Results From The 2009 King Of The Hill II Toronto Dart Tournament

Bernie Miller: King of the Hill

When we did the first King of the Hill last summer with 25 players, we never knew if we'd have enough interest for another one, let alone one with 80 players from all around the GTA and about 45 spectators staying around to watch the final match.

With a great mix of local and southern Ontario players, we'd estimate that around a third of KOTH2 players had never been in tournament play before. Add into the mix a group of 12 or so highly experienced veterans, including some recent international players, and this was a great day for darts at every level.

Visitors:

Thanks to all who came out to the event to watch, and ended up enjoying some thoroughly entertaining matches, including Darts Ontario President Tim Venn from Barrie, along with some wives and spouses from the Barrie and Bradford areas, and even a couple or two from Toronto. We were glad we could give this event to the darters of Toronto, and look forward to the next one.


The Tourney:

The tourney started off with 16 groups of 5 players in Round Robin play, for a total of 80, with the top 2 from each group advancing to a group of 32. And with so many great players, including many former and current Team Ontario as well as even a few international players, there were a lot of matches to watch even before we got to the elimination rounds.

In fact, since the groups were drawn completely at random, we had a few Super Groups stacked with talent where great players would have to work hard to get out of their groups.

Key Matches:

There were no real upsets in the Rond Robin, other than a tough group 12 where Al Bouchie, Ted Morris, Bong Faldas, and Dave Emlay all battled it out for 2 spots. Al and Ted eventually outlasted the other opponents, with Al tying with Bong, but advancing due to the take-back rule on head-to-head play.

After the round robin, we had a few good match-ups: Adam Bernard vs. Dan Olson with Dan advancing, John Morrison vs. Doug Scanlon with Morrison advancing, and Paul Carlsen narrowly edging the first KOTH Mark Almeroth to make it to the round of 8.

Our final 8 had some notable names in it and we'll list them in no particular order: Don King, Paul Carlsen, Ted Morris, John Morrison, Bernie Miller, Gord Mills, Dan Olson and Chris Scutt, who went on to become Provincial Champion the week after KOTH2.

In fact, the final 8 looked more like a provincial finals than a local tournament, and we knew we were in for some good darts - and we didn't have to wait long. Dan Olson, who spent a season recently playing in England, faced John Morrision in his round of 8 match. Dan opened up the third leg with a 180, followed with another 180, to put the crowd on notice something special might be happening. His 7th dart also found the triple 20 - for 7 straight triples - and the path to a perfect game. Unfortunately his next dart sailed a little high over the trip 19, to scratch the run, but still make it a spectacular 10-dart leg. The crowd broke out into appreciative applause for probably the best live leg of darts most of them had ever seen.

Congratulations to Gord Mills & Chris Scutt for making the semi-finals.

Click here for larger Top 32 Bracket

We'd like to thank:

Thanks go out to the Owl's Club and their sports director Kirk Platten for hosting the event and to Joel for the food provided throughout the day. Also a special thanks to Jack Bowler and Billy Small Jr. for their help through the day as well.

We would also like to thank our sponsors as they made the prizes and giveaways possible:

F.G. Bradley's ($25 certificates), B.Y. Group & Nodor-Swiftflyte (Nodor-Swiftflyte Board and Dart Wallets), Big Boy Toyz (Engraved Premium Chalker), Double Top Darts in Brampton (Dart Suitcase and other giveaways), and our trophy sponsor D&G Trophies, who provided this lovely trophy for our new King of the Hill.

Please support these groups and companies!

View other King or Queen of the Hill tournament results:

King of the Hill series: 1 | 2 | 3
King of the Hill Cricket series: 1 | 2
Queen of the Hill series: 1 | 2