Every Thursday evening, locals from Winnipeg Beach and the area attend the Winnipeg Beach Legion Dart League.
Olga Mackay, the organizer of the dart league, started it two Februarys ago. Mackay has been a member of the Legion for about 28 years after her grandpa was a veteran.
The Legion’s regular fun league, where they keep stats, runs from Thanksgiving to May. All participants pay $2 per player per night. The doors open at 6 p.m., and the games start at 7 p.m. finishing usually around 9:30 p.m.
“Anybody can participate. We’ve had people who have never thrown a dart in their life, and they come regularly every week now. They have so much fun,” said Mackay.
The Dart League also has experienced players who come out to play and represent Manitoba. Cheryl Hygaard comes regularly, said Mackay. She was recently asked to represent Canada at the Worlds in Hungary, but Hygaard has yet to decide if she will participate.
Players are randomly drawn, but organizers do try to make the teams fair by placing stronger players with those with less experience.
“It’s just not fun if someone is going to beat you right away. Everybody likes it that way, because this way you have different partner every time you come, and you never know who you are going to get, but you know you aren’t going to get stuck with either two players that can’t play very well or two very strong players,” said Mackay.
“It’s just all for fun,” said Mackay.
Last Thanksgiving, players asked to run a league where they could keep stats, and the entry fee went back to the players.
And the league has been going strong ever since.
Since the change in structure, the league has moved to Thursday nights to allow more flexibility for players and future participants’ schedules.
It’s not a league where participants must commit weekly; instead, anyone who wants to join can come whenever they feel like playing darts.
In the off-season, the Legion hosts round-robin-style tournaments, where participants play to receive the first-place trophy that is moved amongst the players depending on who wins. Every week, all the players change except for the winners, and it’s just a challenge to beat those winners.
The Legion will continue to run the round-robin-style tournaments until the stats league starts again after Thanksgiving. The last round will be on Sept. 26, followed by a windup and a potluck dinner.
On Aug. 24, a doubles dart tournament at the Legion will be held. Every participant pays $10 (including high score and high finish pots), and 100 percent of the payout goes back to the winners. Registration for the tournament opens at 9:30 a.m. the day of at the Legion and closes at 10:30 a.m. The tournament starts at 11 a.m. and will run until about 5 or 6 p.m.
The Legion usually hosts four to six tournaments a year.
Hosting a dart league is the tip of the iceberg for what the Legion does for the Winnipeg Beach community and surrounding area. Some of the initiatives it takes part in include Breakfast with Santa at the school for the kids, hosting a scholarship for Gimli High School, providing meals for all the veterans on occasion, providing services and items for moms and newborn babies, and so much more.
“The Legion is important because the kids need to know the past, so they can understand about wars and what people have done to make this a free country,” said Mackay.
“If it wasn’t for me joining the Legion, I wouldn’t have understood it myself. Vets don’t really like to talk about it – it’s been traumatic for them, so at least we are here to explain it to everybody, too, and we’re also here to help the community.”
For more information about the Dart League, contact Olga Mackay at 204-641-1112.
