This season I started playing more seriously again, and hopefully I can find my form back again.
At the moment I'm playing in the Flakkee Premier Division with my team of mates. We are called DC ZIJH and at the moment we are on the third place, behind the teams who got some more quality. Because of the questions I often get about our team, these are my (team)mates: Marco Meijer (Our Lakeside Mastercaller), Sander van Oostenbrugge, Jos Kreeft, Maurice vd Nieuwendijk, Cretienne Godschalk and Barry Jongejan (our veteran).
I also started playing the tournaments for the Flakkee Championships again. That's where I started playing darts and where I won my first tournaments. In my first season I played, I won the Ranking and took my first title: Champion of Goeree-Overflakkee 2002-2003. After that title everything got in a stream, so fast. But this is where it all started and that's why I begin at the source again. After four tournaments I can find myself on the third place, behind my friends Martin Jongejan and Roy Moerenhout and followed by Arto in 't Veld and Jan Melissant. I only attended in three tournaments where I made the quarterfinal, semifinal and final, but still couldn't win a tournament at the moment.
A couple of years ago I would go and play tournaments all over the country, every single weekend. Slowly I can feel the pleasure of the game again and I can feel that I wanna show myself again. The last weeks I've been playing some regional open tournaments again, with a good result last weekend at the Open RKC Waalwijk. I made the quarterfinals, in a tournament that was won by veteran Roy Gokoel. It was a tough tournament with some good names (Roy Gokoel, Kees Slokkers, Tony Martinez, Ruzdya Hopic, Thomas Neilson and Robert Treffers), so it was a fine result to me. Hopefully I can show myself some more the following weeks, because I wanna be in good form for my first major tournament of the season: the Dutch Open in the NH Koningshof, Veldhoven. The other tournaments I will attend can be seen at the agenda.
I also wanna congratulate my dear friend Marco Meijer. In December he refereed his first TV tournament, The Zuiderduin Masters and before he even could enjoy. He was already asked by Martin Fitzmaurice to referee at the Lakeside World Darts Championship in Frimley Green, England. He has done a great job there and I'm so proud of him. When you may referee a major international final then you must be one of the most talented referees in the world. A couple of years ago Marco and I had a good chat about becoming a good mastercaller. So when he started refereeing some national tournaments, I once took him to a PDC tournament in Nuland, Holland. For the first time in his life he would see players like Phil Taylor, Terry Jenkins, Steve Beaton and others. He enjoyed every moment when we were there. At the end of the day I took him to the match officials (Tommy Cox and Dave Allen), to show them that this would be our future International Mastercaller. We had a great chat about what a good mastercaller has to do, to make the TV tournaments. Marco put every bit of advice that they gave in his brain and start working on his counting skills, the English language and his appearance. Now couple of years later he's one of the most talented referees of the world. "Marco, thanks for everything you do for me, mate. Your a real good friend and hopefully we can keep this friendship for life!!"
Everbody knows that dartsplayers need sponsors to go the whole the circuit. My goal for the season is attending tournaments regional, national and international. I can't do that without any sponsors, so when you're interested in sponsoring or like some more information, don't hesitate to e-mail me: johnlokken@hotmail.com
Their is also an opportunity to sponsor a whole dartsteam with players who'd like to make the step in to the national and international circuit.
Best of darts to all,
John "The Butcher" Lokken
