The Passionate Darter Speaks Up About the 2nd Annual Las Vegas Desert Classic II

Welcome to the Passionate Darter column where all you need is a great attitude and a passion for darts! What makes a passionate darter? This is the person who loves darts and does what they can to promote darts in a positive manner. The passionate darter practices good sportsmanship whether winning or losing, but loves winning! Maybe you passionate darters out there play at home or your local pub, play league or hit the blind draws, and maybe even a tournament or two. With over 19 million darters in the US alone, there are lots of passionate darters out there and this column is for you. This is where I will share my excitement for the sport of darts. Mark my words, this next year is the year for darts in America and we will all be here to help the sport grow and be part of dart history in the US. Yes indeed, this is the time for passionate darters everywhere!

Who am I to write this column? I'm probably like most of you. I love the game of darts and play every week. It's not only playing darts and having those moments of greatness that we all have at times, but it's the challenge, the mental focus, the improvement, being on a winning team, throwing that winning dart at a blind draw or tournament, and the people! I can't tell you all the lifelong friends that I've made through the sport of darts. There is nothing like darts! Most days I'm an average player but again, I believe we all have moments of greatness. And I think I've got a few more in me yet. I've watched the pros, dreamed of going pro someday (haven't we all?), but it all comes down to loving darts and the people involved in the sport.

It's with this attitude that I packed up my darts and headed west this past July. To Vegas, that is; Sin City, Lost Wages, City in the Desert, The Strip! Specifically, I was at the beautiful MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, home of the Las Vegas Desert Classic dart tournament. This is where I went to compete in a world class $120,000 dart tournament and then sat back to watch the finals televised LIVE for the first time in states. Yes! There were 24 hours of live television coverage for the finalists, both men and women, with the best of the best darters in the world competing for their share of the money. Okay, I didn't exactly sit back and watch... I was on the edge of my chair at times, jumping in the air and screaming with the rest of them. I was holding my breath watching Ton-80 after Ton-80 by the world's top ranked world darters and champions. I watched some incredible and seemingly effortless outs by the world's best darters, each determined to win and take their share of the prize money home. I was cheering for my favorites and watching some awesome darts, up close and personal where I had a front row seat. And the experience exceeded my expectations by about a million percent! If you weren't there, maybe you watched the finals on television. If you somehow missed it, then you really missed out. Either way, this is one tournament that you don't want to miss next year. Let me tell you all about it...

This was the second Las Vegas Desert Classic, hosted and sponsored by the PDC (England's Professional Darts Corporation). This internationally ranked tournament was attended by (the best of the best) including current World Champion John "Darth Maple" Part, 10 time World Champion Phil "The Power" Taylor, Peter "One Dart" Manley, Colin "Jaws" Lloyd, Alan "The Ice Man" Warrier", Bob "The Limestone Cowboy" Anderson and more. Then there were the women including: America's Stacy Bromberg, England's Deda Hedman and Chrissie Howat, and more. Last year I wanted to go to the inaugural Las Vegas Desert Classic, but I didn't make it. This year I traveled to the Las Vegas Desert Classic II and believe me, I will NOT miss this tournament next year.

When I tell other darters that I traveled to the Las Vegas Desert Classic, the most common question I get is "Did YOU compete as well?" Emphatically and excitedly I tell them "Yes, Yes, Yes and YES! There's no way I would have missed out on the competition!" With separate men's and women's brackets, where else could I have come up against Stacy Bromberg, Deda Hedman, Chrissie Howat, Jane Staubb and other great women darters? Where else could I shake John Part's hand, meet Phil Taylor, actually sit down and talk darts with legend John Lowe and more? Compete? You bet! I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

The registration was simple... Bull's Eye News facilitated registration for all US darters. The fee for men was $150.00 and $50.00 for women. The tournament was all '501 steel-tip singles only and quadruple elimination, with separate brackets for the men and women. After the completion of the televised finals on Sunday, there was an additional cricket event for all competing darters.

The quadruple elimination qualifiers started on a Tuesday morning and the best thing I can compare this format to is 4 separate singles events AND a cricket event. The first qualifier was held on Tuesday morning, followed by qualifiers on Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning and Wednesday afternoon. This gave darters plenty of time to warm-up and rest in between qualifiers. For each qualifier there was one woman and one man who won and then advanced to the staged finals scheduled to run that Thursday through Sunday. Together with the cricket event, I liken this to one entry fee for 5 single's events. Not bad for three days of playing darts with some of world's best darters, and more playing if you won one of the qualifiers!

Some of the darters that did win qualifiers and proceeded to the staged finals included American darters Stacy Bromberg, Roger Carter and Tony Payne. Talk about exciting!

As for the tournament itself, this was hosted, sponsored and run by the PDC. In one word they run their tournaments professionally. These people know what they're doing and they do it well. To find your initial board for each of the qualifiers, darters checked the brackets posted at the entrance. From there, each darter proceeded to their board and checked in with their official. For every 15 boards, there was a PDC official seated and ready to check you in, answer any questions and qualm any disputes (for the record, I don't know of any disputes!). The officials were friendly, knowledgeable, professional, available and did an excellent job of keeping things running smoothly. This process also eliminated the need to call darters to their boards over the loud speaker. There were no calls made. You either got to your board in a timely fashion or you forfeited your match. I don't know of anyone who missed a match because everyone knew exactly where to be and when. What a great concept and one that should become the norm for professional dart tournaments everywhere!

