Flooding, Flickering Lights, Tornado, Evacuation, Alarms – another Regional in the books

Flooding, Flickering Lights, Tornado, Evacuation, Alarms – another Regional in the books
By Karl Remick, ADA VP

Let’s take it back one year ago, Mid America Regional March 6^th – 8^th 2015.  After driving through snow, rain, ice and sleet – not to mention being stranded on highway 55 South for over an hour with traffic at a dead stop, we finally made it to Southland Park in West Memphis.  When we got there, the local Memphis folks joked, stating that the weather only gets that bad about 3 times a year!  So of course one of the worst times happened on an ADA weekend.

So let’s fast forward to 2016: our crew pulled into blue skies and mild temperatures.  “What a relief!” said Kevin Malenfant of USA Darts Stream; or did he speak too soon!?!?!  Let’s circle back to that though.

Friday kicked off the weekend with an all ADA Professional Doubles event.  Men and women played separately.  This is the first time we changed the outline from Pro/AM teams to all ADA Professionals.  On the Men’s side; Greg Finley & James Beyers (IL), defeated Jesse Beach & Mike Sarandos (VA). While on the Women’s side; Bonnie Wei & Holly Dye (VA), beat out Ashley Delano & Becky Obrecht (MO).  For those Members not watching the Professionals battle it out;  an Open Doubles 501 event was added to the mix.  Finishing up the night was our Blind Draw Doubles, with 100 members in it!  Congratulations to Jacque Hebert & James Beyers for First Place!  James had an excellent first night at the Regional!

Saturday brought on a full day of cricket; including events such as Men’s and Women’s Doubles, Singles, and then a Blind Draw to finish off the night.  Cricket wasn’t the only thing that was constant that day though, and as the old saying goes, “When it rains, it pours.”  Pour it did; so much that spots of the ceiling of the ballroom and surrounding areas outside the hall couldn’t hold that much water.  With such massive amounts of rain coming down so quickly; it didn’t take long to start leaking through!  Accompanying the rain, came flash flood warnings and 37 MPH wind gusts that flickered the power a few times; and knocked it out at the nearby hotels.  Flickering lights were throughout the second half of events.  Dart players are a lot of things, but at the top of the list is dedicated!  So without blinking an eye they played through all the elements and distractions.

The top finishers of the day were: Nichole Piersing (TN) winning the Open Women’s Singles Cricket Soft-Tip, and the Neutralizer Women’s Doubles Cricket Soft-Tip with partner Mary Nails (TN).  On the Men’s side, Saturday Open Mens Doubles Cricket Soft-Tip: Nahaniel Fowler/Pat Kron (MO) who also won the previous day in the open 501 doubles.  What a great doubles team to watch!  Michael Bilek & Greg Finley Jr (IL) won Saturday night in the Blind Draw Doubles, defeating Ricky Jackson (MS) & Craig Luter (MO).

With the Sunday sun coming up and drying off the soaked grounds of Southland Park Gaming and Racing; our Professionals grabbed a coffee or drink of their choice and began warming up for the Professional Men’s/Women’s Singles 501.  This event is a best of seven games, 501 open in/double out/split bull. The 1^st place winners were Mike Sarandos (VA) and Bonnie Wei (VA).

One event down, two more to go for Sunday Funday: Mixed Triples and Men’s/Women’s Singles.  Due the casino taking a beating the night before from all the harsh weather, we ended up with some delays. A rather large ceiling tile, soaked with rain water, gave way and came crashing down near the throw area.  Luckily, no one was severely hurt.  The fantastic casino staff under our liason, Preston Printup, came in a flash.  After doing some spot checking, cleaning, and surveying; the regional was back on track!  Thank you Preston for everything you and your staff have done!

As we went into the afternoon; a tornado warning made it’s way through!  Flashing emergency lights and evacuation messages filled the room, but nothing can stop a dedicated darter!  Although, we were told by the casino staff there was no need to evacuate; they were just resetting their emergency systems from the power outage on Saturday.  The tornado watch was real, but luckily we were just outside of the touchdown area.  Whew!

One previous winner from another weekend event made up the 1^st Place Neutralizer Mixed Triples team of Mary Nails/Kevin Ferrell/James Pyron (TN).  Jeff H Long/Suzie Hall/Jon Foreman (TX) finished 1^st in Open Mixed Triples.

On the Men’s Singles events, both Neutralizer and Open each winner came from Texas: Keith A Williams on the Neutralizer side and Jon Foreman in Open.  Like the Men’s finalists, the women also can from the same state, Tennessee.  Nichole Piersing, mentioned multiple times above, won 1^st in Open.  Making her first appearance in an ADA Event brought good luck to Manda Kralis (TN) finishing 1^st on the Neutralizer side.

Sunday Open Mens Singles 501 Soft-Tip
1st- Jon Foreman

Sunday Neutralizer Mens Singles 301 Soft-Tip
1st- Keith Williams

A huge thanks to Dynasty Darts and their crew for being the official Mid-America Regional vendor the second year in a row!  Also, to our USA Darts Streamer and now Internet extraordinary, Kevin Malenfant, for streaming and assisting the casino in fixing their internet issues throughout the weekend!  Of course, we couldn’t play on Radikal USA machines without Ed “Mr Happy” McCammack who hauled, set up, broke down and brought back these excellent machines for our weekend!  A special thanks to all of our Members and ADA Representatives in attendance, and for supporting our ADA Family: Kim Funk, JD & Holly Larson, Erin Fetzer, Debbie Coffey, Rich Lough, Robert Young, Kevin Graham and Holly Dye.

See you back at Southland Park in 2017……weather permitting

Complete Regional Results here: https://www.adadarters.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2016-Mid-America-Regional-Results.txt