New Jersey Dart Calendar November 2010 to January 2011

The weather may be getting cold in New Jersey but the dart action is getting hot! Check out these upcoming events.

-Saturday Nov. 20, 2010, USA Dart Club open qualifier for the ADO Cricket Regional, The Rock Bar, 414 Main Avenue, Clifton, NJ, 973-916-1888. The qualifier is noon sign ups and 1:00pm starts/$20 dollar entries. Contact Mark Onsdorf 973-207-9512(prodigyds@aol.com) for more details on the qualifiers. Thanks to Bob Race for the report.

-November 26-28, 2010 the $10,000.00 Long Island Fall Classic, at Holiday Inn Airport, 3845 Veteran’s Memorial Highway, Ronkonkoma, NY. Click here for the flyer. This is an open steel-tip tournament.

-Bob Race reports that immediately before the Long Island Classic, at the same location, the ADO V-III Cricket Regional will be held. This will be open to ADO members in the region, on Friday Nov. 26th, with 10:00 AM sign-ups 11:00 AM start. $110 entry, unless you qualified at an event (see above). Winners get a trip to the ADO Cricket Nationals.

-Saturday, Dec. 4, 2010, the $1,000+ USADarts.com Open, at The Rock Bar and Grill, 414 Main Avenue, Clifton, NJ. This is a 100% payout open steel-tip tournament. Click here for the flyer.

-Saturday, Dec. 4, 2010, Johnny K's 3rd Annual Toys for Tots Soft Tip Dart Tournament, at Tower's Bar, 1478 Tomhicken Road, Fern Glen, PA 18241. Click here for the flyer. This is an open charity event.

-Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010, Toy Drive and Dart Shoot, Tacony Billiards, 6201 Keystone St., Phildelphia, PA. Registration Noon - 1:45 p.m., start at 2:00 p.m., bring a new unwrapped toy. This is an open charity event. See phillydarts.com for more information.

-January 7-9, 2011, the $25,600+ Rae Chesney Dart Tournament at the Radisson Northeast, U.S. Route 1 at Lincoln Highway, Trevose, PA (just north of Philadelphia). This is an open steel tip tournament with youth events as well. Click here for the flyer.

-January 14-16, 2011, the $10,000.00 New York New Jersey Open. This is an open steel-tip event (more information coming).

If I missed any please let me know.

A String of Wins And Some Talk About Stance

Our Monday night team at Kelly's in Neptune, NJ, has enjoyed a string of wins in the past few weeks. Last night I had the rare distinction of the high score in the first of three games, with a 43. Tom, Dave, and John all have higher averages than I do in American Baseball darts, so that felt good. They got their games on in the next two, which was good because my performance fell off. Overall it was good enough for a team win.

In the previous week, in which Dave was off to England, Howie Dirks filled in well with a nice 36 average. That performance helped us win, and put us in first in the league standings. So far so good!

I have put more time on the board in the past few weeks and my steel tip game is picking up. I needed to alter my stance to fix a problem. I had been leaning my body weight more forward on the ball of my front foot, with bad results. This put more pressure on my ankle, which was getting stiff and sore after about 45 minutes of play. I needed to eliminate that distraction from my game.

My new stance still has much of my weight on my front foot, but it is centered more towards the middle or heel of the foot. The net effect is that it does not stress my ankle. As with any fundamental change, it feels awkward at first. It is starting to feel more comfortable which is paying dividends at the oche.

I am busy researching for my dart gift review, which should be coming out in the second week of December. I will be out next week for Thanksgiving holiday, with Howie filling in as I visit some family in Texas. Who knows, maybe I can find a good game out there.

Later today I will post a calendar of upcoming dart events in the New Jersey area. Until then, good darts!