PDC U.S. Open Draw Is Made

Planetdarts has posted the draw for the PDC U.S. Open, with some fun matchups showing up early. I will mention some interesting early matches, focusing on some of my friends and people who read the blog.

Raymond Van Barneveld, the number 1 seed, drew Chris Russano in the first round. I have shot a few pairs events with Chris, who is known for his liking for 19's instead of 20's. Chris used to live on Long Island but has since moved out west. Good luck Chris...make him work for it!

Ronnie Baxter, who knocked me out last time, drew Jerry Van Loan first round. Jerry is a lawyer from New York. He is a nice guy and a fine shot who will give Ronnie a game if he is hitting well.

Johnny K drew Vincent Van De Voort, a Dutchman, in round one and that promises to be a good match. Paul Lim will play local New Jersey darter Robert Race.

Board 10 will feature a nice first round match up between some skilled Americans, Darin Young and Davis Snider, with the winner possibly facing Steve Beaton the next round. I got to play Steve once at the Desert Classic and he beat me four legs straight in a best of seven event, with his worst game a 14 darter! He had used all his best against me though and lost the next round. That's darts I guess.

My friend, Corner Bar team mate, and fellow New Jersey darter Tom Waterman always complains that he gets a tough draw in these events. Last year it was Jelle Klassen, who was on fire when he played Tom. This year it is no different, with poor Tom facing John Part in the first round on Board 13. Tom is a fighter and well capable of giving John a good game, but I can just imagine hearing him muttering under his breath right now. Roger Carter, Isen Veljic, Matt Malone, and Colin Monk will also make Board 13 quite a contest.

Robert St. Onge from New Hampshire drew the honor of playing Phil Taylor first round. Local New Jersey star Buddy Lessig faces Pat Breithaupt in his opener, with Jim Widmayer and Robert Heckman battling to play the winner of that match on board 21. It will be interesting to see who emerges from that one. New Jersey darter Dave Hascup opens against Keith Conner.

One fun first round match that I will want to see involves New Jersey Darter Stacey Stevens against Scott Wollaston, who was a top dart player in the New Orleans area when I lived down there and was first getting involved in darts. The first time I came to New Jersey was with Scott for ADO Nationals about 10 years ago, and I remember watching the two of them play at Courtside Bar in Clifton NJ, for $5 a man. They have had a rivalry going ever since, so get ready to hear some humorous trash talking in that match. The winner of Adrian Lewis vs. Jerry Convery will await whomever comes out on top.

Jim Newman, the top qualifier in the recent GHS tournament, faces John Garramone in the first round. Jim is in good form and will be able to give anyone a competitive game.

I will be covering events Friday and Saturday, but I will be out Sunday for an unavoidable family obligation. For that reason, I am not competing in the U.S. Open, but I will compete in the North American Dart Championships as it finishes on Saturday. Once that draw comes out, I will let you know. Until then, good darts!

Another Big Tournament in the USA?

I had heard rumors swirling of another big tournament coming to the U.S. next year. I checked it out and Dartsworld and the World Dart Federation indicate that the 2009 World Cup of Darts will be held in Charlotte, USA in September, 2009 (I assume North Carolina). This is an interesting event that features teams from many countries competing for honors in singles and team events. Americans can play to qualify for a team through the American Dart Organization. As more information comes out I will pass it on.

GHS Tournament Results

George posted the winners of the GHS Players Tournament as follows:

Group A:
1st- Benny Amodei
2nd-Gary Yourman
3rd- Jim Newman
4th-Anthony Marchei

Group B
1st-Chris McLaughlin
2nd-Skip Stranghan
3rd-Ray Wolf
4th- Rick Arcangel

Group C
1st-Ted Northrop
2nd-Bill Cobb
3rd-Josh Hill
4th-JR Richardson

Congratulations to all!

GHS Tournament Report

The GHS Tournament was held at Joker's in Philadelphia on Sunday, and I had fun participating. Everyone was divided into three groups, A, B, or C based on qualifier scores, as mentioned in the previous posts. With a qualifying score of 779, I ended up being the last person to miss the "A" group, which put me at the top of the "B" group. We each then played four matches, with the top four in each group advancing to group knockout rounds.

My first round match was against an A group player, John Newsome, who is a good dart player out of South Philadelphia and one of the top shooters in the Old English Dart League. John was hitting the triples well and easily beat me down to the double in each game. However, he was having trouble hitting the doubles, just enough to let me catch up. Fortunately for me, I hit my doubles right away and took an undeserved 3-1 win.

My scoring improved in my second match and my confidence with the doubles was still high, and I won 3-0. My third match against Erik was a mirror image of my first match against John. I beat Erik to the double easily in the first leg and kept wiring the inside of the doubles until I got stuck on double 1. Erik eventually caught up and took the leg. In the second leg, I again got to the double first, and after two rounds of misses Erik hit a nice 72 out (T12, D 18) to make me pay. I battled back, winning the next two legs and forcing it into a tiebreaker. I had a look at a 121 out but missed the set-up shot (T20, 14 instead of 11), and left myself 32. Unfortunately I did not get a shot at it, as Erik hit a big 94 out (T18, D20) to win that match.

Even though I came back with a 3-0 win in my fourth round match, it was not enough to finish in the top 4 of my group to advance. Four others had won all 4 matches. Close, but not quite.

