right now we are one week into the Spring Darts Campaign.  but, before we get too far, we need to recap how the Fall 2011 dart league came to a close.

it was unusually tight race this year.  Team Kasenych took the first half title, and waited for the second half to play out.  that took an extra week because when the final buzzer sounded on the 2nd half, Team Doug and Team Chrissy were tied.  and so there was to be a playoff, to get into the playoffs!

Chrissy’s team defeated Doug’s team for the 2nd half title, and so the match up was set for the finals.  Team Kasenych v Team Chrissy – two out of three falls, winner take all!

Team Chrissy took the title!  Mike Kerrick, Joe Zaharick, Chris Schu, Joe Remash, and Aaron O’Neil are all pictured with their Championship trophies.  Congratulations Guys!!!!

Part of the League Celebration is the traditional High/Low average tournament.  the player with the highest average is paired with the lowest average.  the player with the second highest average is paired with the second lowest, and so on.  this year turned into a very competitve tournament with some evenly matched teams.

Doug Troutman and Albert Maschal were paired up and piled up victories early in the day.  Unfortunately, they ran out of steam towards the end and were bested by the sandbagging team of Joe Zaharick and Timmy Wargo.

the team of Josh Mall and Aaron O Neil were sitting on the perch, having run through the day undefeated.  until they had to grapple with Timmy and Joe.  Timmy and Joe were able to win the first match between the teams, putting them on even ground.

in the second matchup between the teams, Tim and Joe stayed hot, at one point putting up a score of nearly 90.  that was more than enough to take the title!

Congrats to Joe and Tim for their victory on the day!

We also awarded trophies for the shooters who were able to post the Highest Game of the season, and maintain the Highest Average.  those shooters were . . .

Nate Dobeck and Chrissy Schu.  Great going guys!!!

tonight we chose teams for the Spring Darts session.  they are . . .

• Tony Ford
• Joe Remash (#1 overall draft choice)
• Timmy “Sandbagger” Wargo
• Z
• Joe Hawkins (rookie)

• Doug Troutman
• Josh Mall
• Zosh
• Skinner
• Reedy

• Ed D.
• Randy Kasenych
• Mike Kerrick
• Polifka
• Dave Forgotch (rookie)

• Nate Dobeck
• Zig
• Joe “Sandbagger Jr” Zaharick
• Tanney
• Tim D.

Besides the Spring League action, we will be sending three teams to the PA State Dart Tournament.  they are . . .

Team A:

• Doug Troutman
• Chrissy Schu
• Dave Wolfgang

and they are scheduled to shoot Saturday Feb. 11 at 11am at the Lakeside Ballroom.  Our second team . . .

Team B

• NateDobeck
• Josh Mall
• Damian Zigler

have requested placement in the afternoon bracket that day as well.  so, we should have a crew heading up to support the teams.  If you are unsure of how to get to the Lakeside Ballroom, or just want to find a designated driver, stop by the bar!  our guys would love the support!!

also heading to States on a later date is

Team C

• Ed Dormer
• Kirk Wimble
• Joe Swatski

we have a couple of updates to make on the darts front.

first, Sandy will be making sausage and bow ties for this Tuesday Night. and now that the important stuff (the food) is out of the way, we also have a first half winner from this Fall’s season.

with two weeks to go, there were three teams with an equal shot at the title.  that whittled down to two teams as we entered the final night of the first half. on that night, Team Ponytail stepped up and took the title.

First Half Champs – Team Ponytail!

• Randy Kasenych
• Josh Mall (yes, that Josh Mall, of “the Josh Mall Project” fame!)
• Skinner
• Cookie
• Timmy Wargo

of course there are a lot more darts to be thrown before the season ends!

Out of Season Dart Throwing

We had a Two Man High Low Random Draw tournament recently.  i want to thank everyone for coming out and sharing the day with us.  we had 11 teams, an open kitchen, football on the tv’s, and darts in the air for the afternoon.  Good Times!

the team of “Paul Mall” wins the best name award.  that and a dollar will get you a shot of Blackberry.  still, it’s nice to win an award.

the event was “mixed”, and as always, the women in the contest shot well.

a round of cheers goes out to our Top 3 finishers, who showed patience (with me), endurance, and dart skills.  Congratulations to . . . .

