Youth Nationals 2019 held in Saskatoon

In the official team photograph taken May 17, 2019, the Saskatchewan representatives for the 2019 Youth Nationals.
Back row, L-R: Khonsiss Wuttunee (jingle dancer), Jamie Sheppard (coach), Tara Kristjansson (coach), Mel December (SDA Youth Director), Shaukeena McKay, Jaden English, Matthew Sheppard, Garth Camber, Grace Adrian (chaperone), Brad December (chaperone). Front row, L-R: Keturah Adrian, Rianna December, Kya Scott, Taryn Kristjansson, Cameron Wheeler, Joshua Adrian.

The 2019 NDFC Youth Nationals got under way in Saskatoon Friday May 17 and it was a good day for our juniors in doubles action.

In junior girls' play, Taryn Kristjansson (Saskatoon) and Kya Scott (Maple Creek) won the silver medal. Also reaching the final were junior boys Jaden English (Saskatoon) and Josh Adrian (Nipawin).

Saturday May 19, Saskatoon: Rianna December of Warman wins the bronze medal in Senior Girls' singles.

On Sunday May 19, Josh Adrian made it to the final of the boys' World Masters qualifier, while Rianna December was third in the girls' event.

Saskatchewan finished 7th in the overall Canada Cup standings. You can see the full official NDFC results here. Thanks to Brad December for the pictures.

Junior silver medallists in doubles: L-R, Jaden English, Taryn Kristjansson, Kya Scott, Joshua Adrian.

Saskatoon Deaf League holds first tournament

Our newest members played the first annual Saskatoon Deaf Open tournament April 27.

In the men's event it was Carter Hnatuk in first, followed by Daniel Henbid and Timothy Fontaine. Carter is pictured left receiving his medal from veteran player and organizer Walter Beally.

Women's winner is rookie player Stacy Pyka, second Mary Sapchuk, third Lorraine Hnatuk. Pictured right, Stacy is awarded with her medal.

The SDA is glad to have you "on board".

 Provincials 2019: Ashtin and Georgina repeat

Ashtin Bear of Prince Albert retains his Provincial championship crown after three days of competition at North Battleford April 12-14.

Georgina Ratt of Stanley Mission also repeated her 2018 win with a close victory.

Men's winners at 2019 Provincials North Battleford: L-R Ashtin Bear (champion), Jason Skinner, Karsten Larsen, John Brann, Myles Charles, Austin Morrison, Bobby Magalong, Noel Aucoin (alt). Not pictured: Steve Kristjansson.

Ashtin Bear was sitting in second place to Steve Kristjansson (Saskatoon) for most of the weekend, but after Steve's loss in the third-place final on the third day, Ashtin held his nerve to win the final over Jason Skinner and match Steve's overall points tally. Ashtin Bear claimed his fourth Provincial Championship when Steve conceded the playoff match.

Women's winners: L-R, Georgina Ratt (champion), Angela Aucoin, Sharon Acker (alt), Melanie Thomas, Shelley Stephanson, Bonnie Warn, Aspen Hall, Stacey Stephanson, Judy Cleaveley.

Georgina Ratt and Angela Aucoin (North Battleford) were tied on points going into day three, and predictably, they met in the final for the third time, where Georgina came out on top.

Congratulations to all our winners!

Full results from Saskatchewan Provincials   Men   Women

Zone Cup winners: North Battleford

Moose Shoot results

Results are in from Moose Jaw zone, whose tournament was played May 11.

Steve Kristjansson won men's singles with a victory over Karsten Larsen (both Saskatoon). They're pictured left. In women's, Team Sask star Stacey Stephanson (Saskatoon) defeated youth champ Rianna December of Warman (near left) in the final.

Doubles winners are Karsten and his partner Brad December in men's and Saskatoon team Rita Larsen and Bonnie Warn in the women's. Congratulations to all our winners!

