Local dart duo head to Virginia Beach Dart Classic this weekend

By Bill Sterling

A dart throwing duo from the Eastern Shore will be among the competitors at the Virginia Beach Dart Classic this coming weekend at the Wyndham Hotel on the beachfront.

Robie Mears and Jess Newton will match their skills with some of the best dart throwers in the country and beyond, having honed their skills in weekly league competitions held regularly at the Off the Rail Restaurant in Parksley and the Onancock Taphouse.

Mears, 42, is the more experienced of the two and introduced Newton to the game. While an estimated 17 millions Americans currently play the sport, darts has yet to break through the crowded US sports market with many people seeing its as a simple bar game.

But Mears sees a change on the horizon. “I’ve seen a tremendous growth in darts since I first started throwing about 10 years ago,” said Mears, who lives in Pungoteague and is the general manager of Buchanan Subaru in Pocomoke City, Md. “We now have two leagues competing on Monday and Wednesday nights at Off the Rails, and the number of competitors is increasing at Onancock Taphouse.

Mears said he wrestled in high school and about 10 years after before looking for something else that fulfilled his competitive desires. “Throwing a dart was one of the few things I was pretty good at when I first tried it. I found I enjoyed it right away and bought a dart board and placed it in my living room,” said Mears, who estimates he has won some 400 tournaments in the decade he has been throwing darts and has almost never missed the dart board in his living room.

“Like everything, there are all kinds of levels in dart throwing. There will be pros competing in Virginia Beach and some of the best amateurs you will find at any competition,” said Mears, who has competed in the Virginia Beach Classic six or seven times. “I could go over there and not win a match. It’s that tough.”

It will be the first time at the Virginia Beach Dart Classic for Newton, 39. An Onancock resident and the sports center manager at the Eastern Shore Yacht and Country Club, Newton has been throwing darts, both soft and steel tips, for about four years now.

Newton enjoys friendly competition and is the club’s trivia master who emcees Trivia Night at the club. He also works on his golf game after his duties are done at the club, but has found lately he is gravitating more and more to darts to the point he is undefeated in competition at the Onancock Taphouse.

“I would love to have dart competition at the club if there was some interest among the members,” said Newton, who added that in Virginia Beach there will be women competing with men and then separate women and men’s competitions.

Newton and Mears will also compete as team members and then enter individual competitions as well.

“It will be a big challenge for me because I’ve never faced competition as good as what I will see in Virginia Beach,” said Newton.