Well this year, not many SB players decided to make the trip down to the Queen Mary. Don't blame ya! The rain storm on the way down was pretty intense. Isaac Oltman's and myself (Phil O'Neill) decided to make the trek and give it a go. More kilts and bagpipes than any normal person needs to see in a lifetime! But all good fun too.
In the draw doubles event, Isaac drew Eddie Salauco (sp?). Isaac threw well in the match but they couldn't hit their doubles and got knocked out.
I was paired with Richard Maxwell out of the Antelope Valley. We ended up starting a little shaky but after the first round, I ended up getting pretty comfortable and hitting solid numbers. We knocked out Brett "Bigfoot" Marett and his partner in the 2nd round and then took out Tony (English guy, I forget his last name) and Bill Neal in the third (I took out a T04 out), then we took out another doubles team with a little drama. The chalker scored the wrong score after my partner Richard left me 16. I brought it to our opponents attention and he said that we couldn't change the score, even though I hadn't thrown yet. Pretty much a fiasco. This guy didn't know the rules and was being a prick about it. So I said fine. I threw at 26 (the wrong score) and missed. They took the second leg. The third and final leg I took out a 65 with a single 15, double bull just to bring home the karma!
Richard and I made it to the semis and unfortunately didn't play as well as we had leading up to it. We finished tied for 3rd.
In the singles 501 event, Isaac didn't get a chance as his opponent nailed 19's and ended his day. I did well. Took out the first guy and ended up playing T.A. Anderson in the 2nd. Won 2 straight. Then I played Eddie Salauco (Isaac's partner from earlier) and won the 1st leg. Played bad the 2nd. Came down to a third leg and I hit T40, T40 to leave 97. Missed the out. Knocked out 64 to 32.
A good LONG day but we missed not having all of the SB players there with us!! Ah well, there's always next year.

The new season will begin this next Tuesday (2-22). Dave is working on getting a complete schedule done and we should have it posted to the website in the next few days. In the mean time, we do have the schedule for the first night of play:

Coprolites vs Showtime - Dargan's Bar
Dargan's vs A League - Dargan's Pool
Firkin Bees vs Dubliners - Dargan's Fireplace
Wires vs Kunnies - Dargan's Window
Your Mom vs Swedes - James Joyce
Breaktime has the Bye

After a full year of no one team having their name on the Cup, The Dubliners once again will have their name on it. Last season the Cup finals never took place and the Cup was never claimed. But this past Tuesday, The Dubliners defeated Showtime in the finals 5-2. Too bad for Showtime as they played a fantastic match the week prior and more than likely would have beat anyone had they kept up the pace.

Once again, another Vegas Open has come and gone. From the looks of most of our players blood shot eyes every morning, seems everyone had a good time. The list of players who attended from our league this year were: Andy Clare, Mike Lynch, Shane Hoefer, Bobby English, Mick Farrell, Kevin Frantz, Mark Ellenberger, Wayne Breault, David Brinkhurst, Steve Schiefen, John Craig, and Phil O'Neill. 12 players total; not bad for a league that only has a total of 60 players!

Unfortunately, there weren't a ton of highlights to talk about regarding everyone's finish in the tourney. Some tough draws were seen in the first draws of every session. Some of them I remember well. On the doubles 501 match, Kevin Frantz and Wayne Breault drew against Ray Carver and Darrin Young. Ouch! Ray and Darrin finished in the finals or semis of both 501 and Cricket. In the singles 501 David Brinkhusrt drew against Bill Davis (#2 U.S.). Another tough one. Bill played amazingly well!

There were a couple of highlights for the tourney though. The main one being Bobby English. He was paired with Rick Stephenson in the blind draw doubles on Friday night. While the rest of us ended up being eliminated early, Bobby and Rick made it all the way to the FINALS! We ended up running into Bobby in the bar at about midnight to find him with a big gold cup trophy for his finish! And yes, it was filled to the rim with Irish Wiskey. Way to go Bobby! Best finish of anyone from SB ever at the Vegas Open.

