The North Queensland Classic hits Townsville Dart Hall this weekend September 18-19 as the Darts Australia Grand Prix circuit returns to competition.
Hosted by Darts Queensland, this two-day event will see men’s and ladies’ doubles action getting underway on the Saturday, with the singles events taking place on the Sunday.
DA Media caught up with Darts Queensland President Kerry Crowdey who told us all we need to know about this year’s instalment.
“It’s good to be back at an event up north. We had to cancel last year so it’s good to have our own players at a world ranking event and we’re looking forward to it,” she said.
“To Darts Queensland it’s about giving back to all of our members, so that’s why we hold this tournament to give North Queenslander’s an opportunity, so it’s not all south based.”
Kerry spoke about the history of the event and the impact that 2002 Embassy World Champion Tony David has on the competition.
“The singles event is named after Tony David who was the 2002 Embassy World Champion. He was from Townsville so it’s prestigious across Australia to win this event.”
“Competitors also play for the boomerang which was Tony’s nickname when he played overseas.”
“It’s going to be special because Tony’s been a little ill lately, but it recovering well in WA – which is good.”
The tournament will include DartConnect scoring for the first time in Townsville, an innovative program for live scoring and game features.
“We’re bringing DartConnect to the north for the first time. This includes automatic scoring from the iPads we’re putting out,” she said.
“We are really happy with the system and it’s a step forward for darts in Queensland.”
“It’s exciting to be able to get all the statistics straight away and people from home can keep up with how all the games are going throughout the weekend.”
Overall Kerry said she’s thrilled to have the event up and running and looks forward to catching up with players and members from the Queensland Darts community.
“We’re looking at approximately 60-70 people at the weekend, which in Covid times is pretty good.”
“DQ have sponsored some of our top players to come up for the weekend from Brisbane. The highest ranked player of this event gets to attend Brisbane next year at another one of our Grand Prix’s.”
“We’d like to thank Formula Sports for sponsoring Darts Queensland. Formula and Target are supplying the dartboards for the event which is really good.”
“We’re looking forward to catching up with the North Queenslander’s and it should be a good weekend.”
Don’t forget to enter the North Queensland Classic before 8pm Friday, 17 September. Send your nominations to secdartsqld@gmail.com or dqtreasurer@outlook.com