
On Friday Sandy topped Paula in the second round and rolled through the competition never dropping a leg on her way to the 301 Title. In the wee hours of Sunday morning the event was running extremely late, which prompted this picture at about 2:00 AM when they both reached the Finals of the BDO Ranked 501 Singles. Sandy would win the event 4-2 over Paula and earn her 5th Singles Title on the season. The victory qualifies her for the Winmau World Masters to be held later this year in England. On Sunday Paula knocked Sandy out in the Top 8 and would go on to win the event.
After the late Singles Finals Sandy teamed up with Danny Delfino and Lee Gilreath to somehow reach the Finals of Mixed Triples, mostly on fumes where they came up just short and settled for 2nd Place. There was actually an event scheduled after Triples which had to be rescheduled for Sunday due to extreme lateness. While this was good because nobody wanted to get it in at 4:00 AM, it would also be bad as Sandy had to cancel the late starting Mixed Cricket Doubles with Danny Delfino and get on to the long 7 hour car ride home. She and Danny finished Top 8 in the 501 Mixed doubles on Saturday. She also teamed up with Nichole Graves in the Sunday morning Adult/Youth event, unfortunately she didn't have much in the tank for the 9:00 AM event after the very late finish only hours before.
Through the years this event has been one of the best managed tournaments on the American dart scene but this year it simply came off the rails at every turn. They lost their regular hotel venue and had to settle for a smaller venue where they couldn't set up as many boards. The Red Eye Rhino staff were on hand for the first time to stream the tournament but this meant more space was needed and even less boards were set up. To compound the problem they recycled Ladies for the first event of Saturday which got the tournament behind by almost 2 hours right out of the box. They also hand to redraw the BDO Ladies Singles 501 after they had begun calling matches because they had not added the seeded players into the bracket, this further complicated things and added another hour delay. The staff in Huntsville were great and worked through all the issues with a smile on their face, a testament to the great people there. I'm sure they will correct their issues for next year and this year's event will be the exception rather than the rule.
Sandy's incredible sponsors always support her as she chases her dart dreams. A huge shout out goes to Winmau, L-Style Global, Flying Bull Darts and Dutchman Darts for their amazing products which are vital to Sandy's success.