It was a great day of darts. Everyone got to play at least four rounds against players of different calibers, with a handicap system in effect that spotted points. That made even the top players have to work for each game.

Jokers put out a nice lunch buffet for the dart players, incuding chicken, vodka penne, pasta salad, and baked ziti with cheese. George kept the tournament running smoothly and efficiently (see picture above) with every match laid out on a ticket in advance for each player. Once I get the final results, I will pass them on. After that, all eyes turn to Connecticut and the Mohegan Sun Casino for the PDC U.S. Open and the North American Darts Championship on May 16-18. Until then, good darts!

New Jersey Darts Milestone

I noticed that New Jersey Darts just passed a milestone of 10,000 hits! I usually get about 20 to 30 a day, from a diverse and interesting bunch of people around the world who share in their interest and enjoyment of darts. I still enjoy writing the articles, and thanks for everyone's interest.

GHS Qualifier Report

After work today I trekked down south to the Mt. Royal Inn to participate in a qualifier for the GHS Player's Tournament. The Mount Royal Inn is a historic sight in the town of Mt. Royal, which is on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River and a bit south of Philadelphia. The qualifier is simple. You take 11 rounds of darts (33 darts) and total the score. Those scores are then used to place you in different groups for the main tournament on Sunday.

From sad recent experience in practice, I knew I was only averaging in the 70's per round. I resolved to be content with a score of 770 or above tonight. Luckily I met that standard, just barely, with a 779. Not bad for being tired after a long day at work. I played some pick up games of 301 with Anthony and George after and we had fun.

George mentioned that one player scored just a bit under 1100 in an earlier qualifier, which is a nice average, close to 100 per round. I figure my 779 will likely not be good enough to put me in the top group, but perhaps it will get me in the second group. We shall see. The main tournament is Sunday, so I will be in Philly and reporting this weekend. Until then, good darts!

North American Darts Championship and Coming Events

I signed up for the North American Darts Championship yesterday and I am looking forward to heading up to Connecticut next month to try for my share of the $50,000 prize money. The event starts on Friday May 16 and culminates on that Saturday night with staged semi-final and final events. I am currently scouting out some good places to stay around the Mohegan Sun Casino, where the event is held.

Margaret and I like to explore when we travel. We usually make it a family trip, as there are some great nearby attractions for the kids. We found Dinosaur Crossing which is a big hit with my six year old, and nearby Mystic Seaport has a lot of activities. On one trip, Margaret and I discovered an interesting guy, Ken Oaks, who designs and makes furniture. We wandered into his store in Niantic, CT on the way home from the tournament one year (click here to see his store, En Casa). Ken used to be an engineer, but decided he likes designing and making furniture better. He also plays guitar. We now have a tradition of stopping at his store on the way home and buying one of his pieces every year.

I was set to sign up for the PDC U.S. Open as well, which takes place on the same weekend. Unfortunately, I had an unavoidable family conflict come up for that Sunday. I am still debating whether to sign up anyway. Only the quarter finals, semis and finals of the U.S. Open are on Sunday, and I would have to play out of my skin to get there. I generally don't like to enter an event that I know I wouldn't be able to finish though.

There is a lot of good local dart action to build up to those events. Next week George's qualifiers will be held for his GHS Tournament (mentioned in earlier posts). I plan to be there. Until next time, good darts!

Trenton Darts Score Big For Charity

I got a report from Gary at the Greater Trenton English Dart League that their Charity Dart-A-Thon last weekend was a tremendous success, raising over $10,000.00 for the charity Make-A-Wish New Jersey. Here is an excerpt from Gary's report, used with his permission:

"I am pleased to announce that on April 12th, 2008, the Greater Trenton Dart League held its third annual Darts-for-Dreams dart‑a‑thon to benefit the Make‑A‑Wish Foundation® of New Jersey. The total amount raised at the event was $10,632 with some donations still arriving.

The event was held at Arbeiter Hall in Hamilton, NJ with seventy-one people in attendance at the event. Participants threw one hundred darts for high score, with the highest score each hour winning a cash prize. Plaques were awarded to the highest scores for male, female, GTDL league member and four-person team. The overall winners were Gary Autz (high male score), Terri Marcello (high female score), Bruce Linke (high GTDL member score) and Dave Cook, Bill Bongaard, Paul Luhrman and Brian Hancin for the four person team.

The total raised this year is an increase of about twenty-five (25) percent from last years’ total of $8,425, and just about double the 2006 total of $5,800. The total raised by the GTDL in just three years is now right about twenty-five thousand dollars. The total amount this year came from a variety of sources; corporate sponsorships, personal donations, admission, entry fees, raffles, 50/50s and a silent auction. There were about twenty corporate financial sponsors and almost fifty in-kind sponsors. All of the sponsors were included in an ad-book and on the event T-shirt. The in-kind items were given away as door prizes or used as raffle or silent auction items. Players were encouraged to solicit personal donations on their behalf, and were given entries to the event for their efforts. In total, almost five thousand dollars were raised by the individuals in the league."

Congratulations to Gary and the many people whose effort and generosity made this event such a success. It's a remarkable thing to see how dart players come out to support charities and do great things for the community.

Adding a New Feature

I am adding a simple live traffic feed just to get a general feel for where everyone's from. Don't worry! It's nothing creepy and does not track people or anything. New Jersey darts remains proudly non-commercial.