The Great White Blog
Tropicana World Series of Darts Festival, Las Vegas - June 26 - 30, 2010
My preparation for this tournament started weeks in advance. Myself and Andrew “The Bulldog” Bennett had been putting in 3-5 hours practice a day via Skype. The practice sessions with Andrew seemed to be working as I was very confident with my game. Unknown to us when we booked our family vacation this year to Cancun, the PDC moved the tournament up one week, which meant we only got back one day from our vacation before going to Las Vegas. Obviously, not the best preparation but everybody needs a good vacation. With Heckman, Fatum, Custer and myself, plans were to practice a couple of hours a day as we brought a board but that didn’t happen. With lots of sun and fun, we practiced maybe a couple of hours in the week.
World Cricket Championship – Saturday
First Round - Chris White 3-0 Connley Litton
Second Round – Colin Lloyd 3-1 Chris White
I was looking forward to Cricket cause everyone knows how much I enjoy the game. This being the first Cricket World Championship and me being the 3-time Cricket National Champion, I was pumped! In round 1, I played a guy I didn’t know very well but he was a good player, however, I was able to get past him. Next up was Colin Lloyd who I knew would not be an easy match cause he has been over to American many times and knows the game of cricket very well. Also, Colin is a former #1 player of the world! The match was highly contested with both of us hitting a ton of big numbers and really only a couple of shots being the difference in Colin’s favor.
PDC US Open Players Championship – Sunday
First Round – James Wade 6-1 Chris White
Preparation went great in the morning and I was really feeling good. I was looking forward to the match and I was confident I could give James a run. Although, I lost I was happy with the way I played but unfortunately James was just too tough and he never missed his doubles
Preliminary Round – Dieter Schutsch 6-4 Chris White
This was the most disappointing match of the events as my darts were well grouped and I just missed a couple crucial doubles. Dieter didn’t and I am out!
After a couple days of rough results, Heckman, Carver and myself headed out for a great sushi meal at Caesar’s Palace with one of our sponsors, Koichiro Ueda, SHADE Clothing. Thanks again Koichiro!
Las Vegas Players Championship 2 – Tuesday
Preliminary Round – Chris White 6-1 Scott Henning
First Round – Dan Olson 6-0 Chris White
Preliminary round was straight forward but the first round against Dan Olson was the worst I played during all the events. Congrats to Dan who is a great player and friend from Southern Ontario.
North American Darts Championship – Wednesday
First Round – Chris White 6-1 Richard Hammond Jnr
Second Round – Chris White 6-5 Al Moskwyn
Third Round – Chris White 6-3 Roger Carter
Quarter-Finals – John Part 6-4 Chris White
I knew the North American Championships was the event to get me in the World Championships and having lost in the top 4 two years ago and top 8 last year against Darin Young, I was close. Preparation sucked to say the least – I was warming up in the room but, I just was not feeling it. Maybe it was the days in Cancun or the previous days results but my confidence wasn’t where it needed to be. Literally, an hour before the event, I started hitting some numbers. I walked in the hall 11:55am, as I was #8 seed, to see my draw and was surprised to see Andrew Bennett my practice partner on the same board.
In the first round, I played really well and won in a straightforward match 6-1. The second round, I saw that I was playing Al Moskwyn, who had beaten Joe Swick who is no mug and Andrew Bennett. To be honest, I didn’t know much about Al although he knew about my youth days in Southern Ontario. Before the match, I talked to Jayson Barlow who confirmed Al was someone to watch out for. The match couldn’t have started out better as I raced out to a 5-1 lead but then Al really got going. At 5-3 up, I kicked off the leg with a 177 only to watch Al go out in 11 darts. 5-4 up I kicked off with a 140 only to watch Al take out 108 with me sitting on a double. This made the score 5-5 and I am thinking ‘here we go again’. After 15 darts I was sitting 76 and Al was sitting on 68. Single 20, single 20 and double 18 right in the middle – relief!
In the top 16, I met Roger Carter, one of the all-time US greats and someone I have a lot of respect for. I was able to win this match but not without a battle as I always expect when I play Roger.
In the top 8 I was to meet #1 seed, John Part. John is a long-time friend I have known for many years. We had both struggled with our results in the previous days even though we felt our darts were better than the shown results. I won the bull but only to see John break right away. I won the next two legs to go up 2-1, however, John made it 2-2. The crucial part of the match was with John up 4-3 and I missed a 114 out to level the match at 4-4. John ended up closing the match on his throw 6-4 in a nice 14-dart leg.
Congratulations to John who went on to beat Darin Young in the finals. The weekend was closed out with some great food at Hooter’s but it was nice to get home after Cancun and Vegas. I was completely worn out (I know boohoo-hard life).