There are less than two months to go to the 50th annual Blueberry Hill Open in St. Louis! It is a remarkable milestone for the oldest annual pub tournament in North America. Even when most of the country was shutting down because of the pandemic, owner Joe Edwards managed to keep the tournament going!

Yes, it was way back in 1973 – long before the ADO existed – that the famed bar in the Delmar Loop held its first tournament. There was only one event – the Open Singles – and it was won by St. Louis’ own John Reichwein. As the tournament grew, Reichwein added another four singles wins to take his total to a rhen-record five. Sadly, I was never to meet John, as he passed away before I ever threw a dart in the US. His legend lives on, though.

One of the great things about the tournament is that the winners of the men’s and women’s singles get their photo on the Wall of Fame. Many of the top names in American darts have tried to get their photo up on the wall, and some have succeeded, but many haven’t! The list of those who have graced the bar includes Paul Lim, David Miller, John Kramer, Dan Pucillo, John Part, Gary Mawson, Brad Wethington, Joe Chaney, Stacy Bromberg, Lori Verrier, Kathy Karpowich, Sandy Reitan, Connie Sroka, and many, many more. For a couple of years, the tournament was even world-ranked by the PDC!

The 50th anniversary promises to be something really special, so if you’re not doing anything the second week of September, you could do a lot worse than to pop along to St. Louis! For full details, including flyer, please click here

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