Week One Dart Action

Welcome to all players, new and returning, to District 69 Darts for the 2025-2026 season! 

There was a lot of commotion at the beginning of the season, teams restructuring, new team sponsors, venue’s shutting down or in disrepair, requiring another venue to step up HUGE and save the league for the start of the season. 

Due to the short term closure of the Parksville Legion, we will be playing on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for probably another two or three weeks, possibly longer.  We appreciate all players flexibility with this sudden turn of events, the league learned of this situation purely by chance in August, not leaving much time to pivot.  Thank you to the Eagles for agreeing to hosting the league on two nights a week until the Parksville Legion has completed their renovations.

It's unfortunate that the Qualicum Legion has decided to stop sponsoring teams and providing a venue after 40+ years of support.  It is our hope that they work out their administration/financial issues and are able to host two or three teams again in the future.  With the slow erosion of available venues in our community, it becomes that much more important to respect and support the ones who stick by the league.  Keep that in mind when out on a Tuesday/Wednesday night – tip your bartender well, clean up your mess before you leave the venue and thank whoever unlocked the doors for the league. 

I want to start this season’s blog by discussing the new method of reporting the standings and stats.

After a recommendation by Larry McDonald, those in attendance at the AGM debated the current system of reporting percentages & wins over a points system and the motion was voted on and adopted last May.  Captain’s completing the score sheets need do nothing different than they have in the past, the changes occur during the recording of the stats.  Team wins and personal stats are still recorded and will be posted once a month on this blog, with the hope that it satisfies the membership’s need to read that their percentage doesn’t really change that much after the first month of play.  😉 

Now on to reporting the matches…

Tuesday night hosted four teams, two Eagles based teams and two from Parksville Legion.  Taking the boards further from the bar, the former Eagles Hall Eagle Eyes now renamed the Darts of Hazzard under the sponsorship of His & Hers Salon, hosted the few available X-Men and a spare to play thirty-three games of darts under first-night jitters.  Starting off strong, the home team won two of three of the doubles matches, but that is where the magic ended for the Hazzards.  Taking all five of the first set and the bulk of the remaining sets of singles, the X-Men emerged victorious at the end of the match.  Leading the wins for the X-Men, Glenn Dilworth and Rob Sparrow lost only one of six singles each, while league spare, Jolene Swanson, contributed four more wins to the tally.  Glenn pinned the high score of 133, while Pony Moore hit consistently with scores of 100x2 & a 105.  Leading the wins for the home team, new team sponsor Faith Hamilton Thorne giggled her way to three wins in five singles while teammates Heath Mahoney, Colleen Mahoney and Babes Coulter each added two wins each to the total score.  Heath and new teammate, Brody Jenkinson, both hit a 121 to top the scores. 

Final score – His & Hers Darts of Hazzard – 13, Eagles Hall X-Men – 20

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Filling up the remaining available boards, the Parksville Legion Short Sighted Crew hosted the Deep Bay Consulting Oceanside Triples.  Taking the lead early, the Crew won all three doubles matches and seven of the first ten singles sets before the Triples shook off their nerves and mounted a comeback.  Despite dominating the last four sets of singles, the Triples bid to win fell a bit short, with the Short Sighed Crew’s win of the doubles being the deciding factor for the match.  Leading the wins for the Crew, Captain Don Punter pulled in four wins in six singles and topped the scores with a 133, while Jeff Rhode, Peter Bisiker and Kevin Martin were successful in three matches each.  The Triples new team captain, Jim Hood, showed his chops by doubling out four of five singles and co-captain, Keith Reimer, topped the scores with a 129 and 123. 

Final score – Parksville Legion Short Sighted Crew – 18, Deep Bay Consulting Oceanside Triples 15

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday night accommodated the revamped Dart Vaders, sponsored by the French Creek Pub, to host the Eagles Hall Straight Arrows to a nail-biting match of darts.  The Straight Arrows, with two brand new to the league players, started off the match with a whitewash in the doubles, but failed to capitalize on their momentum through to the end of the night, allowing their opponents to gain wins over the first four sets. Both teams had a five-one win, but it was the win by Arrow Mike Beno in the fourth set that put the Arrows ahead in the end.  Leading the wins for the Arrows, newcomer Rob Clark’s audition was successful, displaying his check out skills in volume and scores.  He won four of his five singles and had the first Men’s High Out for the season with a 118 out.  The Dart Vader Kens topped their team scores, with Ken Ermantrout and Ken Hayes contributing four wins in six games to the total team score.  Ken Hayes wired a 180 to achieve top score of 135, no doubt there will be 180’s in Ken’s future games. 

Final score – French Creek Pub Dart Vaders – 16, Eagles Hall Straight Arrows – 17

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The biggest team mash-up of the new season, the self-sponsored Bashers, consists of a former Bristle Basher, a handful of Respect-a-bulls, two new players and a team spare.  The Bashers hosted the re-monikered Shooters – now known as the Rotor Maxx Renegades – to thirty-three games of 501.  The Shooters may have changed their name and added a former Bristle Basher, but they are still the same elite team they’ve been for the past five or so years, tough to get past them in wins.  Leading the outs for the Renegades, Rocky Paquette was undefeated in five matches, while Terry Strawson hit scores of 100x2, 135 and 140 to top the team high scores for the evening.  Thom Ford, Larry MacDonald and Terry contributed four wins each.  George Wallis pulled no punches in his freshman match, hitting the first 180 for the season in his match against Basher Anita Hopps.  Congrats George, more to follow, we’re sure!  Leading the wins for the Bashers Joltin’ Joe Fortune, Harry Ross and spare, Darcy Guenette, all pulled two wins each away from the marauding Renegades.  Joe hit consistently with scores with 100, 119 and a 121 and Darcy earned his keep for the week, hitting a 125 in his winning match against Renegade George.

Final score - The Bashers – 8, Rotor Maxx Renegades – 25

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~