USA Dart Classic / 510 National Championships
Aug 11-13 2006

The next event was mixed triples. After the adrenalin of the finals had left I felt a bit wore down. We made a few early rounds but unfortunately Steve, Sue, and I all had a dip at the same time and we went out before the money rounds.

I decided a good meal was in order. Steve and I put a bit more time on the practice board while Sue tried her luck in the blind draw. After her exit from the blind draw we all decided to head to the lounge and see if there were any Alaskans in the house. Sure enough Ted Quinn and Greg Wheeler are the first two people we see. After a few drinks and some great conversation it was off to get some rest for the next day's events and the 13hour trip home.

Sunday started off with the doubles cricket. Steve and I continued our rough patch going out in the 3rd round to Darin Young and Brad Wethington. So the singles 501 would be my last stand of the weekend.

The competition was blazing. After a tough second round I waited 2 plus hours for my third round to be called. In this time I started to get a bit bored and a little tired so I decided to drink and energy drink. In fact, I drank 2 adrenaline rush drinks from the gift shop. What a mistake, that stuff should be illegal, I could actually hear my pulse.

My next opponent was Tom Sawyer and my goal was to just not have a heart attack. Luckily, as ill as I felt the doubles still went in and I moved on. Jim Widmayer was next on tap and after cruising through the first leg and scoring well in the second he only needed to finish 76 for the match. Back on 72 I could only watch as Jim nailed the T20 to give him two darts at the double. But fate was smiling on me and after Jim busted and failed yet again at 76 I cleaned up double 3 to push a deciding game. My quality came back in the third leg and 15 darts later I advanced to the quarterfinals.

Once again my quarterfinal opponent was Ray "Razor" Carver. It’s always an intense affair when I play Ray and again I was lucky enough on the strength of 15 and 16 dart legs to push through to the semi-finals.

Again my semi-final match was played on stage right. And again I was unnerved by the conditions. This time it was much worse though as I wasn't physically feeling very well on top of it. While my opponent and eventual winner David Marienthal struggled in a similar fashion my steady stream of 45s and missed doubles fell short in a close but certainly not quality encounter.

The 13-hour trip home through the night gave me time to reflect on the weekend. Overall while the results were a bit disappointing the time spent and conversations I had with my fellow dart players more then made up for it.