just did not get our standards up for the big games and we did not do ourselves justice."

Third after two days, Bermuda suffered a crushing 11-1 loss to the Bahamas and thereafter were never able to secure the convincing victories they needed to recover their former position.

The next major event on the international darts calendar involving Bermuda is the Darts World Cup, to be held in Australia next year and to which the Island will be sending four representatives.