Reedy and Doug

and to our Second Place Finishers, who were One Game away from the title.  it couldn’t have been a closer finish!

Nate and Little Fatty

and to our champs, who battled out of the One Loss Bracket to take the day!

Jason and Steve

and also a big Thanks to Doug and Jen for their help in setting up brackets, keeping the score, and everything else.  much appreciated!

tonight we gathered, and the captains all sat down at the table.  after everyone took turns picking teammates, here’s how things settled . . .

Team Trout

• Doug Troutman
• Zig
• Z
• Al Maschal
• Cookie

Team Ponytail

• Randy Kasenych
• Timmy Wargo
• Josh Mall
• Leon Fite

Team Susnoski

• Curtis
• Chickalet
• Bryan Polifka
• Mike Kerrick

 Team Dobeck

• Nate
• Mike Sinko
• Tony Ford
• Skinner

The action begins next Tuesday night.  and yes, i do believe we will be serving Burgers in Sauce!  oh, and yes, Team Trout does have an extra shooter.  we’ll be pulling a play from one of the southern league’s books, and taking the top 4 scores from the team and using them.  so, it’ll always be a four on four matchup on the scorecard. 

and, the Fall Season High/Low is coming up!!  even if you are not shooting in the spring league, be sure to make the High/Low game.  Trophies for the season will be awarded at that time!!  and pictures will be taken, and beer will be drank.  Z will get in his vegatable intake for the month.  all sorts of stuff will go down.  don’t miss it!

the date for the Fall 2010 high low tournament has been set.  Clear . . .

Saturday January 22nd

on your calendars.  we’ll start sign ups at about noon, and get darts in the air for 1pm.

We will als celebrate the achievements of the Fall, including presenting High Average Award, the High Game Award, and the Championship trophies.  The Champs took both the first AND the second half titles, having secured the second half and the overall season Championship before the final week of shooting.  Congrats to . . .

• Joe Swat – Team Captian, High Average of the League, and Shooter of the High Game!!!!
• Curtis Susnoski
• Skinner
• John “Biggie” Polites
• Jeff “Chickalet” Trocki

in case you are wondering who you might be paired up with during the high/Low contest, here are the averages from the Fall of 2010:

Jow Swat – 40.8

Doug Troutman – 39.1

Nate Dobeck – 37.8

Curtis Susnoski – 37.4

Randy Kasenych – 36.8

Ed D. – 35.4

Chrissy Schu – 34.1

John “Biggie” Polites – 32.6

Joe Remash – 32.5

Frank Pet. – 30

Tony Ford – 29.8  (oh, so close to a 30!)

Jeff “Chickalet” Trocki - 28.6

Bryan Polifka – 28

Mike Kerrick – 26.7

Aaron – 26.7

Z – 25.3

Skinner – 25.1

Matt Obee – 22.5

Rad (S. Montgomery) – 21.5

Al Maschal – 19.7

The SIGN UP SHEET is out for the Spring.  Rumor has it that Mike Kerrick and Al Maschal will be locked in a battle to the death (or at least to find out who buys the beer at the campground this summer) so the subplots are already running deep! 

 We are looking to draft teams for teh Spring, and have a general dart league meeting on the 18th, and begin shooting on the 25th!

Last Saturday we ran the Big Dog Event.  i want to send out a big round of thanks to the shooters who made the day a great time, filled with excellent darts!

we ran two singles tournaments on the day.  the first event was the BIG DOG, the second was a half price second chance event that carried no title shot.  it was really a matter of “hey, we’re still a room full of dart shooters, and a couple of free boards. what else are we going to do, play tiddlywinks?”  so i busted out the tiddlywinks, and half way through we decieded to just go back  to shooting darts.

there were 10 shooters in the Big Dog, and with the way the brackets are drawn that means four guys have a longer road to the finals.  those guys were Nate, Hobo, Jason, and Doug. 

per usual, Hobo dropped his first match of the day, landing him in what seems to be his second home – the one-loss bracket.  mind you, that’s despite posting a 45 in a losing effort. 

jason made it past doug, and as a reward received the opportunity to match up against mark rohlfing.  in that match the winning scores were 49 or better.  top notch shooting.  Mark came out on top.

the tourney continued with Zig, Nate, Mark, and Frank Rakes all posting wins in the second round.  in the one-loss bracket Jason ran into Hobo, and in a match where the winning scores were 54, 50 and 46, Hobo prevailed. 

