Living in Alberta, it can be a challenge to travel to the Canadian Maritimes to compete.  Given the choice between 6+ hour outbound and return flights (depending on connections) and a 2 hour or less flight to anywhere west of Ontario – I’m generally going to take the shorter trip.  Further, with the exception of Halifax and St. John’s, flight frequency is very limited (and there are no annual nationally ranked tournaments in Newfoundland to begin with). 

Last year the Halifax Open became one of six Canadian WDF & BDO ranked tournaments.  The introduction of an additional six WDF ranked tournaments in North America (3 Canadian & 3 American) has created a tremendous opportunity for North American players to qualify for the WDF World Championships.   A subsequent benefit of this distinction is an invitation to the World Masters for the Men’s and Ladies singles Champions.  With these awards now available on the east coast, it’s tough not to head that way (even if it is a long flight).

A snow storm in Calgary forced me to miss the inaugural year of the Halifax Open as a world ranked event.  I had played the singles of the Manitoba Open on the Saturday and was taking the red-eye to Halifax that night.  Unfortunately, a major storm prevented any planes from taking off out of YYC International.  I wasn’t going to take that chance this year and left first thing Friday morning to Halifax.  I had worked until 0230am the night before and was totally exhausted by the time I reached Halifax which didn’t help my darts any.

As a competitor it’s tough to say “no” to darts – any darts really.  Whether it’s a blind draw or the mixed doubles I just like to play.  I knew that I would be coming into Halifax with little to no sleep but I still committed to playing the mixed doubles on Friday night.  The better option would have been to simply get to sleep.  Instead – I was up until 0200am and only got about 5 hours of rest Friday night.  I’m an 8+ hour sleeper (and I know this), so getting 5 hours the night after only getting 2 hours of “airplane sleep” just wasn’t that smart.

Mixed Doubles

Team New Brunswick’s Brenda LeBlanc and I teamed up to play the mixed doubles on the Friday night.  I was tired and I knew it.  I managed to fetch a ride to a nearby gas station and grabbed a couple cans of energy drink to help me through the night.  Slurping back a pair of this wicked elixirs is a double edged sword in two different ways: they wake you up (which is great) but can make you jittery (which is bad) and that ‘badness’ is only compounded as it hurts your sleep for the night.  None-the-less, I trudged on.  Brenda and I faired not too badly.  I struggled a little in section but she was hitting doubles consistently and scoring steadily.  In the knockout the ginseng must have kicked in because I came to life.  We won our first two rounds 3-0 and I was finishing great, taking out scores over 80 in 4 of the 6 legs.  I’ve been really focusing on finishing in my mental practice, so I was happy to see it was paying off.  In the top 8 we ran into Dave Cameron and Debbie Lewis-Christmas and they turned the page on us and took 3-0 victory.  Both of them played very steady while Brenda and I couldn’t seem to find our edge (I guess ginseng doesn’t last that long).

Dave and Debbie were ousted in following round by Darlene McLeod and Danny MacInnis.  Darlene was chucking arrows on this night – every time I watched her throw all three darts were in a tight group in or around the sixty.  Danny was doing what Danny does and that makes them a deadly pair.  Suiting enough, they went on to win the tournament with a finals victory over Tammy Perry & Dave Fralic.

Men’s Doubles

I can only imagine what Terry Hayhurst thought when I walked into the Bedford Legion the morning of the Men’s Doubles.  In I came, 5 minutes after the scheduled start time (we’d registered the night before) with a pillow and a can of “Pink Energy” (it tastes like Grapefruit... I don’t care what colour it is!).  Jeff Smith even commented to Terry, “That’s gotta make you feel good!”  I knew I was going to need to get some sleep that day so I figured there was no harm in bringing my pillow along.

Terry and I played sharp for most of our section.  We had one set in the round robin where we fell 0-3 despite getting 4, 7 and 1 dart(s) at the double, respectively.  We still managed to win the section, as we played pretty solid other than that and we had a strong section that beat up on itself allowing us to recover from our early gaff.