Personally, I went through all 4 qualifiers without proceeding to the finals but I was pleased with the way I played and the people that I met along the way. And chalkers! There were no problems with chalkers. It was a darter's dream world! Darters were eager to chalk and be part of the action. Once you lost a match, you were expected to chalk the next match on that board. The great thing about chalking was seeing some great darts up close - let's face it, chalkers have the best view in the house! Imagine playing darts at a tournament where there are multiple chalkers getting up and discussing who is actually going to get to chalk the next match! It was just incredible!

After the qualifiers, the finals started on Thursday and it was time to be a spectator along with the millions of viewers who were watching the finals on television from the comfort of their living rooms. They really missed out because there was nothing like watching the finals live, with a front row seat!

Now I've been to a live taping of Oprah but her show is nothing compared to the lights, cameras, and action of live televised darts! The commentators were whipped into a frenzy reporting live on each darter's throw and in the arena you could hear them screaming with excitement from within their booth... At one point when John Part was in the process of winning against Phil Taylor with Ton-80 after Ton-80 and incredible outs, you couldn't help but hear one of the commentators scream out "And who's your daddy now Phil Taylor?!!!!"

Though there wasn't any extra money for that perfect 9-dart '501 game, John Part came the closest. He started out one particular leg against Phil Taylor with a Ton-80. He followed with another Ton-80. At that point he was 3 darts away from the perfect '501 game and you could have heard a pin drop in the arena. With 141 left and the magic of close-up and overhead camera angles projected on to large screens as the television cameras rolled - you could see and feel the determination on John Part's face as he targeted the Trip-20 and nailed it. He was 2 darts away from that perfect game. The room was silent as he moved downstairs to the Trip-19, but singled it. He threw 7 perfect darts and the crowd was on the edge of their seats just waiting to witness that perfect game. When he missed the Trip-19 the entire crowd collectively breathed a sigh of disappointment, and amazement at the same time for having almost seen dart history made for the first time, LIVE on television in the states. It gives me good bumps just writing about the thrill of it all!

Throughout the match between John Part and Phil Taylor, Phil Taylor's young daughter (in her English accent) belted out "C'mon Dad, HIT IT!" Though Phil Taylor started getting his stroke back, it was too little, too late, and the crowd jumped to their feet with excitement, screams and cheers for John Part who moved on to the finals for 1st and 2nd place against England's Peter "One Dart" Manley. For the first time Phil Taylor left Vegas without winning but one couldn't help but wonder if there would someday be a young female Taylor World Champion emerging during the next decade.

The finals for first and second place were no less exciting! Both John Part and Peter Manley were hungry for that first place prize and purse. At one point John Part threw a Ton-80, retrieved his darts and turned around to work the crowd. With a proud smile and his arms outreached, the crowd went wild. Peter Manley had to have been feeling the pressure but he threw the darts of his life following John Part's Ton-80 with his own Ton-80. Like Part, he turned to the crowd and the television cameras with his arms stretched out even higher than Part's, and the crowd grew more frenzied! What a match! What a tournament! Peter Manley walked away with first place, followed by America's Stacy Bromberg, who took 1st place in the women's' bracket. And in the final cricket event, Jamie Harvey won the men's' event and Stacy Bromberg took home another 1st place PDC win.

When I left Vegas I was exhausted, excited, invigorated, motivated to play myself and overwhelmed by my experience. I'm lucky enough to have a friend who taped all 4 days of televised finals so after arriving home I watched the videos and relived the excitement of being at the tournament myself.

In retrospect, this is one tournament that I will definitely be at next year and if you can be there as well, Go! Compete! Watch the finals with a front-row seat. If you're a passionate darter like myself, I promise you won't be disappointed! Trust me on this...

Though the Las Vegas Desert Classic has been held in the states for the past two years over the 4th of July weekend, don't let this deter you from attending. Believe me, we can all be just as patriotic in Vegas at the Las Vegas Desert Classic dart tournament as we can at home with family and friends at a backyard barbecue (over the 4th of July weekend). If you want to see fireworks, you'll get them that weekend in Vegas whether they're the outdoor and local Vegas fireworks display or the explosive and frenzied dart fireworks inside the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino's Garden Ballroom. In fact, we might all be even more patriotic by booking our flights to Vegas with our family and dart friends in tow to attend next year's Las Vegas Desert Classic, as we'd be boosting the economy here in the states by traveling.

So mark your calendar's for next year's Las Vegas Desert Classic dart tournament. In the meantime, call your local cable provider and ask how you can get Fox Sports World and dart-programming so you don't miss a minute televised darts. I'd love to hear that that the nation's largest cable provider's telephone networks have been bombarded with phone calls from avid darters nationwide. E-mails aren't as effective as phone calls, especially when it takes manpower to answer the phones. When you make that call, make sure you get a live person on the phone so the programming directors at your cable provider get the message loud and clear; there is a market for televised darts and there are millions of us who desire to watch televised darts. Let's get the ESPN network executives scratching their heads as well, wondering if they're being left in the dust by not carrying a full dart-programming schedule. In fact, call ESPN as well. Mark my words, the next 12 to 18 months are the time for darts in the states to reach new levels! This means regularly scheduled darts on television, including LIVE dart coverage and sponsorship, which translates to more tournaments and higher payouts. Mark my words...

Till next time, shoot well and I'll see you at the line.