{"id":6014,"date":"2022-11-10T14:36:54","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T14:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/2022\/11\/column-379-a-pause-for-the-cause\/"},"modified":"2024-02-14T22:18:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T22:18:08","slug":"column-379-a-pause-for-the-cause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/2022\/11\/column-379-a-pause-for-the-cause\/","title":{"rendered":"Column #379  A Pause for the Cause"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Thursday, November 10, 2022<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Column HR380<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>A Pause for the Cause<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Most sports participants\u00a0take brief respites from the grind of competition.\u00a0\u00a0Darts kinda took a deep breath last weekend…<\/p>\n<p>Across the big pond was the final chance to qualify for the PDC (How\u2019s Your ?) Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts starting this weekend.\u00a0 It\u2019ll be fun listening\u00a0to John McDonald pronounce Wolverhampton.\u00a0 ‘Tis the last TV biggie before the World Championships and\u00a0with \u00a3650,000 in the pot and \u00a3150,000 to the winner it\u2019s a big deal.<\/p>\n<p>The Slam runs a full week plus a day.<\/p>\n<p>Gerwyn Price defends.\u00a0\u00a0The 32-person field\u00a0is\u00a0divided into eight groups of four playing round robin.\u00a0 With groups,\u00a0like in the\u00a0Soccer World Cup, there\u2019s\u00a0usually a \u201cdeath group\u201d.\u00a0 Not this time – although Group B with Danny Noppert, Simon Whitlock, Mensur Suljovic and Christian Perez could qualify with the\u00a0usual caveat that all need to play well.\u00a0 DAH.<\/p>\n<p>Two ladies and Leonard Gates are in the field.\u00a0\u00a0Lisa Ashton faces Michael Smith to start.\u00a0\u00a0Fallon Sherrock again\u00a0plays Peter Wright – in their last TV encounter Ms. Sherrock fell just a few stray darts short of a win.\u00a0 Yank Leonard Gates starts with Jonny Clayton.\u00a0\u00a0Gates can win if he doesn\u2019t have to count.\u00a0 Toeing the Oche will have early results next week.\u00a0 Action starts this Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Memories of New Mexico and the New Mexico Open (“Oh no, here again goes the old geezer taking a trip back in his fading memory\u201d)…<\/p>\n<p>The State of New Mexico is the\u00a0Land of Enchantment.\u00a0 It\u2019s unique.\u00a0\u00a0A friend and the Old Dart Coach left the Colorado Open in Denver by car on a Monday morning and headed to Phoenix for the Roadrunner Classic.\u00a0 In the early afternoon came a pitstop\u00a0just across the New Mexico line – at a little spot\u00a0comprised of a welcoming sign and an Artic Freeze.<\/p>\n<p>The Artic Freeze was empty except for two Native American teenagers at a table.\u00a0 The ordering window was devoid of human life…<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t worry guys, someone will show up soon\u201d advised one of the teenagers.<\/p>\n<p>Someone did.\u00a0 Order placed.<\/p>\n<p>Then, one of the Native Americans went to the window.\u00a0 His buddy said,\u00a0\u201cGet me a small coke.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo I look like Mother Teresa to you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Teenager doing stick.\u00a0 Great.<\/p>\n<p>We were on Route 66.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt winds from Chicago to LA, more than two thousand miles all the way, get your kicks on Route 66.”\u00a0 The song was by Bobby Troup, should you axe.<\/p>\n<p>We spent the night in Gallup at the famous El Rey Court Hotel – a movie star hangout in the 1940s and 1950s when shooting cowboy movies in the area.<\/p>\n<p>We asked the desk clerk about good Mexican food.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe have the best\u201d…<\/p>\n<p>It was a big restaurant with a long bar as\u00a0barren as the Gobi.\u00a0 A waitress appeared.\u00a0 We ordered chips, bean dip and two ice cold beers.<\/p>\n<p>“No can do beer.\u00a0 Our liquor license was suspended.\u00a0 Ends tomorrow.”<\/p>\n<p>“How can you have Mexican food with no beer?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHoney, walk across the street.\u00a0 Buy your beer.\u00a0 Put it in a paper bag.\u00a0 Bring it back put it under the table.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ll bring you a bucket of ice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Off we go…<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe’d like a 6-pack of Coors (we knew no better) – please but it in a bag.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGuess you\u2019re eating dinner across the street…\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The New Mexican Open was famous for the Temperance Singles.