You can see full results here. Thanks to new zone director Aspen Hall for hosting!

Results from Flin Flon Open

Flin Flon Darts club hosted its annual tournament April 26-28, featuring six events.

Congratulations to Chester Sakebow and Melanie Thomas for winning the singles events. You can see full results here.

Future Best awarded to Rianna

SaskSport's Future Best funding supports Saskatchewan athletes who have the ability to become a national senior team member and are seriously committed to this goal through training and competition.

The SDA is proud to announce that this year's award goes to Rianna December of Warman. Playing since the age of 12, Rianna was Saskatchewan Junior Girls champion three times and is now our Senior Girls champ at the age of 17.

Rianna played in the 2018 World Masters in England and is invited to the 2019 event.

Her current WDF world ranking is 18, and number 2 in the Americas region.

In the picture taken April 3, Rianna receives a cheque for $500 from SDA Finance Officer Bev Roth.

Congratulations to Rianna! She'll be representing Saskatchewan at the NDFC Youth Nationals in May.

Saskatoon Deaf Dart Club affiliates with SDA

The league of about 12 new SDA members plays at Bugsy's Lawson Heights every Saturday afternoon, hosted by veteran players Walter Beally and Lorraine Hnatuk.

The annual tournament was held on April 27, 2019 in Saskatoon.

Welcome to all!

Main Event Sask's biggest draw

Saskatoon's showpiece shoot the Main Event was once again the biggest tournament in the province, attracting 81 men and 29 women from across the country.

Men's 1st place Shawn Currie	Mixed 1st Tracey Morton, Ed Freeman	Women's 1st place Kristin Kovich
Men's doubles 1st Bill MacDowall, Logan Crooks	Women's doubles 1st Linda Wilder, Michelle Spicer	Blind draw winners Noel Aucoin, Logan Crooks
Photos courtesy Elaine Walker. View the pictures full size by (Chrome) right-clicking, open in a new tab; or (MS Edge) right-click and ask Cortana to show full size. Using a fruit-based device? Well, you have people to do that sort of thing for you.

Men's winner is Shawn Currie from Calgary, defeating Mike Dwyer (AB), and making $1,000 in the process.

Your women's champ is Kristin Kovich of Winnipeg, who defeated Kim Bellay-Rousselle (BC) in the final and collects the $500 top prize.

The men's team of Logan Crooks and Bill MacDowall came out on top in the doubles, while women's doubles goes to Linda Wilder and Michelle Spicer. Mixed winners are Tracey Morton and Ed Freeman.

In the Friday night blind draw event, Noel Aucoin of North Battleford partnered with Logan Crooks to take first.

The Main Event is the province's only BDO-ranked tournament. You can see full results here.

Rosetown attracts Spring shooters

A good crowd at Rosetown saw Steve Kristjansson take men's singles with a win over Karsten Larsen, both Saskatoon.

Youth star Rianna December is the women's champ, defeating Stacey Stephanson, pictured left, both Saskatoon. That's your provincial junior champ Rianna's first win of the season as she gears up for Youth Nationals. 

Steve went on to win men's doubles with his partner Matthew Breidenbach, a first-time winner out of Saskatoon. They're pictured right.

Over in women's doubles, Melanie Thomas of Spiritwood and Jennifer Paul of Prince Albert teamed up for the win. That's them on the left.

Organizer Trish Gray enjoyed the competition. "It was a super day for a tournament, with participants travelling from Regina, Maple Creek, Saskatoon, North Battleford, Prince Albert, Loreburn, and more."

"There were 33 men for the singles event, and 14 ladies. Excellent," says Trish.

"I want to thank everyone for taking the time to attend our tournament and make it another successful day. We ended the event with our annual steak supper. Good darts, good friends, makes for a great day!"

Thanks Trish! You can see the full results here.

New faces, solid performances at Youth Provincials

Lots of new juniors at Youth Provincials bodes well for the future, while our established stars are off to Nationals again to represent Saskatchewan.

