Dart players around the Central Lakes area gathered on 7th October 2023 for their annual Central Lakes Regional Tournament. The event saw 40 players from the surrounding regions of Queenstown, Wanaka, Alexandra, Glenorchy and Cromwell gather to compete for ultimate bragging rights.
Darryn gave us a run down on their day of darts as well as some pretty good tips on how to get your own dart event up and running and how to attract some new businesses and players to your club.
“We are trying to make this tournament like how you see it on T.V., with good quality trophies, new dartboards and walk in song for the finals. The experience of playing in front of a big crowd goes a long way for our players to get to the next level.”
Hardware for the day included 12 boards (BLADE5 Dual Cores and Gladiator III’s), Target Corona Lighting Systems, One80 Dartboard Surrounds, Target Scoring Tablet Holders and Lenovo Tablets with Nakka scoring and live stats.
Of course, it goes without saying that plenty of time and effort goes into getting an event like this off the ground, but done right, you can reap the rewards in new club sponsorships and encouraging new players to your club.
For Darryn and the team, the hard work started two months out with promoting the event on social media. Getting tournament and raffle sponsors on board took about a month to facilitate, followed by a second month of advertising their sponsors and the upcoming event. About 60 flyers were distributed into businesses around the region to promote the sport by getting new players to play with the hope of continuing to play within the clubs involved. As well as attendance at the event, the local clubs had aims of strengthening their region and individual clubs at the same time. The event venue took two weeks to set up and the major event costs were new boards and trophies.
Darryn tells us that “As with all tournaments you could see a few nerves at the start of the day but when the beers kicked in, it was game on! The energy levels (especially from the ladies) were amazing!
Darts is an individual sport so it’s nice to see the support and encouragement of everyone which makes the day so much more enjoyable when you feel like you’re part of a team.”
Whilst a great day was had by all, bragging rights belong to the following darters:
Ladies’ Champion - Christine van der Velden
Ladies’ Runner up - Maria Arhanic
Ladies’ 3rd equal – Carrie Egerton, Fran Dustin
Men’s Champion – John Yates
Men’s Runner up – Ben Olive
Men’s 3rd equal – Darryn van der Velden, Mike Buttar
Men’s Consolation Winner – Marvin Meana
Men’s Consolation Runner up – David Marshall
A super special mention to Marvin Meana, being his first time playing in a tournament and coming away with the Men’s Consolation win, watch out for him next year! “This shows all the garage players out there to come and play, you’re better than you think!” Says Darryn.
Darryn and the Central Lakes teams would like to thank all their sponsors for making this event possible. “With the support our of sponsors it gave us the ability to try and make this a professional tournament. The only thing we were missing was a T.V crew and 9 darter!”
Worth a laugh on the day, the Mystery Box raffle contained a fake p00. Proving that sometimes the Mystery Box isn’t what you hope for!
Here’s an awesome tip, with Darryn and the team’s hard work in scouting for local business sponsorships for this event, they were able to lock in some future business events at their club. Local businesses have signed up to have their Christmas functions at the club in a Battle of the Business style event. This can be a great way of attracting new players to the sport and specifically to your club!
