MY MOST UNFORGETTABLE STORY AS A DARTER Every darter, rated or not, and even a newcomer, has a story to tell about his experience as a player. I intend to do a series of articles in this regard, just a short story about a player’s most unforgettable story. To begin with, I would like to share my own experience, and this is one of my most unforgettable stories as a darter: Aside from writing for darts in the Sports Weekly Magazine and in some daily newspapers, I was also one of the top rated darters in the mid ‘80s. In 1985, there were several big open doubles tournaments held at different venues in Project 4, Quezon City, and I just happened to win them all and pocketed all the big cash prizes, and I thought nobody had noticed it. A dart venue along J.P. Rizal (I just can’t remember the name of the restaurant but I’m sure somebody will help us find that out later) staged a weekly open doubles event with all the champion pairs after three months of qualifying rounds advancing to the grand finals which was called “Battle of the Champions.” I was one of the qualifiers and arrived in the venue just in time for the drawing of numbers during the big night. After the pairings were announced, a bemoustached player acting like a tough guy approached me inside the venue and, in a threatening voice and in front of many darters around us, told me, “Hindi ba ikaw ang palaging nagtsa-champion dito sa Project 4?” He appeared as if he was bullying me, so I replied in a soft voice, parang si FPJ. I just said, “Oo” (yes) and did not ask him why because I did not want to provoke a fight, but he continued with his bullying tactic and said, “Puwes, hindi ka na magtsa-champion ngayon, dahil ang partner mo ay ‘yon,” pointing his finger to my partner who shied away and turned his back while his friends seated nearby were all smiling. It was short of telling me that my partner was a “softy” or “mahinang klase” and that our chances of winning the championship are nil or next to impossible. As a player, my morale was a little bit affected because I was also hoping to have a good partner. Nevertheless, I cheered myself up and prepared for the great battle to come. To ease pressure during the game, I would always psyche myself up by saying: “Eh di talunin nyo ako, kung kaya ninyo!” Never say, “Sana manalo ako” because that would only add pressure to yourself, especially when the tough gets going. Well, it turned out that my partner was not that softy after all, and after the smoke had cleared, we emerged champions as my partner and I bested them all. I then looked around for the bemoustached tough guy and I saw him standing in the corner looking at me sheepishly. I wanted to ask him, “Pare, ano nga pala ‘yong sinasabi mo kanina?” but when I looked him right in the eye, he just gave me a big smile. (Photo shows Yours Truly seated in the middle with other Legend Darters. To my right, seated, is 1979 national champion Leo Gonzales while standing to my left is 1984 national champion Flor Aldon. Among others in the photo are Ernie Carpio, Andy Mercado, Cesar Eribal and Bobot Fontanilla)
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 04:58:51 +0000
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