The Association 501 ADO All-Star Qualifier has
come and gone...and all I can say is WOW!
First off, I want to thank everyone who showed
up to play, set up and tear down the boards, and those who
showed up just to support the league.
Now for the WOWs!
Wow #1: Congratulations to Lisa Jones,
Scott Meeks, and Tim Jones for winning!
Wow #2: We had 25 men and 5 women
shooting for their chance to go to Kalamazoo on May 3rd for the
regionals.
Wow #3: We ended up with 3 different tie
breakers throughout the day (More on those later)
Wow #4: We ended up shooting
between 21 and 46 games each; depending on how far you made it
into the tournament and which bracket you shot in.
Wow #5: We shot for 8 hours....what a
marathon.
Wow #6: Congrats to Larry SantAmour and
Mike Evans for shooting 180's.
Now for the juicy details. Let's start
off with the ladies (Momma always taught me to be a gentleman).
Thanks to Lisa Jones, Sandi Quaine, Holly
McCarthy, Carol Dobek, and Chris Paton for participating.
The ladies shot one round of round-robin format consisting of 3
games per match. Lisa Jones ended up winning with 8
points. Just by looking at the scores, I could tell it was
a great day of darts with every match going 2-1, except one.
Great shooting ladies!
Now, onto the men. The best way to
describe the mens tournament was a MARATHON! With 25 men
shooting, I decided to break us up into four groups
consisting of 6, 6, 6, and 7. We drew cards to determine
which group we'd be in and who we would shoot against in the
first round robin. The top 2 people in each group
would advance to the second round where we'd shoot each other in
round robin format again.
In the Hearts group we had:
Kevin Primel, Dave Merz, Jon Ormiston, Steve
Pincombe, Scott Meeks, and Jimmy "Don't call me
D" Felicie.
Scott Meeks and Jimmy Felicie advanced (See
below for tie-breaker)
In the Diamonds group we had:
Ruben Flores, Jeff Essenburg, Tim Jones, Dave
Smith, Bill Swanson, Jeff Chapel, and Jeff Holesapple.
We had a 3-way tie for first with Tim Jones
and Jeff Essenburg advancing.
In the Clubs group we had:
Gary Williams, Don Paton, Michael Abbott, Mike
Evans, Jeff Dusseau, and Larry SantAmour.
Mike Evans and Michael Abbott advance to the
next round.
In the Spades group we had:
Whoop Carney, Andy Pinner, Mike Wurmlinger,
Walt Paton, Rich McClelland, and Chris Malburg Sr..
Andy Pinner and Chris Malburg advanced.
In the first round robin, we had two
tie-breakers. In the Hearts group, we had Jimmy Felicie,
Steve Pincombe, and Dave Merz all tied after the first round
robin. In an attempt to follow all ADO rules, each player
shot on the same board. The first person to win 3
games would advance. Dave and Steve each took 2 games,
putting a lot of pressure on Felicie. Apparently Jimmy
likes to shoot under pressure because he took the next 2 games
to square it up at 2 games each. The winner of the next
game would advance and the others would go home. This is
where the nerves must have set in. Each player ended up
missing several shots at doubles and they all ended up on double
1 (The appropriately named "Madhouse"). Once
again, each player had several attempts at the double 1 with
Jimmy Felicie finally nailing it to advance.
The other tie-breaker was in Diamonds.
Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we had to shorten up the
tie-breaker. Ruben Flores, Jeff Essenburg, and Tim Jones
all shot on the same board; with the first 2 people to hit the
out to advance. Jeff and Tim went on to the second round.
In the second round-robin, we all played each
other 3 games. Scott Meeks won with 14 points and Michael
Abbott and Tim Jones tied with 13. Tim made it into the
second round by defeating Michael 2-1; thus setting up the tie.
In the tie-breaker Tim defeated Michael 2-0 by shooting a near
100 average in both games!
In wrap up, several things were learned to
help run a more smooth tournament next time. First, all
tie-breakers will be one game. In multiple person tie-breakers,
the players will advance as each person wins that game.
The tie-breaker in the Hearts group was a mini marathon in
itself and one for the league record books.
Second, we will probably try and break up the
people into more, smaller groups for the first round robin.
With only 4 groups, the first round took nearly 6 hours
(including the tie-breakers). I know we all like shooting,
but the competition shouldn't be a matter of attrition.
In the end, better sportsmanship prevailed and
a great time was had by all.
Now, where is that foot massager.
Thank you,
Michael Abbott
NODA Ado Representative
Region 4-4