With a full report, here's SDA Youth Director Melanie December:

We had an awesome weekend at the 2019 Saskatchewan Youth Provincials with 20 participants! All players played well, had fun and showed great sportsmanship. The event started Saturday February 16 at 10 am and finished at approximately 3 pm Sunday.

All 20 participants are pictured at the Youth Provincials in Saskatoon. No names - you know who you are!

The largest group was in junior boys with 14 competitors. It was a close finish for the boys with a playoff needed for the alternate placements. The winner was a repeat of last year, Joshua Adrian from Nipawin.

In second place was Jaden English from Saskatoon. Garth Camber from Nipawin was successful in the playoff for alternate, and due to having no second-place Senior boy, he was asked to move up to the Senior division. As a result, Matthew Sheppard from Maple Creek will be our alternate Junior boy for the Nationals.

Junior girls featured three competitors and taking first is another repeat winner from last year, Taryn Kristjansson from Saskatoon. It was close for second and alternate, but in the end Kya Scott from Maple Creek edged out Shaukeena McKay of Nipawin to finish second! Shaukeena wins the alternate spot.

In Senior boys we only had one competitor, Cameron Wheeler from Nipawin, who took home the winner's cup and played well throughout the weekend, practising with other youth and adult dart players who were there supporting.

In Senior girls, Rianna December of Saskatoon and Keturah Adrian of Nipawin were the two competitors. Rianna took first and Keturah came in second from the weekend of play.

Three 180s were shot over the weekend; one by Rianna and two by Taryn. Way to represent ladies!

As usual the players were asked to vote for the male and female sportsmanship awards. This year the honour of this title went to Kya Scott and Gabe Lachapelle, both from Maple Creek. Way to go!

Congrats to those who made the team and to all the others who played well throughout two long days. We had new players and a few familiar faces which was awesome.

Thank you to all the parents and volunteers, you made this event possible! - Melanie December,Youth Director

Thanks Melanie. Youth Nationals are in Saskatoon this year, May 16-20.

Ashtin, Angela top of tree at Pines Open

Ashtin Bear of Prince Albert (far left)won his second tournament of the SDA season at Nipawin February 9, with the men's singles win over Jason Skinner of North Battleford.

Angela Aucoin of North Battleford took first place in the women's singles events, defeating Randi Friess of Nipawin, and solidifying her lead at the top of the rankings.

Pictured above right, Angela teamed up with Skinner and Prince Albert's Rod Swenson to win a triples event, defeating the local trio of Laurie Kratochvil, Wade Grassing and Dave Propp.

Jason and Rod went on to win the men's doubles over Dave and his partner Earl Stirling-Brown.

Randi joined up with local player Roberta Wheeler (pictured right) to overcome Angela and her partner Laurie Kratochvil in the women's doubles final.

Earlier in the blind draw warmup event, Ashtin partnered Brittany Lyons for the win.

You can see full results here.
Photos courtesy Shauna Grassing

Sean's first title, Stacey back to form at Pat Copeman Memorial

Sean Shea of Saskatoon won his first SDA tournament January 19 at Regina, defeating Jason Skinner in the men's final.

Stacey Stephanson took her first title of the season with the win over Angela Aucoin of North Battleford, then went on to win women's doubles with partner Shelley Stephanson. Stacey and Angela are pictured right. In the men's doubles, Skinner teamed up with Steve Kristjansson to take first place.

Sean says this win finally gets the monkey off his back after trying out at tournaments for the last four years. "I struggled a bit in the section," he says, "then in the knockout I threw really good darts. I couldn't miss - it was a bit bizarre!"

Shea hit five 180s in his run to the title, during which he chalked up a 12-dart game, his best in competition, and knocked out two former provincial champions, John Brann and Jason Skinner.

