) The weakest link went pretty well, though, as I got knocked out with a 32 instead of the 7 that took me out in Chicago, so I was feeling better already. In the blind draw I got Sue Little from Canada, who is an excellent shooter, and after some tense moments we managed to get past our first round. Then we run into Bill Trapp and Fireman Don and are promptly taken out. Hats off to Sue for shooting with me and helping me calm the tournament nerves! (Sue and her partner Marion Carli took 1st place in the Women's Doubles 501 - congrats, Sue and Marion!) I got into the second luck, drawing Ruthie from Kalamazoo, but it wasn't our night and we exited after the first round, so it's off to get some well deserved rest at home!Saturday's first event was the Blind Draw Mixed Triples - an interesting format and a lot of fun. Fortunately for me, my nerves were overcome by two excellent partners - Ruthie from Kzoo again, and Neil Q from Novi, who really helped our team make it into the top sixteen! Hooray, my first big tournament money since the 17 year hiatus - I was really happy! I should mention that the team who beat us (Lori Kiley/Gary Mawson/Ed "Bam-Bam" DeBanke ended up taking 1st place in the Blind Draw mixed triples event - congrats!) Congratulations, also, to my wife Jenny, as she also finished in the top 16 of the mixed triples blind draw (although I never did get to shoot against her!) Next is open doubles 501, and Monte Jones and I struggled, to say the least, and were overcome in the first round by locals James Fleming and Church, who were on top form. Next up is single 501, and my most memorable match by far of the entire weekend. I drew Jim Askham, from Chicago - if you ever want to meet the nicest guy in darts, make sure you introduce yourself to Jim. He was a gracious player, and I managed to play decently enough to win, but it was absolutely one of the most fun matches I've ever played in my life. He complimented me on shots that weren't that great, but I was struggling and he knew it and his encouragement helped me to get past the nerves and actually find the triple twenty, in his words. I had a chance to chat with Jim later in the evening and we both agreed that sometimes the "fun" of darts is lost in these big competitions, and that our match was genuinely a "fun" match! I can only hope I represent the sport of darts as elegantly and graciously as Jim! My next draw, the famous Jon Douglas, was alas, not as much "fun" as Jon opened on my with a maximum, winning the first leg. In the next leg Jon was nice enough to give me at least 15 darts at the double two before sitting me down - nice darts, Jon!!
Now it's on to the mixed doubles event, where I'm shooting with the lovely and talented Jenny Jones, my wife. Things were running a bit behind at this point because two of our top local darters, Dawn Jones and Shellie Robinson, were battling it out in the finals of the ladies doubles cricket, which they barely lost to June Bug and Tina Muscare. Ed "Bam-Bam" DeBanke and June Bug are playing together in the mixed doubles event and we get them in the first round!! WOO HOO!! I'm hoping June Bug has thrown all her good darts in the preceding match, but I was dead wrong, and Ed was in top form as well, leaving Jenny and myself shaking our heads going "what just happened here? " We threw pretty horribly, but nevertheless, were devastated and went limping home. Are we having "fun" yet?
Sunday morning awakes to a beautiful sunshiny day, and I'm thinking I should be backpacking or anything other than throwing darts in a big tournament. Home field advantage has not proven to be my ally, and the nerves are still there. Monte Jones and I proceed to draw Bill Trapp and Mark CoolCat in the first round of open doubles cricket, and we go down two legs straight. Now my only hope is open singles cricket, and as I'm warming up, I'm finally starting to relax a bit and get into a bit of a good rhythm. My first draw out of the chute? Gary Mawson! I was still feeling confident, and I gave him a couple of halfway decent games (he said I shot ok - I appreciate that, Gary!) yet I go down two straight, and that ends my tournament. Looking back, I learned a lot and now know I've got a lot more work to do before I'll be up on the finals stage, but I'm confident that next year I'll be standing up more than I'll be sitting down!!
The Hall Darts Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony was incredible!! I was moved to the point of tears, literally, as the names and accomplishments were listed. A special congratulations goes out to Dave DePriest, who is not only an outstanding darter, but a fine young man who I'm proud to call my friend.
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