{"id":6068,"date":"2023-09-28T13:38:44","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T13:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/2023\/09\/column-hr428-a-new-day\/"},"modified":"2024-02-14T22:17:48","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T22:17:48","slug":"column-hr428-a-new-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/2023\/09\/column-hr428-a-new-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Column #HR428 A NEW DAY?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday, September 28, 2023
\n<\/strong>Column HR428\u00a0<\/strong>
\nA NEW DAY?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1965, Nina Simone\u00a0had a big hit with\u00a0“Feeling Good\u201d. \u00a0The song was from the play \u201cThe Roar of the Greasepaint \u2013 The Smell of the Crowd.\u201d\u00a0 Many years later, Canadian Michael Bubl\u00e9 released his version that became an instant hit.\u00a0 He added his own unique style.\u00a0 As Day 2 of the World Cup dawned, many darters were looking forward to:\u00a0
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a new dawn
\nIt’s a new day
\nIt’s a new life
\nFor me
\nAnd I’m feeling good
\nI’m feeling good.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The second day of the World Cup is redemption day for darters that escaped Day #1 with expectations still in place and ready to fight.<\/p>\n

The Old Dart Coach\u2019s World Cup memories invaded what\u2019s left of his mind while in the arms of Morpheus last evening.\u00a0 The scene was a long bus ride somewhere in New Zealand for World Cup III in Nelson which is a designation town for no one.<\/p>\n

There were two buses on this ADO sponsored trip.\u00a0 The ODC was lucky to be on a bus full of Texans led by the late \u201cBig\u201d Jerry Smith.\u00a0 The other bus contained the \u201cHoi polloi<\/em>\u201d and ADO officials, parts interchangeable. \u00a0During one particularly long stretch the Texans became restless calling for \u201cbeer!\u201d\u00a0 The bus driver was unaffected.<\/p>\n

Then came a change in tactics.\u00a0 \u201cWe need to use the restroom\u2026 NOW!.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan worked.\u00a0 The bus stopped at a four-corner sheep camp containing a post office, gas station, small grocery store and a pub.\u00a0 The thirsty stormed the pub and found it populated with sheep guys in rubber boots (proving the rumor is true). \u00a0Beer was\u00a0ordered\u00a0Texan-style.\u00a0 When barely finished with their third round, the bus driver appeared at the door warning:\u00a0“The bus is leaving.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Like a tsunami, a plan was hatched to buy cases of beer – making the rest of the trip bearable.\u00a0 Each person bought a case (20 bottles) and headed out the door only to find the bus driver blocking the buses door.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cAlcohol is not allowed on buses in New Zealand.\u00a0 It\u2019s the law.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Quicker than you can say \u201cFoxtrot Oscar\u201d the crew made a quick left – to the back of the bus where a window was open. \u00a0The cases of beer were passed in.\u00a0 The rest of the trip was fun, but not for the bus driver.\u00a0 The next day he was a no-show.\u00a0 We welcomed a new driver, Bruce, which is another story.\u00a0 He fit in.<\/p>\n

One that was happy with Day #1 was New Zealand\u2019s Haupai Puha.\u00a0 He\u2019s now in the top 8 of the men\u2019s singles and in the semis of the pairs with Ben Robb.\u00a0 Never has a player or players from Oceana (Australia\/New Zealand) won an event gold other than Aussies Keith Sullivan and Wayne Weening (1991) and Anthony Fleet and Geoff Kime (2009)\u00a0in the pairs.\u00a0\u00a0No player from New Zealand has ever won Gold in World Cup history.\u00a0 Puha has two chances.<\/p>\n

The top 8 of the men\u2019s\u00a0singles\u00a0is surprising as no country has two players alive. \u00a0More surprising is not one English player made the cut.\u00a0 Joining Puha in the top 8 of the men\u2019s singles are North American\u2019s Bruce Robbins (USA) and Robbie Mills (Canada).\u00a0 Australia is represented by Brandon Weening which has papa proud.\u00a0 Maybe saying,\u00a0\u201cMate that\u2019s my son.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0Never has a father and son both won World Cup Gold.<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s singles at 8 going to 4 (semifinals) has Haupai Puta vs. Carlos Arcla (Catalonia) with the victor playing the winner of Berry van Peer (Netherlands) and Bruse Robbins (USA).\u00a0 The other side of the draw has Aussie Brandon Weening vs. Robbie Mills (Canada) and Frank Burns (Germany) vs. Markus Straub (Austria).\u00a0 Robbins can be the first Yank since Nickey Virachkul (World Cup II) to win singles Gold.\u00a0 The Yanks had chances, but the “Pucker Factor” affected the same player twice.\u00a0 Name withheld cause he\u2019s a jerk.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s team event is a “Cluster Faulk” – which the ODC found out should be a single word.\u00a0 The best guess is that the top 16 teams will play Friday to the Sunday finals.\u00a0 The 16, at press time, were not listed after Wednesday’s round robin.\u00a0 England moved on with a resurgent USA probably in the top 16 also.\u00a0 The USA lost only one match, a 9-7 decision to undefeated Sweden.\u00a0 Finland\u2019s women went undefeated as did Australia.<\/p>\n

It was not a good day for the ladies of \u201cOh Canada\u201d as they lost two matches – one 9-6 to Belgium and the other to undefeated Switzerland 9-4.\u00a0 That means they\u2019re out of the team event.\u00a0\u00a0Tomorrow, the men\u2019s teams will take the stage playing round-robin to the last 32 as the women\u2019s pairs plays down to and including the semifinals.<\/p>\n

The points towards the Gold now become important because only countries that are done with an event score points.\u00a0 The current men\u2019s leaders are Croatia (26), Northern Ireland (26) and Hungary (21) and Austria (20).\u00a0 Austria can pick up points as they are alive in singles and doubles.\u00a0 Watch New Zealand as they are in quarter finals in 2 events.<\/p>\n

On the distaff side Belgium leads both Japan and Sweden by 2 points. \u00a0Belgium has no one alive in the ladies\u2019 singles while England has two.\u00a0 England also has no points – that will change on finals day when they will be in the pairs and team finals.\u00a0 Bet the ranch on the English women to repeat…<\/p>\n

One last Nelson World Cup III tale…<\/p>\n

The ODC got the flu (wrongly accused by some of being over served) and spent the last day of the Cup either in bed or \u201cbarking into the porcelain microphone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final day, a Sunday, he arose from the dead with a terrible thirst.\u00a0 Finding a little shop, he bought two small cartons of milk and two cans of Ginger Ale.\u00a0 Within seconds of devouring the last of the fluids, the ODC knew they were coming back up…<\/p>\n

As the church bells rang, the ODC deposited what was in his stomach in the gutter.\u00a0 A lady with two small girls in their Sunday finest was heard to say,\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t look at the horrid man.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Over time, the ODC became good friends with the \u201calways\u201d New Zealand boss Matt –\u00a0of course telling him the story.\u00a0 Matt was from Nelson and a good friend of the mayors.\u00a0 When the Pacific Cup hit Auckland, Matt presented the ODC with a plaque signed by the Mayor of Nelson – making the ODC an honorary citizen.\u00a0 How about that?<\/p>\n

Stay thirsty my friends.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1965, Nina Simone\u00a0had a big hit with\u00a0“Feeling Good\u201d. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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Reed","author_link":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/author\/howie-reed\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"In 1965, Nina Simone\u00a0had a big hit with\u00a0\"Feeling Good\u201d. \u00a0","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\/6068","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=6068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6101,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6068\/revisions\/6101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6068"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=6068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}