
Thursday brought the ADO Cricket National Championship and turned out to be a very long day. Sandy was inconsistent but played well enough to come out of her bracket. First up, the talented Lisa Yee, who had went 24-0 in her bracket. It was a tough match but Sandy advanced to meet defending Champion Robin Curry in the Semi-Finals. She again advanced to meet Paula Murphy in the Finals. This was her 13th trip to the Vegas Nationals and 13 years ago she and Paula also met for the title. Paula proved to be in top form and set a blistering pace to claim the Title.
Sandy had planned to sit out the 501 Nationals on Friday, trying to not over do it, but when she is around darts she just wants to play. After mulling it over she ended up playing and again came out of her bracket into the knockout rounds. She topped the talented, up and coming player Dani Warmack in the first round and again met Lisa Yee, this time in the Semi-Finals. She was running on fumes at this point but somehow managed to win and reach the Finals. Her endurance began to waiver as did her darts. Missing doubles is just something you can't do against stiff competition and expect to win. Congratulations to Julie Weger on her first ADO National Championship as Sandy again settled for the runner-up spot.
She skipped Friday's Blind Draw but was up bright and early for 501 Singles on Saturday where she made a run to the Top 16, losing out to the eventual Champion Paula Murphy. She and Kelly Meares teamed up in Cricket Doubles to reach the Top 8 and her a Robbie Phillips found a local player to reach the Top 16 of Mixed Trips.
I really thought she would skip Ladies Single Cricket on Sunday but she again tried to endure before losing the awesome Stacey Pace in the 2nd round. It turned out to be a blessing of sorts as she got to rest a bit between events. She and Kelly would reach Top 4 in 501 Doubles as would she a Robbie in 501 Mixed Doubles. She honestly can't remember a tournament that was this difficult. The Las Vegas Open is always the toughest room for the Ladies in American darts. all the top Americans and Canadians are there as well as strong showing from the Asian and English players.
Many thanks to her incredible sponsors, Winmau, who makes her signature darts and their US distributor Dutchman Darts. L - Style Global who makes her signature flights and carbon shafts and the great people over at Magic Wear who design and produce her quality sublimation dart shirts.