Something that seems to happen in Nova Scotia, more than anywhere in the country, is the 4^th place seeds bump the 1^st place seeds.  I don’t know if it’s something they just mentally do better, or if they’re just not the keen on the round robin sections, but when these guys get to knockout they become twice as deadly – and Terry and I fell victims to it.  In the first round we drew Keven Hebert and Stephen Bradley of New Brunswick.  These two are great dart players and only in a tournament with a lot of great players could they ever finish fourth.  Before the match I saw Stephen give Keven a look – without saying a word he said “Let’s kill this young bucks!”  I politely interjected and verbally said “Hey now – cut that out – don’t get any ideas...” but yeah – that didn’t work.  Keven and Stephen doused us for a 3-1 loss and they played well in doing so. 

The only trouble with the Bedford Legion as a venue is that two of the playing boards are set up directly on the same wall as the bathroom doors and with 80 people drinking over a 5 hour span it’s a busy area.  This is in no way an excuse for losing, Keven and Stephen were playing on the same board and were playing better than us – it’s that simple.  I only bring it up to highlight a critical point in the match.  While throwing at a double in the 4^th leg to tie the match at 2-2 a gentlemen walked directly in front of me to go the men’s room.  I don’t mean sort of leaned in front, I mean walked from my right directly in front of the board while I was lining up the shot.  All I could do was laugh.  Then, I refocused, missed with the first two and in the midst of throwing my third dart a young lady came blasting out of the ladies room.  How does that even happen!?  But as I said – not an excuse – I never would have had a shot if Keven and Steven hadn’t missed some doubles that leg.  Given the option, I’d take that situation over no darts at all.

Out first round, I found someone with a car, took my pillow and went for a nap.

While I was comfortably wedged into the back seat of a Ford sedan, Marco Gonthier and Jeff Smith were on a run to defend their men’s doubles title from last year.  They’d have their work cut out for them too but they’re a pretty dependable team.  After dancing through their first round round they dispatched an all Newfie team of Roy Gough and Ed Morgan (high quality players), an all New Brunswick team of Bobby and Terry Fougere (also a great team) and then Jim MacDonald and Dave Smith in the semi-finals (Jim and Dave had just come through Clyde Moore and Danny MacInnis so they had to be playing great).  No one, however, could contend with these two power houses.  For whatever reason, some players just click together when playing doubles; whether it’s pace, style or friendship doesn’t matter, the point is - Marco and Jeff ‘click.’ 

On the other side of the draw it was our good friends Keven and Stephen making all the noise.  After putting the “young bucks” in their place, they went for a long run which included a win against two of Nova Scotia’s finest players, Dave Cameron and Chester MacKenzie and then followed that up with an impressive victory over Willie MacIssac and Sheldon Fudge.  It’s not often that a 4^th place team makes a long run in any tournament – there’s usually something that wasn’t working that caused them to finish 4^th.  But, beating Terry and I first round seemed to give them the kick in the arse they needed to get going.  Perhaps we should have kicked harder though as Jeff and Marco successfully defended their title by defeating Keven and Stephen in the final.

Ladies Singles

“Suicide Blonde?” “Wild Rose?” “Cin-fully delicious?” Well it doesn’t really matter what you call her; lover her or hate her, Cindy Pardy is an outstanding dart player.  The reigning Canadian National and Ranking Champion won the Halifax Open last year but was unable to attend the World Masters due to a broken finger.  She’s already won the Canadian Open, which earned her a spot in next year’s masters, but if you’ve ever met Cindy you know she likes to win.

Although the ladies singles entries weren’t quite as high as some might like to see them, there was no shortage of high calibre players on the east coast.  Prince Edward Island’s Tammy Perry, Nova Scotia’s Darlene MacLeod and New Brunswick’s Joanne Luke (all reigning provincial champions) are just a few of the top players that this tournament hosted.

I can only imagine what it’s like to be Cindy Pardy.  Never practice, stay out late and party and then come in and clean house.  That’s just what this young girl does on a regular occasion and that’s just what she did in Halifax (although I trust she at least got a little sleep before the singles).  Cindy, if I can speak for her, likes to make it look good when she wins too.  It’s almost as if she got to write the script for the Halifax Open Singles as she defeated all three of the provincial champions listed above (in the order listed above) to claim her second consecutive Halifax Open title.  The exclamation point was her 4-0 drubbing of Joanne Luke on stage.  There are very few people that can keep up with this girl right now and it’ll be great to see her go for it at the World Masters in the fall.

