Medalist Super Count Up Singles Finals

By Ty Hughes

Medalist launched the very first Super Count Up Singles Challenge last summer as a trial run, designating their own route as a test market for a fresh, exciting concept to eventually open up around the world. They promised a $4,000 guaranteed finals event with a whopping two grand going to the top performer!

The response was more than favorable, with qualifiers being offered every night of the week at various locations throughout the Medalist route, from August through September. By the end of this qualifying period, there were 80 players designated to participate in the first window of playoffs set for October 14, 2006.

Twenty-five percent of these qualifiers would move on to the second window of playoffs, scheduled for the following weekend. There were 20 moving forward, plus four lucky players that were drawn at random to continue their quest. Of those 24, who left nothing in the tank after a long day of competition, only six of them advanced to the finals event hosted by Monte Carlo in Kent , Saturday, October 28.

These six standouts were; Marty Wentworth, Diana Baker, Eddie Catalon, Robert Walpole, Jack Baker and Darren Houweling.

The bar filled with curious onlookers and faithful supporters as Gary Tinder (GT) announced the field and the format. Everyone settled in for a show like they've never seen before in darts. The Super Count Up game is a brand new offering by Medalist and available on the Avanti dart boards in your favorite location. This particular tournament concept was designed to test the market to determine its success among the players and at this point, we give it a thumbs up! Eventually, the plan is to offer an unprecedented $50,000 first place prize purse at the World Championships in Las Vegas , so keep your eyes peeled for this one!

So, here we've got six road-tested finalists playing for all their worth with none of them going home empty-handed – just getting to this point earned them a healthy cash payout. The initial cost for each player to qualify was a mere $10 and none of those invited to the finals at Monte Carlo would say that was a poor investment. Paul and Lisa Dill sauntered in with their daughter Cassie, who was celebrating her 21st birthday.

GT had all the checks laid out on display with the Pay To lines empty, causing these six finalists to salivate at the thought of their name on that $2,000 check. The competition wore on and one by one, those checks were filled out. Eddie Catalon landed a sixth place finish, good for $200. Not bad for being one of those lucky four drawn to continue in the competition in week two. Diana Baker, of the Jack and Diana duo (no correlation to the John Mellencamp song) secured a fifth place finish and had her name scrawled across a $200 check as well. Diana was the only female to make it this far, she was ecstatic.

Robert Walpole managed to get his name on one of the $500 checks for a fourth place finish and Marty Wentworth snagged the final $500 check after Jack beat him in the loser's bracket. This set up our final two contenders; Jack Baker and Darren Houweling.

Darren's mother was getting married in Eugene , Oregon that afternoon. Leading up to the finals event, he was wrestling with the moral issue of attending his own mother's wedding and getting the opportunity to play for $2,000 cash. Initially, he planned to play darts and then jump on a plane and rush to the wedding, but finally he was graciously excused from the wedding when his mom saw how badly he wanted to compete. Now he was sitting in the driver's seat, guaranteed to go home with at least $1,000 in his pocket.

So, Jack and Darren battled it out in front of a captivated audience. With a slew of back-to-back hat tricks, Jack Baker charged out of the loser's bracket, stunning the audience and finishing off Darren in an impressive display of mastery. Amazing darts!

Congratulations to Jack Baker, winner of $2,000 cash and holder of the title; first ever Super Count Up Singles Champion!

Watch for more of these competitions to open up for the rest of the populace very soon. In fact, the next time will probably be much more widespread and the payout will likely make you very rich!