In the final against Skinner, Sean says he came up against a mentor. "I was really confident, I was throwing as good as I ever have, so I thought, now it's time." He went on to win it 5-3, which is no surprise to followers of SDA darts.

Shea is a proven winner in soft tip darts where he says he had success for some 8 years in Saskatoon, and he has many more wins under his belt in his other chosen sport of golf. He's been club champion 5 times in the last 8 years at Moon Lake, and still plays lots of golf in what he calls "darts off-season".

Sean now sits at 6th in the rankings, and plans to be at North Battleford for the 2019 SDA Provincials. With his game picking up just as the season approaches the sharp end, the chances are he'll be making a charge at it.

You can see full results from Regina here. 

Angela makes it three at Heminger

Angela Aucoin of North Battleford takes her third tournament in a row with first place from a field of 19 women at the Al Heminger Memorial tournament in Saskatoon January 5. She recently won in Lloydminster and Hudson Bay. Angela defeated Laurie Kitzul in the final, and will move to the top of the women's rankings. The finalists are pictured right.

Steve Kristjansson won the men's singles on home turf over Jason Skinner of Battleford (left). That puts those two players in a tie at the top of the men's rankings. Forty-one men played at the Heminger this year.

Men's doubles champs are Curt Gamble of Moose Jaw and his partner John Brann of Regina, pictured right, who repeat last year's victory and win this title for the third time (2013).

Women's doubles goes to Laurie Kitzul and Rianna December, both Saskatoon, pictured left.

It's a welcome sight to see Laurie back to winning ways after some time off. Laurie was also voted most sporting woman in a player poll. Men's sportsmanship award goes to Finn Petersen. You can see full results here. 

Photos courtesy Elaine Walker, Wayne Hudson. View the pictures full size by (Chrome) right-clicking, open in a new tab; or (MS Edge) right-click and ask Cortana to show full size. Using smartphones and other browsers, well, ask a kid.

Toy Shoot makes donations to needy kids

With a report from Saskatoon, here's Laurie Kitzul:

The 27^th Annual Charity Toy Shoot was held on Saturday, December 8^th. This is a mixed-doubles dart tournament where the entry fee is toys. Since 1991, dart players have been supporting this great event I’ve had the privilege to organize. This year we had 24 teams (48 players) and with lots of non-players bringing toys as well. We did draws for various items and made $330.00 which is also donated to the Salvation Army’s Secret Santa. 

We ran a food drive for the Saskatoon Food Bank and collected 220 lbs of food! This was our 6^th year incorporating the food drive and it was a huge success! 

Thank you to the participants, our sponsors who donated gifts/prizes and the volunteers who make all of this possible. A special THANK YOU to those who stayed after for tear down. 

Winners were Rianna and Brad December over Laurie Kitzul and Doug Spearey in the final; 3-1 in the best of 5. Lots of fun was had by all and who knew Steve Kristjansson could sing… or can he?? 

- Laurie Kitzul, SUDO

Lloyd hosts five events

The annual Darts On The Border tournament in Lloydminster featured five events November 23-24. Steve Kristjansson of Saskatoon made the trip worth while with a win in men's singles, defeating Jason Skinner, and again in doubles with his partner Sean Shea.

Women's singles winner is Angela Aucoin of North Battleford, who beat Rianna December in the final. Rianna (Saskatoon) went on to take the doubles with her partner Melanie Thomas of Chitek Lake.

On Friday evening, local player Damian Rice and his partner Chester Sakebow (Chitek Lake) took top spot in a well-attended blind draw. See the full results

Jason scoops 170 out pots at Hudson Bay

Jason Skinner hit the magical 170 finish at the North East Classic tournament November 18.

He receives $450 from the local club for his perfect out shot as well as the SDA 170 pot worth $175. Quite the payday for the Battleford man, pictured left with his winnings.

Skinner finished cleaning up with a first place in the men's singles, beating Myles Charles of Stanley Mission, then a triples win with partners Angela Aucoin and Noel Aucoin. Skinner moves to the top of the SDA ranking list.

