Dargan's Repeats - Wins Cup

Dargan's faced 2 consecutive nights of darts this week in route to their 2nd year repeat of the coveted Cup.

Monday night was the rescheduled match with Curly's All Stars, a much anticipated match by both teams to earn a spot in the finals on Tuesday evening vs Your Mom. After taking 3 out of 4 in the Corkers Choice singles, Dargan's looked primed to eliminate Curly's from the Finals. But Curly's stayed strong with Mike and Phil taking one of the doubles Cricket matches. With the score 4-2, Curly's needed to take both of the doubles 501 to make the match go to the final team game. Phil and Dave beat Liam and Paul in their 501 match, but it was Dargan's in the end who finished off the night with Mick and Kevin beating Andy and Luis to make the final score, 5-3 in favor of Dargan's. All the games were very close though and a great match will be remembered by all.

Tuesday evening saw Dargan's once again looking at an intense match to complete their repeat of last years performance. Your Mom showed up to the match ready to give them a run for their money. After the 4 singles games, the match was dead even at 2-2 with Liam and Kevin winning their matches and Enrique and Ricky winning theirs. Then came the doubles cricket and once again, the players on Your Mom continued to throw darts good enough to not warrant the handicap taken. Scores reaching in the 400's were seen and ended up with both teams splitting the doubles cricket; the score now dead even again at 3-3.

Heading into the doubles 501 match, all stops were pulled out by Dargan's seeing the potential of not repeating. Although the scores were very tight with Your Mom having a chance to upset Dargan's, Dargan's managed to finish off the night without having to go into a team game with a final score of 5-3.

Congratulations to Dargan's for their repeat and to all of the rest of the teams for making the Cup another memorable playoff.

!!!!SB Dart's makes it in the News Press!!!!

KING POINT

Playing darts is a family affair for the Schiefens

5/2/03

By PALMER GIBBS

NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

One player works at Borders, another works for a pharmaceutical company, one is a plumber and one is an engineer. Together they are Danny's Dubliners, a darts team that competes in the Santa Barbara Darts Organization's Tuesday night league at Dargan's Irish Pub.

Chris and Erik Schiefen credit their father, Steve, for getting them hooked on darts.

"We initially started playing because we looked up to dad, idolized everything he did," Erik, the plumber, said.

Steve said he's been playing competitive darts since the early 1970s and his sons picked up the game when they were kids.

"They watched me play a number of years growing up," said Steve, 55, an engineer.

The Schiefens take this game seriously. They're all card-carrying members of the American Dart Association. Erik, 32, is the organization's regional director. He travels all over the country for tournaments.

When they compete at Dargan's, the Schiefens are joined by their good friend Wayne Jessup, also a serious player. Danny's Dubliners reached the league's playoffs but were eliminated by the team Your Mom, which included Erik's wife, Kerrie.

During the regular season, Erik, Chris and Steve were consistently listed in the top 10 scores for the week.

"They're a solid team," Isaac Oltmans, the league secretary, said of the Schiefens and Danny's Dubliners.

Steve said the environment in the league matches is usually friendly. "But when we get into qualifying for regionals, then you pick it up a little bit," he noted.

The Dargan's league consists of two seasons. Each league game consists of five rounds of play. Starting with a 301 singles round, players start with 301 points and count down according to the points they earn where their dart hits the board. The second round of play is doubles cricket, a more open-ended game with offensive and defensive strategies.

The third and fourth rounds are 501 singles and 501 doubles play. These are played the same way as a 301 singles game. The last round is a 701 team game, where the team starts with 701 points and counts down from there.

Scoring for each round is kept on a chalkboard. An MVP is chosen from each round. After each week the MVP standings are posted. Erik has won two MVP awards.

The Schiefens and Jessup are formidable opponents. The team has won the league's Second Chance Cup five times.

In addition to the Dargan's league, Erik Schiefen and Jessup play Thursday nights in Ventura with their friend Mick Farrell.

Jessup, who has played darts for about 17 years, found the sport when he and some friends went to a bar. Erik's wife, Kerrie, is one of the three women players in the league of about 60 players. "I would love to see more women get involved," Erik said.

Dorothy Clapp, another female player, has lived in Santa Barbara since 1952. A member of the team Firkin Bees, Clapp, too, wishes there were more women involved.

"We used to have a lot more women in darts," she said, "but as the level of dart playing went up, we lost a lot of women's participation."

When it comes to the type of dart used for competition, the Schiefens prefer to play with older darts that have sentimental value. Erik, for example, uses darts that were given to him by a champion that he beat in a tournament.

The atmosphere at Dargan's is very friendly and there is a definite camaraderie between the players. This is a shift from earlier years when dart playing was motivated by cash incentives, noted Steve.

"It is not as money driven as it used to be," Steve said.

Outside of darts, Chris, 25, who delivers pharmaceutical supplies throughout the tricounties, enjoys reading and listening to music. He and his father also like to watch Rams and Lakers games. Jessup, a native New Yorker, was a devoted follower of Syracuse during the men's NCAA tournament.

Erik, who ran and later coached track at Santa Barbara High, enjoys watching auto racing. But his real passion is for darts.

"I devote a lot of time to this game," he said.

Results of Cup Playoffs

4/13/03

ADO All-Star Regional Qualifier Results

The ADO Regional Qualifier occurred this past rainy weekend at Dargan's with a great turn out by SB players. A total of 13 players participated with 2 brackets of round robin playing off to a final four. A battle in the 7 player division (Kevin Quinn, Mick Farrell, Phil O'Neill, Rob Washburn, Dave Brinkhurst, Kevin Frantz, Carl Lindstrom) led to a very close final that could have gone to any of 4 of the players. Kevin Quinn advanced but it was Phil and Rob who once again had to play a best of 5 play off to determine who would take the final 4th position in the finals. In the end, Erik, and Scott advanced from their bracket (Erik Schiefen, Chris Schiefen, Steve Schiefen, Andy Clare, Isaac Oltmans, Scott Cranmer) and Phil and Kevin Quinn from the other. After nearly 7 hours of darts, the tourney ended in a tie between Kevin and Erik (5 to 5) with another final best of 5 still needing to be played. Scott and Phil also tied (4 to 4). Everyone was exhausted and agreed to do the play offs of these final matches on another day in the near future. A great day of darts though with everyone getting there $10 worth.

3/22/03

Ventura vs. Santa Barbara All-Star

Santa Barbara Victorious!

For the fourth time in a row since the inception of the All-Star Trophy in 2001, Santa Barbara has once again taken the crown. As usual, unfortunately neither team could field all of their top players for this event, but a great team of fantastic dart players showed up for both teams for the match. The trophy will once again rest in it's usual space at Dargan's Irish Pub in SB. Go down and admire it!

A picture of the winning SBDA Team is below

SBDA members from left to right in photo are:

Isaac Oltmans, Shane Hoefer, Erik Schiefen, Mick Farrell, David Brinkhurst, Mark Ellenberger, Phil O'Neill, Scott Cranmer, Rob Washburn

Shirts

There have been numerous requests for new SBDA shirts. Last time we made a total of 48 shirts that are completely sold out. If anyone is interested in getting a new shirt made for the league, I would be happy to design one and have them made. The key is that we need to have at least 24 shirts minimum pre-sold prior to making the shirts. For those who are interested in new shirts, please e-mail me or talk to me at the next league night.