My 2 most memorable Cricket matches

Pat Byrnes was a good friend of mine and had been the WDA Tournament Director for several years. Sadly, Pat passed away. The next Air Cap was $11,000 in the basement of a hotel on E. Kellogg. There was a "Pat Byrnes Memorial" Cricket blind draw. That was the first Cricket blind draw I had ever seen scheduled as a guaaranteed payout event and I had been playing tournaments in OKC, Tulsa, Joplin and Omaha. I wanted a plaque with Pat's name on it and I had a great partner from KC.

One round out of the money the match went to 3 legs. We were just behind and both sides were down to 16's when my opponent hit a 7-count. T16, T15, SB. Ouch. We lost. After the match, the guy who hit the fatal 7-count introduced himself: "Great games. My name is Jesse, Jesse Layton".



$106,000 International tournament in Vegas. Doubles Cricket - one round out of the money. Both my partner and I were 19 throwers. Opponents won the diddle and 7'd the 20's for 80 points. My partner 7'd. T20, T19, S18.

Partner walked back to me and said, "Don't throw a 19 until I say so. I threw the 18 to make them think I don't like 19's". Opponents bought the fake-out and closed the 18's. We either scored or had a scoring threat after each throw. The opponents kept closing out our scoring opportunites. We were down to 15's and neither team had thrown a dart at the 19's since my partner closed them. My partner said "Now". Hit a 7-count. Opponent hit a 2-count. I hit a 5-count.

We were down over 100 points when my partner said "Now". Game over. We got destroyed in the next round.