As for all of the singles and doubles events, myself (Phil O'Neill) was the only one who advanced beating 4 players on the way. In the Singles Cricket event, I ended up down in the 3rd and final game. I had three open numbers and needed points badly and stepped up and hit 4 Bulls for 100 points to force my opponent to score. The next throw I needed a 9 mark to close out the game and advance to the top 32. With a little encouragement from my teammate from home David Brinkhurst, I stepped to the oche and nailed it! (Trip 18, trip 16 trip 15). Definitely a great feeling. The only 9 Count certificate that I will keep proudly in the trophy case. I ended up meeting Bill Davis next and although I lost the match, I played respectably well with the games going into the 400's. I ended up top 32 (or as I like to say, tied for 17th place!)

Doubles 501 Winners - Paul Lim and John Zuczynski
Runners up - Darrin Young and Ray Carver

Doubles 501 Winners - Paul Lim and John Zuczynski
Runners up - Chris White and Dan Olsen

I did end up taking some pictures while there but not many of them turned out well and I was always too occupied to concentrate on getting a bunch of pics. Oh well. Next year why don't you join us so you can see it all for yourself!

All of the votes for changes in the league format have been calculated. Below is the e-mail that was sent to everyone from Erik just in case you didn't get it:

Ok everyone, here it is! Out of 58 members, 36 ballots were collected. Not bad. I'm very sorry for those of you who did not get a chance to vote. Especially the members of Breaktime. This is a work in progress and the bugs will be solved the next time.

In summary: There will be 13 sets per night except when two B Division teams play. There will be two divisions. Only first and second season players will be allowed to use the handicap. There will be an extra point awarded for 95on and above. Start time is 7:00. Dues are $100 per team. The playoffs will have 13 sets with the team game at the end. And there will be floating subs.

This past Tuesday evening, 3 teams advanced by winning, one advanced due to forfeit. Next weeks Semi Finals will be:

Curly's Allstars vs. Showtime (Bar)
Dubliners vs. Carpenters (Pool)

More information will be available soon in regards to next season (the start date, changes to the format etc..) So in the mean time, for those teams knocked out, keep practicing.

Most of you know Ed Keller, dart player for Breaktime. However for those who only know Ed as a dart player on Breaktime, there is much more to the man than just a guy who may kick your ass on the oche on Tuesday nights!

Ed also discovered "Calafia", an under water island off of the Santa Barbara coastline that was thought to exist at the end of the last ice age.

Next time you play Ed in a game of darts, respect him not only for kicking your ass in darts, but for all the other things he can kick your ass at! Like finding a frickin' hidden island!

Due to the unfortunate circumstances in La Conchita and all of the road closures throughout the Tri Counties, we have decided to postpone ALL PLAYOFF MATCHES until the following week, Tuesday January 11th.

If you would like to go down to Dargan's and throw tomorrow night and practice, I'm sure you will have some people to throw with.
Thanks to everyone for your cooperation in this matter.

Playoffs for the Cup resumed this week with 3 matches taking place. Only 2 of the results have been reported so far and it looks like the Carpenters and the Coprolites will be advancing. We're still not sure about Firkin vs Wires?

We all finally have a chance to see some more professional darts on the tele. On Tuesday night, they showed a good portion of the Budweiser UK Open from about 5 months ago on Fox Sports World. Yeah, it's dated but if you never saw it in the first place, it's all new! Our ole' pal Dennis Priestley was featured playing Canada's John Part in one of the matches. And our friend Paul Hinks who did the score calling at Dargan's for the Dennis Priestley exhibitions was the one on stage calling the scores for the match. Unfortunately, John Part got lucky on this one. Dennis had a chance to close him out and finish but missed his double.

Now there may be a good chance you can see it again. There will be darts on TV again on Fox Sports World on next Tuesday the 11th at 4pm. Also on Fox sports World on Weds the 12th at 2am. So set your Tivo or VCR. This may be a replay of what was shown this week or it may be the finals. If it's the replay, you get to see one of the historic perfect 9dart 501 games by Phil "The Power" Taylor. Pretty damn cool. Enjoy!

