National dartsfest off tonite

CEBU, Philippines - Close to 300 darters from all over the country will vie for honors as the 2012 Cebu City Mayor’s Cup-M. Lhuillier National Darts Open fires off tonight at Yayoy’s Grill and Resto-bar along Orchid Street, this city.

Mayor Michael Rama, along with councilor Raul “Yayoy” Alcoseba and the National Darts Federation of the Philippines president Roberto Soncuya, will lead tonight’s opening ceremonies.

After the opening ceremonies, the classified draw doubles 501 will be held.

This will be a singles knockout competition playing on a best-of-5 games with the top 4 players to advance to the best-of-5 finals.

Tomorrow, action starts early morning since there are three events to be played—the youth singles, the 4-man team Councilor’s Cup, and classified draw triples 501.

On Sunday will be the ladies open, fixed doubles, senior singles and the Mayor’s Cup Open Singles.

All events except the youth singles and open singles will have the same format as the classified draw doubles.

The youth singles will have a best-of-three in the elimination and best-of-5 in the finals while the open singles being the premiere event will have best-of-7 in the elimination and best-of-nine in the finals.

More darters are coming over to Cebu this time according to event organizer Bert Colong Jr., president of the Cebu City Hall Employees Darts Association (CHEDA) as this year’s battle offers a total of cash prize of P300 thousand.

Aside from the cash prizes at stake for the top honors in each event, darters are also eyeing for the additional P10 thousand cash prize for whoever makes the “Perfect 9-darts out” in the open singles. — (FREEMAN)