LAS VEGAS OPEN 2012 - Anne Kramer

This event is always one of the best events to kick off the year. Also known as the annual Fleetwood Memorial tournament, the event is now run by the American Darts Organization due to the passing of Della Fleetwood in December of 2010. The loss of Tom and Della was not only a very personal loss for many players, but a huge loss to the darting world.

This year is the first year that we are travelling to the event by plane since our move to Central New York. We were looking at travelling for about 12 hours total, but lucky for us, we picked up three hours due to the time change. But what an adventure it started out to be! One thing everyone failed to tell us after we moved was that Syracuse Airport is a very SMALL airport and we found out that we had to take what was quaintly termed a “puddle jumper” all the way to Cleveland, Ohio. I never really have had the opportunity to travel much, and my idea of travel was a 727 and above, not something so crazy looking as a “puddle jumper”! I had never been on a plane with propellers before! I knew this was going to be one crazy trip! We survived, none the worse for wear and spent a beautiful weekend of 60-70 degree weather, which was quite a change from Central New York for sure!

The event weekend begins on Friday morning with the start of the Cricket National Championships. A total of 53 men and 26 women travelled from all over the United States to compete in the national playoff.  After an all day round robin and ending with a knockout round, the winners and 2012 Cricket National Champions are Darin Young of Pennsylvania and Shea Reynolds from Florida. Fellow Shot! Player, Scotty Burnett finished in the top 4. I was fortunate enough to win my regional in California before moving to New York, so that I could play in this event. And I have to say that I was not physically ready for such a grueling and long day. Sadly, my day started at 3:30 am, which was my normal wake up time of 6:30 am at home. My silly brain was ready to get up and go to work and would not listen to me explain about the time change. I put a lot of great shots together, but failed to put together the simple shots when I needed them. I did not fair as well as I had hoped, but it was a great experience to finally be able to compete in the event and I am hoping to be able to compete in it again in the coming years as my game progresses.

Later in the evening, the tournament began with it’s Friday night Luck of the Draw. The winners when it was all said and done were Haruki Muramatsu from Japan and Jeff Fluty from Ohio. After playing the Cricket event all day, I chose to sit this one out and relax with my friends.

Saturday morning began with the Men’s Cricket Doubles, which was won by the team from Japan, Haruki Muramatsu and Morihiro Hashimoto. Most people would recognize Morihiro as the player from Japan that played Phil Taylor in the first round of the PDC World Championships last December. Ladies Double 501 came up right after the men began play and at the end of the event, the winners were Stacy Bromberg from Nevada and Marilyn Popp from Delaware.

Saturday afternoon took us into Men’s and Ladies 501 Singles. The Men’s Singles was won by Howard Myers of Southern California and the Ladies Singles was won by Cindy Pardy from Canada. Fellow Shot! player Scotty Burnett finished in the top 4 and I was able to finish in the top 32. I was happy with this, as my first round match was one of the top lady players in the USA that I had never been able to win against.  Lady luck was on my side that match and I pulled out the win.  Saturday night brought the Mixed Triples, which is always fun, but unfortunately, my hubby and I did not have a partner, so were not able to play. The event was eventually won by David Fatum of Arizona, Ray Carver of Illinois and Andrea Taylor of Texas.

Sunday morning brought us one doubles event, the Men’s 501 Doubles. The event does not host a second ladies doubles event, much to the dismay of all the ladies in attendance. The Men’s Doubles was won by Vegar Elvevoll and Stig Knudsen, who traveled all the way from Norway to play. Again, fellow Shot! Player Scotty Burnett and his partner Allen Nutter finished in the top 4.

Sunday afternoon brought us Men’s and Ladies Cricket Singles, which was won by Jim Widmayer from New York and Canada’s own Cindy Pardy.  Once again, I was able to finish in the top 32.

The final event of the day was the Mixed Doubles, which was won by Joe Chaney and Sandy Haas, both from Tennessee.

As usual, the event was a great time for all involved,  and we all look forward to attending again next January. This event is one that should be scheduled in for any player to attend.