Holiday Break
Enjoy the couple of weeks off we have for the holidays but don't slack on your practice! The Cup playoffs will begin on Jan 4th for some. 4 teams will have the BYE for that first night so make sure to check the schedule under "BULL" to see when your team plays next.

It's once again getting close to the end of another short season and the playoff schedule for THE CUP. Unfortunately, last season never had a decisive winner of the Cup due to scheduling conflicts.
As always, the Fall season is plagued by the interruptions of holidays. Therefore, we begin the playoff schedule at the beginning of January. Please take a look at this weeks BULL to see the line up and whether or not your team has a first week BYE.

As Erik has told most everyone already, expect to get a ballot this week for all of the things that you will be voting on for changes to next season. And DO NOT delay in turning the ballot in. This is your chance to have a real vote counted.

The Queen Mary Classic is coming once again. As always, this event is done on the great ship The Queen Mary in conjunction with the Scottish Festival. It is a very fun tournament with lots to see when your not busy throwing darts. Lots of Scottish stuff ("If it's not Scottish, it's crap!")

Make your plans now. More information is available under "Tourney Sched" on the left

As you may have noticed, we have a couple of matches left during the regular season. It's tight at the top and don't forget everyone has another chance for the CUP. So far it's been a great season with a lot of good darts thrown. Keep it up!

As most of you may already know, we will have a different way of having our rule changes this season. In light of all the changes this season (and all the bitching I have heard so far) we will have a ballot style vote on all the doings in this league. This is different than what we usually do for several reasons. We need to solve some of these issues before next season, it will speed up the BBQ, everyone will have a vote and not just those who show up to the BBQ, and it will enable us to vote on issues in between seasons instead of once this summer. We will not elect new officials and will do so at the BBQ. So that being said, I will hand out the ballots on the last week of the regular season. You will have two weeks, (that's the second week of the playoffs including the first bye week) to return the ballot to me. If you have any suggestions as to what should be included, e-mail me those suggestions. Obviously I have the big stuff covered. Format, handicap, start time, playoff format, one or two divisions, etc...

The big match between Phil "The Power" Taylor and Andy "The Viking" Fordham came to a disappointing finish at The Circus Tavern last weekend. If you haven't gone to the PDC website and seen what Mr Fordham looks like, well, let's just say he needs to lose a few pounds. Click here to see a picture: http://www.planetdarts.co.uk/article.asp?id=239403&Nv=1 And it turned out those few pounds ended up costing him the match. With the match 5-2 with Phil Taylor ahead, Andy Fordham had to take a long break from the stage as he was suffering from severe heat exhaustion. The man weighs about 500 pounds for god's sake!!! I think he would suffer heat exhaustion just sitting up in bed in the morning! So to the disappointment to the nearly 3,000 people at the live event and thousands others watching on live TV, the match ended with Andy Fordham quitting and Phil Taylor being declared the winner. Hopefully someday they can do a rematch but Andy will need to lay off the pints for awhile. Very unlikely since he is an owner of a pub!

At least the 2 under card matches were well worth the money for those who paid to see the big event. The LEGENDS match between John "Stoneface" Lowe and Erik "The Crafty Cockney" Bristow was just that; legendary! Erik Bristow ended up cleaning the floor with John Lowe. Unbelievable that the man who had been suffering from "dartitus" for all these years could come back onto a main stage and take out a man who is still in the top 25 in the world. Highlights of the match can be seen here: http://www.planetdarts.co.uk/article.asp?id=240363&Nv=1

And the other under card match between Roland "The Tripod" Scholten and Wayne "Hawaii 501" Mardle was a doozey! Wayne Mardle looked as if he had the match in the bag when Roland ,as usual, stayed steady and didn't give up taking the last 3 legs straight. Highlights of this great match can be seen here: http://www.planetdarts.co.uk/article.asp?id=240776&Nv=1

For the first time ever, The PDC and BDO have decided to put the best they have to offer against each other on a Pay Per View Event. This event sold out in a 1/2 hour to see it live in person but for the rest of the world, the event will be available on Sky Box Office. I'm still trying to figure out where we here in the states can all gather to watch this historic event. We may be able to talk to Raff at The Press Room and get him to let us all go there to watch the event on Nov 21st?

