I didn’t win the tourney yesterday.  I didn’t really expect or deserve to the way I threw.  Still, there were some nice highlights on my way to a 6th place finish (and 50,000 won). 

Started out with Becky who has really picked up her game.  She took the first ’01 leg, but I came back with two hard fought cricket wins.  It was a tight match and all credit to Becky who gave me just about all I could handle.

Next up was Wan Ji, someone I had never played before.  He’s ranked #1 in B division and he definitely has game.  I took the first cricket leg, then he smoked me in ’01.  I took the diddle for the third leg and of course called cricket.  Then proceeded to completely fall apart.  How bad was I?  In addition to way too many one marks, I threw six darts and hit nothing.  You can’t get away with that against good competition.  So, Wan Ji is closed with a 100+ point lead and I have 19s and 17s open.  I pulled a 6 bull shot out of my ass, and then followed with another double.  Of course, it was too little, too late.  Wan Ji pounded my open numbers to get the points back and then closed out the bulls for the victory, sending me to the losers bracket.

With all due respect, I didn’t feel like he beat me, I beat myself with some inexplicably bad darts.  People were congratulating me on the 6 bulls, but really you should never be in the situation where you HAVE to throw that to stay in the game.  Still, it won me half of the high mark pot; I split it with Dustin who threw a 9-mark.

I took Jim to move up in the losers bracket and had to wait awhile for my next round.  So, I drank some more beer and got good and relaxed.  Darts is a funny game.  Obviously it involves hand-eye coordination so you would think drinking would be counterproductive, but at least for me, when I just go up there throwing naturally I tend to do better than when I’m tight and trying to force them in.  Or so I tell myself.

Anyway, Alisteir the Scot went through the winner’s bracket undefeated.  I had a tough row to hoe just to get in the money (the top 8 finishers paid off).  I threw some pretty good darts to beat Chris B. who is currently ranked #4 in A division.  Which earned me the right to face off against Dennis, who has been smokin’ all season and is the top ranked player in the league.

I watched an espisode of Band of Brothers the other day and this young private was cowering in his foxhole to afraid to fire his weapon.  Captain Spears told him: “You know what your problem is soldier?  You still have hope.  Once you realize and accept the fact that you are already dead, you’ll be able to do your job as a soldier.  Now fire that weapon!”

I guess that was my attitude against Dennis.  I didn’t have any expectation of winning, so I was calm at the oche and just let the darts fly.  And boy did they fly good.  It was a hard fought match but I prevailed.  Beating Dennis was definitely the high point of my day.

And as fate would have it, next up for me was Wan Ji.  I was looking for revenge and feeling confident.  I took the first cricket leg.  The ’01 was tight wire-to-wire, and I took shots at the out 3 times, missing the mark by centimeters.  Damn, you got to take the out when you have the opportunity and I failed to do so which cost me the leg.  We played cricket the third leg and while I didn’t come completely fall apart like I did in our earlier match, I wasn’t good enough to win.  So, yeah Wan Ji beat me and hats off to him.  Actually, he’s a pretty nice guy and I’m looking forward to a rematch in the future.

Sueng Youb fought his way through the loser’s bracket to face off with Alisteir for the championship.  He had had to beat him twice and he proceeded to do so.  Congrats to both guys who threw some incredible darts.  Good job to Lonnie and Grant as well for putting on an outstanding tournament.  I had a great time.