Lucas Punkari
Over the last 12 years, the darting community throughout Northwestern Ontario has made its way to Fort Frances every March for two purposes.
To take part in friendly competition, and to also pay their respects to one of their friends.
The local Legion once again hosted the annual Gord Dunville Memorial Mixed Darts Classic over the weekend, with 48 darters taking part this year.
“This is the only event that I’ll come down to because of everyone that takes part, and also because Gordie was a really good friend of mine,” said Charles Roy of Sioux Lookout.
“Gordie was an all-around good guy, he was a class act in everything he did, and he was just the type of person everyone would like to meet,” Roy added.
Having maintained a steady number of participants over the years, this year’s Classic nearly reached its maximum amount of entries, with a few participants from International Falls joining darters from across the region.
“It’s going very well and we have a good mix of people here with these darters,” organizing committee member Ray Watson explained.
“Everyone begins to get very close with one another, and even when you head to another town for an event, you run into them once again, so it’s very tightly-knit,” he stressed.
Competition kicked off Friday night with 24 pairs taking part in the blind doubles tournament, which was won by Nancy Peterson (International Falls) and Don Braind (Thunder Bay).
Action resumed Saturday morning with mixed doubles play, with the Thunder Bay duo of John Rutherford and Christine Stark capturing first place.
Rounding out the weekend was the mixed teams competition Saturday afternoon, which saw the title go to Tony Ryan (Dryden), Donna Leckner (Ignace), and the Fort Frances tandem of Steve Luoma and Rochelle Johnson.
All funds raised during the weekend go directly towards the local Legion branch.