The Big Dog is a tough tournament.  Jason Kroh probably drew the “long road” straw by facing the defending Big Dog in Doug Troutman in his first match.  following that up with a series against Mark Rohlfing, and finishing up with a bout vs. Red-Hot Hobo.  Jason gets the “Kirk Wimble” Award of the day.

Doug and Dennis conti met in the One-Loss bracket for a legendary match.  Leading in the top of the 9th, Doug tosses a 6 inning, finishing the game with a 47.  The count to Dennis is now 7 to tie, 8 to win.  And he hits a 7.  so now we are going to Over Time!  in the tenth Doug opens with a 7.  in the bottom of the 10th Dennis follows with a 7.  and then Dennis overtakes Doug in the 8th with an 8.  that gives us an extra-inning game with finishing scores of 62 to 55.

eventually the winner’s bracket boiled down to Frank and Mark, with mark getting the victory and the catbird seat. 

Hobo advanced past Nate in the one-Loss bracket, and went on to meet Zig who had put together his own vicotry over Curtis Susnoski.  Hobo banged another 50 game and bested Zig, earning him his fourth consecutive win the One-Loss bracket. 

Then, he met Frank who was fresh off of his match against Mark.  they battled through exciting games where the winners were posting 46 scores.  Hobo, King of the One-Loss bracket, prevailed.  That set up the final pairing. 

Mark Rohlfing and Dave Hobowski.  The winning scores in their match were 51, 48, 51.  Two of those games were hit by Mark, who now holds the title of . . .

BIG DOG

Congrats to everyone who made the tournament possible, it was a GREAT time.  And special congrats to mark for being able to best the field and find yourself at the top of the pile when the dust settled!

[photopress:BigDogWinter2010.jpg,full,pp_image]

That’s Mark on the left, and Dave on the Right.

the second tournament was an 8 man event, with the brackets working out beautifully.  there were some great games played, and a lot of players contiued to shoot excellent darts.  high games of the day were emerging as several shooters hit 53 games.  then Frank Rakes landed a 54 game.  then Hobo lands a 54 game. 

instead of slowing down, these guys were heating up!

for the second time, the final three shoteers in the tourney were Frank Rakes, Hobo, and Mark Rohlfing.  they were having great days at the line. 

and, once again Hobo and Mark were squared off. This time the Hobo went big on the scoreboard, posting a 57.  That was certainly high game of the day.  But, Mark was steady enough in his game to take the match, and the second chance tourney.

It was a great day, and I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season!  The next tourney in the pipeline is the High/Low for the Fall Dart League, sometime after the New Year’s celebrations. 

that’s right, the Big Dog tourney is going down this afternoon.  i’m heading in to get the kitchen fired up, and everything else in place.  i’m not sure there will be enough Mad Elf to last the day.  word on the street is that they put a heavy hurting on the fellow last night!

some quick notes:

Roast Beef, that much is for sure. 

YES – we will have the fight tonight. 

1 o’clock – that’s when darts fly, so be there before 1 to sign in. 

Army/Navy is at 2:30pm

Flyers at 7

the first half of the dart season drew to a close on Tuesday.  all four teams were within striking distance, and the games that led up to that point were close enough to go either way. 

team swat had control of their own destiny, needing to win two out of three games to secure sole possession of first place.  other teams needed to sweep and have team swat stumble a bit to overtake them during the final night. 

swat would have none of that.  he was fired up, and on target, throwing a new high game of the season with a 56.  that led his team to victory not only in that game, but also for the first half of the season! 

thanks goes out to Traci Ford for bringing back a couple of pans of her soon-to-be-world-famous jalapeno poppers.  words cannot describe what a tasty treat they are, and i’m sure we all look like we’re following the pied piper as she makes her way from the kitchen to the serving station with them. 