Mixed Triples

After being split between the upstairs and downstairs playing area in the morning, the boys and girls got together for a bit of co-ed action in the afternoon with the mixed triples.  Terry and I paired up again and were joined by Yvonne Martin-Cowhig. We played another good section but our luck was about the same in the knockout (and we played on the same “bathroom board).  We played Sheldon Fudge, Willie MacIsaac and Cathy Beaudry first round and came up on the losing end.  It was a disappointing finish to a disappointing day for Terry and I – but give all the credit to them as they played great, especially Sheldon who was constantly in the triple.  This is the second time we’ve played together and, although we won the mixed triples with Robin Curry at the Bob Jones Memorial, we’ve gone out 1^st round in the other 3 events we’ve been in.  I’m sure we’ll get it going eventually though.

With the singles the following morning and a night of sleep desperately needed I took off as soon as I could and didn’t watch the rest of the event.  Finalist from the previous two events Jeff & Marco, playing with Joanne Luke went on another good run but lost in the semi-finals to Kathy Mills-Bourgeois, Brian Cyr and Jim MacDonald. 

Kathy, Brian and Jim were joined in the final by the young newfie Troy Hanlon (last year’s Men’s Singles champ), Bill St. Croix and Michelle.  They had just come through a tough semi-final win over Bobby and Terry Fougere who teamed up with another top New Brunswick player, Marie Doyle.

And on that note – the info I have doesn’t include who won that final... I’ll get back to you when I find out.

Ladies Doubles

Once again the ladies doubles were the Cindy Pardy show.  She teamed up with the very capable Tracy Bourgeois and despite coming in looking like she may have stayed up a little later than me, Cindy and Tracy made good and won the ladies event.  I didn’t get to watch any of their play as I had a pretty good run in the singles.

Men’s Singles

I won’t say that it surprises me, because I’ve played 6 east coast tournaments now, but every time I come, I’m reminded just how deep the men’s singles field is out here.  There are always great matches in the first and second rounds of this event and it only gets better every round thereafter.  Having had a tough Saturday I really wanted to make up for it with a strong performance in the singles.  I had a good night sleep and was feeling focused so if I went out early again, it was either just me playing bad or an opponent playing great.

The section I was in was tough with Kevin Hebert, Steven Clement, Bill Jones & Dude Johnson to name a few.  I was going to have to play well to hold my seed going into the knock-out. This section was not nearly the hardest however.  Across the room, Terry Hayhurst (2009 National Champion), Brian Cyr (1999 & 2006 National Champion), Seymour Dixon (2004 National Finalist), Clyde Moore (Team Nova Scotia), Jeff Smith (2008 National Champion), Darren Bailey (Team PEI), Gerry Melanson (Team New Brunswick) & Ron Brake (who I’ve never met but finished 4^th in this group) were all in the same section!!!  Four of the last 3 national champions were in that group (only John Part 2007 was missing), so I’ll consider myself lucky to get the draw I had!

A quick start on the strength of some awesome finishing put me up 12-0 after 4 rounds, including a 3-0 win over Dude.  The sheets in Nova Scotia have scattered ‘byes’ which means the seeded player loses the benefit of having the first or last round bye.  After sitting in the 5^th round I played Steve Clement who played well and pinched a game off me although he could have had two.  The following round Keven Hebert picked me for 2 after I threw a soft leg, which he then followed with a 15 darter.  I came back in the 8^th round with another 3-0 before Bill Jones went off the handle against me to win 2-1.  I finished section 19-5 which was good enough for 1^st place.

In the first round there were several good match-ups including:

• Troy Hanlon (NF) defeated Steve Clement (NB)
• Carter Mill (PE) defeated Terry Hayhurst (ON)
• Steve Vautour (NB) defeated Ike Mullin (NB)
• Fred Brymer (NS) defeated Stephen Bradley (NB)

With all of these names, many of which have represented the province at the national championship on multiple occasions the top match was played right beside me:

• Dave Cameron (NS) defeating Brian Cyr (NS)

With Dave’s victory, two of the three national singles title holders in the room were out in the first round!  Ya think this room was deep?!