Angela Aucoin from North Battleford won the women's singles event over Lowine Binkley.

Men's doubles champs are Brad December and Ken Cleaveley; Anglea Aucoin and Rianna December won doubles in women's. You can see the full results here.

Skinner doubles up in North Battleford

Jason Skinner took top prize in both men's events on home turf November 3. He partnered Steve Kristjansson in doubles and then beat Chester Sakebow of Chitek Lake in the singles final. Melanie Thomas was also unbeaten, with a win in women's singles and first place in doubles with Rita Larsen.

See full results here.

Saskatchewan Open results

Results from the Sask Open, held in Regina Oct 17-18, are now posted. See them here. Rankings are updated.

Rianna wins in Denver

Rianna December of Saskatoon chalks up another WDF win in the girls' singles event at the Colorado Open November 3. Congratulations to her!

That keeps Rianna in the mix of world rankings. She's sitting in 25th and that's in the World, folks. Earlier in the season Rianna played at the World Masters in England.  

Taryn wins WDF Girls singles title in Edmonton

Taryn Kristjansson of Saskatoon had her biggest win so far with a first place finish in the WDF youth event at the Klondike tournament in Edmonton on October 7.

This is her first foray into the World Darts ranking points. She's now ranked 59. What a way to start! She's pictured right with her winnings. Taryn won the SDA Junior girls' provincial championship earlier this year.

Sue Shipway

We are very sorry to announce that Sue Shipway of Churchbridge, formerly of Saskatoon and Regina, passed away on November 1, 2018.

Sue and her husband Charlie were very active in darts. They both played in the Saskatoon Monday Night Pub League and the Wednesday Night League as well as Legion darts and SDA tournaments. They were also involved in the Golden Harvest. They lived in Saskatoon from approximately 1987-1998 prior to moving to Edmonton where they resided until 2007 when they moved to Churchbridge.

Sue's obituary can be seen at this link. On behalf of our members, the SDA would like to express our condolences to Charlie and family.

AGM winners a who's who of Youth program grads

Ashtin Bear of Prince Albert (2014 NDFC Senior Boys champion) took two men's titles from the AGM tournament in Regina, while Aspen Hall and Rianna December dominated the women's events.

Ashtin partnered with Don Johnstone to take men's doubles, defeating Cliff Culbert (Gravelbourg) and Red Baes (Regina). In the men's singles, Ashtin beat Chester Sakebow (Chitek Lake) in the final. The finalists are pictured left. It's Ashtin's first win at an AGM tournament.

Aspen Hall of Mortlach (National Junior girls' doubles champ '07, Team Sask '08, '09) defeated Rianna December, Saskatoon (currently ranked 14th in the world for juniors) in the women's singles final and then they partnered up to win the women's doubles over Melanie Thomas (Chitek Lake) and her partner Tia Crowe. See full results here

Pictured left: Aspen and Rianna receive their prize money.

Board meeting

At the AGM in the morning, another successful year of Saskatchewan darts was reported by the executive. The finances are in good shape, and we have expanded into a new zone in the Maple Creek area. 

Youth star Rianna December is off to the World Masters and was presented with a cheque for $500 from the SDA to help her on her way to Bridlington, England in October.

(Updated October 12) Rianna played to a respectable last 32 in the the World Masters. Congratulations!  from the SDA and what a great experience for her.

The 2018 Provincials Zone Cup was awarded to the North Battleford zone. Pictured (L-R) are Melanie Thomas, Noel Aucoin and Chester Sakebow of NB Zone. Their eight-member team at Provincials earned the highest average PPP - points per player.

Finally the locations for the 2019 provincials were announced: Youth will have their provincial championships in Saskatoon on February 16 and 17, while the adults will meet in North Battleford April 12-14. 

Thanks go to Regina zone director Marcus Stephanson and the volunteers for help with the event.