St Pat's Dart Tournament Mar 16-18 2007

The cricket doubles is next and thats generally one of my strongest events. I track down Scott and find that perhaps his birthday celebrations have taken a toll. He requests to take the event off and I promise to get us through the first few rounds until he feels a bit better. It took some convincing but we finally sign up and after a few slices of pizza I think we both felt a bit better.

Again in the early round we knock out Alan Mathews again who has now informed me he will never set anyone up again. And we stay steady through the event eventually landing in the finals. Our opponents Isen Veljic and Gary Mawson prove too strong on the day. I really can't complain about this one at all. Isen and Gary played phenominal darts and while Scott and I played great too sometimes you just get outshot.

Winding up the day is the 4person event and we partner with Scott Buckley and Tom "Chopper" Williams. Its a late event starting at 9pm nearly 12hours after you've thrown your first dart. Everyone plays well but Buckley really carries much of the weight and we find ourselves in the finals.

After outlasting the Windy City Wrecking Crew of Ron Johnson, Jim Ross, Kevin Jinkenson, and Sonny Loepke we finish a long exhausting day in first place. Its time to eat and get some sleep luckily the mixed doubles doesnt start until 11am on Sunday.

Sunday morning rolls around and I feel horrible. Playing darts for 16+hours the day before was exhausting and I felt like I hadn't slept at all. Sue Cherry calls at about 10am to let me know she signed us up for the mixed and that I better get my butt down to the hall. Generally she lets me skip out on early Sunday events but having won it last year with Johnny K she prods me into playing even though I can't promise much with how I feel.

Arriving to the hall Im pleasantly suprised my game is in good shape. Sue plays great and we cruise through to yet another final. This is gonna be a tough one as our opponents are Isen Veljic and Stacy Bromberg. After a hard fought 3 games my double 10 clinches the match. Johnny K quickly makes mention that Sue and he won it last year so apparently she can win with anybody. Thanks Johnny, like I say all part of the master plan!

The weekend ends with cricket singles, generally one of my strongest events. And after scraping through to the money rounds I find Isen waiting for me. Without Sue to help me I could be in trouble. But my luck holds and I escape to the round of eight after 3 very tough and close games.

The quarterfinals I meet Ray Carver and I know its gonna be tough as we always have great matches. This time though I come out a little flat and Ray never lets up. Two games later its highway time.

Overall for a tournament I wasnt even going to play it was a great success. Three firsts, one second, two top 4s and a top eight is pretty consistent. Of course, this was mostly due to the excellent shooting of my partners. I couldnt have asked for more, great people, well run tournament, I will definately be back next year. Maybe then I can win a singles...