The second round saved no one and it seemed every board in the room went to a 5^th leg (an exaggeration I know, but you get the point).  I played one of Newfoundland’s friendliest and toughest players, Ed Morgan.  Ed went crazy on me in the first two legs (I didn’t get a look at a finish let alone a double) and got out to a strong start in the 3rd.  With Ed on 50 and me on 204, I hit a 121 to leave 83 but didn’t expect a shot the way Ed was playing.  Ed calmly hit the single 10 then stapled the double 20, but it was in the double 1 – he then missed the double 19, high.  With nothing to lose (and confident on my finishes) I grabbed the 83 finish with 2 darts and went to the races.  I stayed on top of Ed over the next two legs, although he was close, and hit my doubles quick to come back from 0-2 and catch the 3-2 win.

Things were no easier for the rest of the room as Dave Fralic, Dude Johnson, Terry Fougere, Jerry Myles, Fred Brymer and Gerry Melanson all took a seat after the second round. 

By the time the third round hit (top 16) at least 14 of the remaining players had represented their province previously, 5 of which have made the top 4 at the Canadian National Championships.  This was one of those rooms you could never pick a match to watch; they were all great.  I drew Dave Cameron that round, a player I really admire.  Dave’s got a lot of class, he’s always having a great time, people love the guy and he’s a hell of a competitor.  After going down 0-1 I came back with a 15 darter with a 120 out.  We got a bit scrappy after that and we traded throws, Dave going up 2-1 before I tied it.  In the 5^th leg Dave had the advantage but I hit hard with a 180 on my second shot and finished the leg in 15 to take a tough match.  The other matches went as follows:

• Serge Paul (NS) defeated Scott Hart (NS)
• Marco Gonthier (QC) defeated Troy Hanlon (NF)
• Steve Vautour (NB) defeated Seymour Dixon (NS)
• Danny MacInnis (NS) defeated Carter Mill (PE)
• Sheldon Fudge (NS) defeated Bill Jones (NS)
• Jeff Smith (NB) defeated Jonathon Gray (NB)
• Chester MacKenzie (NS) defeated Chris Steiger (NS)

As an interesting fact (with the exception of Danny MacInnis’ win over Carter Mills in the round of 16) no Nova Scotian player beat an out-of-province player after the round of 32.  There were 9 Nova Scotian’s in the top 16; 3 were beaten by other Nova Scotian’s, 3 were beaten by out-of-province players, and 3 advanced.  In the following round 2 Nova Scotian’s played each other, while one lost to an out-of-province and in the semi-finals the best performing Nova Scotian, Danny MacInnis, lost out.  I imagine now that I’ve pointed that out – next year’s tournament will have 7 Nova Scotian’s in the top 8!

The top 8 was a death match.  There were great wins and crushing loses.  I drew probably the least recognizable player in the group, Serge Paul.  If John DeGruchy’s 2006 Canadian Open win taught us one thing, it’s that non-recognizable player on the east coast means you better get focused in hurry!  I jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Serge with a couple of real good legs but her struck back hard.  He tied the match up 2-2 without a seconds notice.  One of the best lessons I’ve taken from all the sport psychology books I’ve read is how to stay focused during pressure situations and during set-backs.  Serge had the advantage in the last leg (it was the third match in a row my opponent hit the double bull to enter a deciding leg), but I got the first dart at the double and missed tops.  Serge was on 88 and after taking 2 singles he wired the bull (I thought it was in) giving me 3 darts to convert 40.  After going inside on the 20 I blocked the double 10 with a poorly thrown second dart.  I stepped to the left to come under the leaning dart at the bottom corner of the double.  After a deep breath I lined up the shot and put a nice clean point in the red bit.  Phew!

Elsewhere, Steve Vautour was starting to really roll with a win over Marco which included a 10 darter.  Danny MacInnis made himself the last Nova Scotian by dropping fellow provincial player Sheldon Fudge and Jeff Smith took out the 2007 Halifax Open winner Chester MacKenzie.  This set up two great semi-finals and both played out well.  Jeff and Danny (both fast players) were done well before Steve and I (both methodic players) finished our match.  Jeff came up with the win over Danny and although I was a little too busy to watch it, it sounded like a great one. 

