4th Annual Cream Can Classic – Ultimate Sports Bar and Grill – Waite Park

 

First there needs to be a big shout-out to the sponsors that donated some additional prizes for the tournament.  Thanks to Park Industries, Fastenal, Midwest Coin, and Ultimate Sports Bar.  Lots of shirts, hats and some other cool prizes where given out.  It’s great this see this tournament start to get some more prizes, probably helps to have “The Legend” running the tournament again.

 

There were 21 shooters that showed up this year, another good turnout.  The format was 501/Cricket/Choice – double elimination.  The champion from last year, Michael H, decided not to show this year to defend his title, I guess the trip from San Francisco was not in the plan.  There were some good shooters in this year’s tournament.  Some the big names that were coming off of good MOMA State finishes where Charlie H (3rd L1 501); Ron Von Holdt (1st Mixed Team); Josh Larcom, Ryan Loch, and John Warner all were on the L1 Cricket Open team that finished second; Jay Karasch (2nd Mixed doubles); Bob Haft part the team L1 501 team and a previous Cream Can Champion.

 

Not too many surprises in the first round with the people advancing that I expected.  The second round in my opinion had some really interesting matches.  First was John Warner versus Josh Larcom (Jose).  These guys are teammates with Josh being the youngster.  Josh brought his game and put John on the loser’s bracket.  The other really interesting match was Jay and Charlie.  Both of these guys have been throwing really great darts over the last couple of months and I wouldn’t be surprised if either one of them were in the finals.  In my opinion the first upset was Kano’s win over Ron Von Holdt.

 

Round 3 almost had a surprise with Josh coming 1 bullseye away from beating Bob Haft.  Looked like a case of the jitters or Jose was thinking of what size of “I beat Bob Haft” t-shirt.  The other big match of round 2 was Jay playing Ryan Loch.  Another case of heavy hitters throwing, this match was won by Ryan, might be destiny.

 

Round 4 had Ryan and Bob moving on to battle for King of the Hill.  This should be a great match-up since these two have been throwing great darts all day.  On the losers side of the bracket John Warner and Charlie battle backed from their round 2 losses to finish 5/6.  These 2 started throwing really good darts when they got to the losers bracket.  John and Charlie lost respectfully to Kano and Jarrod, who I think surprised a few people by still being in the tournament at this stage, well I was surprised to still be in the tournament.  I watched several of Jarrod’s matches and he was just methodical about his wins, played without making too many mistakes and taking advantage when he was given opportunities, not flashy, just well executed.

 

The match between Bob and Ryan was a preview of what should be a great final.  Ryan really dominated the match from beginning to end going 2 – 0.  Everyone had been throwing good darts though out the day, but these 2 were throwing even better.  The match between Kano and Jarrod to get to play Bob was a good match with Kano going 2-0 (actually, it was kind of a pillow fight) compared to the other darts that had been thrown earlier in the day.  Jarrod finished fourth, not a bad finish for the level of competition at this tournament.

 

The match for 3rd place was a battle of former Cream Can Champions.  Bob won the first game of 501 taking out a 137; Kano won the next cricket match.  The last game was 501 with Bob starting.  Bob was nice enough give me an opportunity to win the match by taking out a 117.  I got the first 67 points, then I started thinking about my XXXL “I beat Bob Haft” t-shirt.  Well, I’m going to have to wait another day to get that shirt, I choked and Bob took the win.

 

The final that everyone was hoping to see, the rematch between Ryan and Bob, never fully materialized due to a prior commitment by Bob.  So, Ryan ended up with the Cream Can for 2007.  Even though he didn’t officially beat Bob in the final, Ryan was throwing tremendous darts through out the day and in my opinion was a very deserving champion on this day.

 

So there was a quick recap of the 4th annual Cream Can Classic.  Overall it was a good time with lots of good darts being thrown.  Again I would like to thank Tom F and the Ultimate Sports Bar for hosting our tournament again.  Thanks to Dave C for setting up the tournament this year and working to get some additional prizes from Park Industries, Fastenal, Ultimate Sports and Midwest Coin.  Thanks to Mark “Bambi” Kremers for running the tournament.

 

Hopefully, we will see you next year.

 

 

 

Results

Photos