\u00a0\u00a0It started at 10:00 AM\u00a0on Sunday.\u00a0\u00a0State law didn\u2019t allow liquor service until 1:00 PM…<\/p>\n<p>We arrived at 9:00 AM and\u00a0complained about no \u201caiming fluid\u201d – when Lois Miller (Los Angeles) said, “want some orange juice?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo thank you.\u00a0 I have ORANGE juice in the thermos.”<\/p>\n<p>Then the light bulb shone brightly.\u00a0\u00a0<em>Russian<\/em>\u00a0orange juice.\u00a0 Others had Russian tomato juice.\u00a0 The tungsten God works in mysterious ways.<\/p>\n<p>The Temperance may be gone.\u00a0\u00a0Rather than seeking aiming fluid, the ladies had to deal with\u00a0Brenda Roush.\u00a0 She hit the darting lottery – having some kind of tournament.\u00a0\u00a0Roush took one singles and was runner-up in another.\u00a0 She took one women’s doubles with partner\u00a0Rene Ripol and was runner up in the other.\u00a0 Then, a mixed triples title.\u00a0\u00a0WOW.<\/p>\n<p>More recently, another lady\u00a0had herself one of those weekends\u00a0on the beach of Ft. Walton Beach, Florida.\u00a0 It was the 3<sup>rd<\/sup>\u00a0Battle on the Beach, a $20,000 soft tip event.\u00a0\u00a0Paula \u201cThe Titian Tornado\u201d Murphy\u00a0was \u201cen fuego\u201d\u00a0winning two singles and a pair of doubles\u00a0with Kimberly Panti.\u00a0\u00a0WOW. \u00a0How about a bottle of Gallo Chablis in a paper bag?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChainsaw\u201d Joe Cheney took a week off from steel darts for a trip to the dark side of machine darts.\u00a0 He added another \u201cLaurence Welk\u201d to his many laurels.\u00a0\u00a0In the cricket he lost in the main draw sending him to the loser’s round.\u00a0 Escaping the loser’s tag, he found himself in the final-final against\u00a0Kenny Doyle.<\/p>\n<p>Doyle is\u00a0alternately\u00a0described as either a \u201cwhite-bearded flip-flop-wearing darter\u201d or a “61-year-old beast of a dart thrower from Florida.”<\/p>\n<p>Doyle, sans flip-flops and tossing flame used his first three trips to the oche in the final throwing 9, 9, 7.\u00a0 Cheney came back to take the leg, then rolled to a 3-0 set win.\u00a0\u00a0Coming from the losers round he needed two sets for the win.\u00a0 He took the second set 3-1.\u00a0 Cheney won 6-1 against the best.<\/p>\n<p>Cheney finished runner up in the 501 losing to\u00a0Seth Stefano.\u00a0 Cheney won the first when Stefano scooped up two on the trot for the win (2-1, 2-1).<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s one darter that never takes a pause for the cause – like the old Timex commercial he just \u201ckeeps on ticking\u201d…<\/p>\n<p>If Larry \u201cThe Eagle\u201d Butler, was performing at one of the showrooms on Las Vegas Strip, the marquee outside would need only display “LARRY.”\u00a0\u00a0In darts he\u2019s the equivalent of showbiz stars Frank, Cher and Sammy.<\/p>\n<p>Last weekend, there was a bundle of players at\u00a0the second-to-last DPC (Dart Players Chicago) event of the year.\u00a0\u00a0The occasion saw Butler end the reign and unbeaten streak of Jason “The Bearded Dart Guy” Watt with a 7-3 win.<\/p>\n<p>Stay thirsty my friends.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most sports participants\u00a0take brief respites from the grind of 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Reed","author_link":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/author\/howie-reed\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Most sports participants\u00a0take brief respites from the grind of competition...","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":17,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"howie-reed","display_name":"Howie Reed","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/111howie.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/111howie.jpg"},"first_name":"Howie","last_name":"Reed","user_url":"http:\/\/www.dartoidsworld.com","job_title":"","description":"Astute, often controversial, and always humorous, the Old Dart Coach, Howie Reed (a former rodeo cowboy and advertising executive), is heralded as the Dean of Darts Chroniclers - the most prolific and widely followed writer ever about our sport.  He goes back decades with the legends and knows where the skeletons are buried (just ask any of the ADO and WDF old-timers!).  Here are four well-known facts about the Old Dart Coach: 1) he is a Republican, 2) he loves the ladies, 3) he can drink most anybody under the table, and 4) he throws darts as bad as Dartoid."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6147,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6014\/revisions\/6147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6014"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=6014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}