Steve and I had an awesome dual which saw the New Brunswick Provincial Champion play some brilliant darts.  After breaking Steve’s throw in the first leg with an 86 finish, aptly nicknamed “Vulture” went ballistic!  I started the second leg with a couple of deflected darts and a score of 22; Steve hit a 180.  I came back with a 60; Steve hit a 180.  I scored a 100 and then spun around after I passed the oche to watch Steve shoot at the 141.  He missed the triple 20 with his first dart but finished the leg in 11 darts.  In the next leg, on his throw, Steve opened 140, 140, 100 and finished the leg in 14 darts to take the 2-1 advantage.  At that point I wasn’t real stressed – not many players can keep up that sort of scoring for very long.  I just needed to win the 4^th leg, on my throw no less, to make things even and put us into a best-of-three scenario.  That didn’t happen however as I scored a 34 with my second shot and Steve creamed me for it getting the first chance at the double and making it count.  Down 1-3 I fought back to steal Steve’s throw in the 5^th leg and make the match 2-3.  The 6^th leg was tight right to the end, with 60 left I put my first dart sticking straight up with the point in the 5.  I refocused and calmly hit the single 15.  At this point Steve was sitting on 20 and I absolutely needed to hit the 40 to force a 7^th leg.  I stepped to the right but couldn’t get a good line, so I went to the left to come around my vertical first dart – the flight of which was right in front of the double.  I adjusted once, twice then a third time to make sure I’d get passed that dart. I lined up and threw a perfect, crisp dart that hit the board hard, flat and right on the wrong side of the wire.  With 20 left Steve put his first dart way outside the double ten; his second dart way inside the single ten and his third dart smack dead centre of the double 5.  I joked “Did you have to tease me like that?”

This set up an all New Brunswick final between two guys that tied for total points at their provincial championships (Steve beat Jeff in a count back).  Sometimes when you’re watching a match one guy just has all the momentum and Steve was that guy in this match.  Although it was a close tilt right till the end, Steve just seemed to have the swagger of a Champion right from the first dart.  Steve controlled the match for the most part although Jeff made hard charges to get back in position.  In the 8^th leg, with Steve up 4-3, Jeff missed a chance at 62 and Steve earned himself a trip to the World Masters for the second consecutive year by taking the Halifax Open Men’s Singles title.  Well done Steve!

Fair Play

So on that note – let me say something about Steve.  This guy is awesome – he’s funny, genuine and a super nice guy.  But – he’s also one of the most competitive guys you’ll ever meet.  Not many guys can go from joking around with you and having a good time and be ready to beat you senseless on the board faster than this guy.  Before our match I said to him, “Steve buddy, no matter who wins this lets have a good match – no matter what happens, one of us is going on stage.”  Steve just kind of looked at me and say “Yeah.”  But he didn’t really say “Yeah.” His tone and demeanour said “Yeah [sure buddy – I’m about to kick ass!]”  I couldn’t be happier for Steve and I’m looking forward to see him achieve more than he ever has throughout this year.

It’s also worth mentioning what a class act Jeff Smith was in the loss.  Jeff’s one of the most talented players you’ll ever meet – I mean this guy can really throw and he rarely tosses a bad leg let alone match.  After Steve beat him you could tell he was genuinely happy for his New Brunswick team mate.  A lot of great player don’t have the courage to be happy for other players when the win – but Jeff showed he can take a loss as well as he can take a win.  I’ve only seen Jeff play a few times, but I thought he really demonstrated a necessary quality of a true champion in the loss.

The Organizers

A blog about anything to do with Nova Scotia wouldn’t be complete without a comment or two about their leading ladies.  Darlene MacLeod, Helen Ginn, Debbie Lewis-Christmas, Frani Dauphinee, and Dawn Acker put on an outstanding shoot as always.  Absent on this weekend was Kathy Julien who is unfortunately in the hospital and very ill.  They held a fundraiser that weekend and raised a good bit of cash to help Kathy during this difficult time.  Dart players are really great at coming together to help a friend – and this group especially so.  I’ve been to a lot of events in almost every province across the country and I’ve played in nearly 80 something nationally ranked tournaments in the last 6 years.  I can say confidently that Nova Scotia has one of the best run organizations, and thusly tournaments, in the country.  In the business I’m in we spend a lot of time talking about “best in industry,” that’s as an airline, call centre, employer and every facet of our business.  One of the practices we use to get better and improve continuously is shadow and observe other organizations for best practices.  I think a lot could be learned from Darts Nova Scotia and the outstanding program that they have (without provincial funding as I understand it).  That’s not to say that any other province is lacking, but there’s always room for all of us to get better.

All the best!