notables from the first half of the season:

• more often than not someone during the night will hit in the 50′s
• doug and swat carry 40+ averages at the halfway point
• sucess in the triples event by Chrissy, Ed and Frank Pet
• with help from the rest of the guys, Z hit a new high on the juke box with 61 selections, all classic tunes i might add!

so Tuesday Coming – November 16th – starts the next half of the season.  The team records reset to zero, and we do it again!

yeah, i’m behind on posting things on the net.  i know.  the first half of the dart league is finishing tonight, and i’m just now recapping the results of the Two Man Handicap we ran in October!  luckily gram hid the wet noodles, and that makes me feel pretty safe.

it was a tough day for teams starting out in the loser’s bracket.  obviously there is not a lot of room for error when one loss will send you packing.  josh and timmy dropped out of the winner’s bracket, and had some battling to do in the one-loss bracket.  as the day moved on, it looked like the tandem of Curtis and Swat were going to be the team to beat.  they were two strong shooters, shooting well. 

but, they came into the tournament with high averages because of how well they shot not only in the league, but also in their appearnaces at States and Nationals.  so, they were giving their opponents points in their matches.  that makes every match an uphill battle. 

still, they battled their way out of the loser’s bracket.  before we get to the finals, here’s a pict of our third place finishers . . .

[photopress:jason2handicap2010.jpg,full,pp_image]

Great Job guys!

in the finals swat and curtis ran into mike and frank.  the first match went three games, and the third game was decided in overtime.  frank had final darts and had “two to tie, three to win” and hit a two to send it into the tenth.  at that point swat and curtis combined for a seven inning.  mike then took the line, and banged an 8, taking the game, the match and the day!

it was an exciting finish to a day that was filled with good darts and good competition!

here’s some picts of our second place team . . .

[photopress:curtisSwat2handicap2010.jpg,full,pp_image]

and finally our Champs!

[photopress:frankMike2Handicap1st2010.jpg,full,pp_image]

i want to say thanks to everyone who made the trip during the three weeks.  it was great having you here, and i hope to see you back again!! 

Yep – we’ve been shooting a lot of darts.  in fact, i ran into someone in shamokin at the meat market and they asked where I was getting the meat for.  when I told them “Dorko’s” they said, and i quote “oh, that’s a big dart bar”.  made me smile. but anyway . . .

FRIDAY NIGHT – is the next Steel Tip event, and that’s going to be held at The Silver Bullet.  there’s a carload going already, and if you are interested stop by the bar.  we’ll see who all is interested and if we can, get a second carload together.  it’s the same as we shot a couple of weeks ago – 501 OI/DO, Cricket, plus a couple of “busy games” will probably be thrown in the mix.  not sure where the triples event stands exactly, but if you ask doug he could probably give you detailed information on it.  ahem,  was that “three at the 18″?

SATURDAY MORNING – will be the finals of the Two Man Handicap tournament that we’ve been running qualifiers for.  I trust that I jotted down everyone’s address and contact information from that event, but if i didn’t, Let Me Know!  I’d like to get you on the list of shooters who have made the effort to come and shoot in a tournament at the bar, and have made themselves “special” by doing so. 

the lineup looks like this:

One Loss Bracket:

• Doug and Randy K.
• Larry S. and Justin
• Tony Ford and Reedy
• Team Conti

Winners Bracket:

• Jason Kroh and Rudy K.
• Josh Mall and Timmy Wargo
• Curtis Susnoski and Joe Swat
• Frank Rakes and Mike W.

we’ll sign in between noon and 12:45, with plans on having darts in the air by 1pm.  (so if that means limiting yourself to twenty beers the night before so you can make it by 1, please pen that into your calendar ) at the end of the day we will have a winner.  and throughout the day we will have a good time!

Coming Tuesday – the next installment of the Fall American Dart League.  so far the season high is 53, belonging to Randy Kasenych and also Doug Troutman.  the season’s low offering was an effort put forth by O’B.  it resembled a performance by the much revered Cookie Ososkie, and was 8 points higher than Steve Miller’s total points for the season last time he played. 

oh, and I think Sandy will be doing some chili for Tuesday Night, and that is always a good thing!