This is sure to be a historic event in darting and one even yours kids kids will be talking about in years to come. For those who would like to see an interview with both of these "athletes" (aaachum...clears throat), go to http://www.planetdarts.co.uk/article.asp?id=236119&Nv=1

It's not too soon to be making your plans to be at this next year's Las Vegas Open. Scheduled for the last weekend of January, this tourney is nothing but a great time. Last year I think we had a total of 12 players from SB. This year, hopefully even more. Yeah, we go for the darts....but it's Vegas Baby! Definitely a party. And a great chance to play some of the best players in the country.

Click on Tourney Sched on the left and make your plans today. Special rates are available at "The Ho" but Stardust and Riviera are right next door for those who may want something just a little nicer for about the same cost. Don't delay on making your bookings.

Ok, here goes. First of all, over the last two weeks, I've heard a lot of bitching about the new format. Fine. We will all have a chance to vote at the end of the season on what to do. So just file it away and play some darts. Because of the change, it was brought to my attention that maybe we move the start time to 7:30 instead of 7:00. The most compelling argument for this was the dinner crowd at Dargan's. This would allow the patrons having dinner more time to get out of the way. Let me know this week by return mail or tell me Tuesday.

More importantly, I think an oversight has been found as to the Handicap system. What happens if two teams with handicap players play each other? There is no A and B divisions therefore any handicap player plays any non-handicap player regardless of what team they play for. For example, Bill, who plays with a handicap, plays Dorothy, who doesn't use one. Is this fair? Probably not but we can't do anything about it now. Live with it. It sucks. It will be fixed next season.

We have all survived the first week of new play. Yes indeed, the nights are sure a lot shorter with the new schedule. Well hey, it's a short season. I'm sure we will be having a discussion about making changes for next season.

You will notice the new Bull looks a bit different than in the past. Dave will be making some adjustments to it for next week but he did find a new program that makes his job MUCH easier. I'm all for that knowing how much time it takes to do that every week. There are a bunch of new stats that we never had before too so it looks like this may be a really cool new Bull we will have. Remember, all of the info can be found at http://www.leaguerepublic.com/gen/Index.do?league=5065292 Click on Statistic Leaders to see all of the new stats I'm talking about. Pretty cool!

I will also be posting a pdf printable Bull under "Bull" at the top of the page every week.

There has been some discussion of having an open fun shoot at the end of each night since we are ending so early. Maybe a $2 entry, single elimination. Doubles if there are a bunch of players. Anyone up for that??

The announcement of the new Fall season was just given this past week and league will begin on Tuesday, Sept 28th. Your captain should soon or may have already contacted you regarding the new start date. The new REVISED schedule has been posted under "Sched" at the top of the website. Please click on it to see who you will be playing and what venue you are playing at.

This season (as all Fall season's in the past) will be a short one in that you will be playing each team only one time. This is an "experimental" season. If you were not at the BBQ in July you may not be aware that there were a few crucial votes cast by a majority of those in attendance. The votes were as follows:

We now have only one division, No "A" and "B".
We will now only play 9 games a night, not 13.

This has been met with some rather disapproving response from those who were not at the BBQ and from those who voted against it. Since we are a democratic league, we will have to see how this goes this season and later cast a vote on any changes. For those of you upset about these changes, please make it a priority to be present at any meetings from here on out. What makes our league great is the chance to come up with new ideas and have a voice in making our league better for everyone. But we need everyone's voice!

We'll see you all on Tuesday Sept 28th. There is one more Blind Draw tomorrow night (Sept 21st) at Dargan's for those who need a good warm up night prior to league start.