Pressure Points : Regional Event Takes Best Dart Throwers Out of the Bars, Into the Fire

Five o’clock came early for the best soft-tip dart throwers in two states Sunday in the cavernous ballroom of the Burbank Airport Hilton.

They came from Pheonix, from Bakersfield, from San Diego and any number of pubs and taverns in between, and were about to cap three days of pointed competition with a double-elimination tournament in the triple-A division to determine who would become reigning chairmen of the board.

The 3,000 or so competitors and spectators formed a colorful menagerie. Exposed by light of day were lounge lizards with polyester pants and bad wigs, tavern brawlers with tattoos and long ponytails, middle-aged couples with the matching monogrammed shirts popular in bowling leagues.

Beer bellies? Let’s just say no one can accuse dart throwers of lacking guts.

One player busted the stereotype. He didn’t smoke. He drank only a couple of beers. He was in decent shape. Tom Romandi, 46, of North Hills wore a red baseball cap pulled over salt-and-pepper hair. His team, Bombay Showtime, won the double-A division the night before and was back for more.

Spectators crowded around each of the 20 three-player triple-A teams, craning their necks to see the action. This is what they’d waited for since Friday night.

Wearing serious expressions, the competitors set their drinks on tables and took turns taking aim at one of the boards on six long rows of electronic soft-tip dart machines. Soft-tip darts are lighter than traditional steel-tip darts and have replaceable plastic tips.

More than 1,000 dart throwers competed over the weekend, from novices to those whose season-long ratings qualified them for the triple-A tournament. Soft-tip darts have steadily gained popularity over the last decade. Today, about 3,000 players compete in leagues in the Valley alone, according to officials from Medalist League, the board manufacturer that sponsored the regional.

Traditional steel-tip darts are on the wane in bars because the soft-tip machines generate revenue: Patrons must drop one or two quarters to play. Also, the soft-tip machines keep score, eliminating arguments and allowing novices to play without learning arcane rules.

“This fills a neat niche,” said Steve Manning, a Medalist spokesman. “To outsiders, it’s just a bar game. But it’s competition, actually at a high level in the higher divisions. These people take it seriously.”

Romandi fits the mold. He plays in leagues several times a week and has rapidly improved his game. Darts is a passion he shares with his girlfriend, Gabriela Timentel, Romandi’s teammate on the Bombay Showtime double-A team.

“The camaraderie is the best part,” he said. “For a sport that is primarily held in bars, there are very few problems.

“Once you have the fundamentals down, it’s almost all mental. It’s a very precise sport. You must be able to repeat a certain action consistently. That’s the challenge.”

Teenamarie Cunningham and Jan (Turtle) Hagenbaugh of Van Nuys, serious players in their own right, were cheering on Romandi at the triple-A tournament.

Cunningham, ranked second among women in the region, represented the U.S. along with three other players in a match against Team Germany last November. Team USA, sponsored by a board manufacturer, won the match and brought home something called the Valley Vegas Cup.

She did not compete in the Medalist regional tournament but attended “just to promote darts,” she said, noting that 30% of Medalist League members are women.

Hagenbaugh, who said “most people only know me as Turtle,” boasts a slow and steady pace that validates his nickname. Despite his speed, he played 927 sanctioned matches in 1994, more than any other player in the region.

That translates into a lot of time spent belly-up to the bar. The link is undeniable: Dart throwers go where the boards are, and boards are found in bars. Dart throwers are also night owls, because that’s when league play is held.

Darts offer an identity. Rather than being just another person sitting in the bar every night, you become a competitive dart thrower who is in the bar every night because of your single-minded dedication to the game.

Yet there are folks like Ray Kelpin of Oxnard, who drank nothing but the heady foam of victory en route to the B division final. He and his teammates representing Sporty’s Pizza won seven consecutive matches spanning six hours.

As the theme from “Rocky” blared over speakers, the two finalists made their way through the crowd, exchanging high-fives with spectators. They followed a cart wheeling a four-foot trophy to “the pit,” the board reserved for finals matches.

The game was cricket, in which players must hit each number from 15 to 20, plus the bull’s-eye, three times to win. Sporty’s won the first game of the best-of-five match, but finally succumbed to a team from Pheonix despite the whoops and cheers of onlookers.

“We’re just excited to have come this far,” Keplin said. “We’ve been playing all day. We only got our team together six months ago, and today we won $300.”

In addition to trophies and plaques, players received $33,910 in prize money at the regional. Most of the cash comes from fees players paid when they joined their local leagues.

Many players spend more at the tournament than they could ever make in prize money. The Hilton sold more than 50 kegs of beer, in addition to wine, mixed drinks, soft drinks and food. The hotel that hosted a recent regional tournament in Tacoma took in $128,000, according to Medalist League spokesman Brett Handley.

“It’s becoming a big business,” he said.

As the triple-A tournament began, Romandi, the highest ranked Valley player, was all business. Every player is rated from 1 to 17 based on their statistics during league play, and Romandi’s rating of 13 ranks ninth in the region behind the 15s of Paul Lim of San Bernardino and David Miller of Santa Ana and several 14s.

Bombay Showtime, out of the Bombay Bicycle Club in Burbank, also includes Knitz Tumaneng of Glendale and Rick Kleber of Northridge. The team rolled through early matches before squeezing past a team headed by Lim in the semifinals.

“That was our toughest match,” said Romandi, who advanced to a tournament final for the first time the night before with his double-A team, which includes Tumaneng and Timentel.

“I was pretty excited Saturday night because it was the first time any of us had gone to the pit,” Romandi said. “This time I was more confident.”

It showed. Bombay Showtime smoked Sports Page Denny’s of Placentia in three consecutive games to win the triple-A championship. A six-foot trophy and $1,050 was theirs.

A tournament that took three days, 18,000 games and, Manning estimated, 864,000 dart throws, was over.

Even while celebrating, Romandi planned for the World Championships, held in Reno in May.

“Reno is the ultimate,” he said. “Six thousand throwers, 360 boards, $300,000 in prize money, it will be the largest dart tournament ever held.”

First things first, his teammates reminded him. The Southern California Dart Assn. tournament will be held this weekend in Hawaiian Gardens. The SCDA is a rival of the Medalist League, but no matter.

As long as there are boards and beer, Bombay Showtime will find the bull’s-eye.