{"id":10341,"date":"2019-05-23T06:24:21","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T09:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=10341"},"modified":"2019-05-23T06:24:21","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T09:24:21","slug":"champion-shooter-emily-alford-crowned-canadian-jr-girls-darts-champ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=10341","title":{"rendered":"Champion shooter:                   Emily Alford crowned Canadian Jr. girls darts champ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong><em> Beaver Bank native almost earned invite to two world tournaments in October through qualifiers <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BEAVER BANK: <\/strong>It would seem that Emily Alford\u2019s mantra of eat, sleep, and play darts is paying off with big dividends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\n Lockview High student, who hails from Beaver Bank, captured the \nCanadian Junior Girls darts championship along with a few other pieces \nof hardware as a representative with Darts N.S. at the Canadian youth \nnationals in Saskatoon, Sk., held May 17-20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a dream of  mine to say I\u2019m number one in Canada,\u201d said Alford. \u201cIt took a lot of  practice and time. It\u2019s something you can\u2019t do on your first try. You  play awhile before you get to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Emily Alford on her Jr Girls Darts championship\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/grcUTeDvT7A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>She said when she first\n started playing darts years ago, Taylor Probert of Enfield won the \njunior girls dart championship. That was inspiring for Alford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEver since then I wanted to get to that spot myself,\u201d said Alford. \u201cI\u2019ve worked really hard to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alford\n won the mixed doubles title with Cohen Campbell of the Valley and got \njoint third in the female doubles with Brooke Martell, who hails from \nCape Breton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While she comes home with the title as the Canadian \nchamp for junior girls, it\u2019s another accolade she was bestowed that \nstands out as the most important. She was the recipient of the Most \nSportsmanship, an award voted on by her fellow peers from across Canada \nas well as the team leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI honestly was shocked. It was a \u201cwhat?\u201d moment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/file1-186-1024x576.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10342\"\/><figcaption>Emily Alford speaks about the Canadian darts national championships, where she came home with a plethora of awards. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When asked how it sounded to hear \u201cEmily Alford, 2019 junior girls Canadian darts champion\u201d she said it gave her goose bumps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d she said, smiling ear-to-ear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alford\n said this past year she practiced a lot more than previous years, and \nthe resulting results showed that. She would be on the dart board at \nhome for a good hour, hour-and-a-half every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Besides the \nawards, Alford also won a $1,000 bursary for post-secondary education, \nand she was in the final of not one, but two qualifiers for the World \nDarts championships in England and Romania in October. She competed in \nEngland last October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool to go to Romania as I will\n be part of Team Canada with three others,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t get to \nplay with each other very much since we\u2019re spread across the country, so\n it\u2019s neat to be able to go with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hayley Crowley (NB); Donovan Pilon (ONT); and Nathan Osmond (AB) will team with Alford in Romania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now\n the hard part begins to get her to Romania which will involve reaching \nout to the community and holding fundraisers. The exact details of what \nfundraisers she and the other three will be doing are still being worked\n out. However, anyone wishing to donate locally or businesses looking to\n sponsor Alford can contact her mom Krista by email at: \nKrista_hfx@yahoo.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alford said she\u2019s had lots of positive \ncomments from friends; players across Canada; and others around the \nworld who she knows. She said she\u2019s still on Cloud Nine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOthers from the dart world have been giving me so much feedback, including a few of the top lady players,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Emily accepts my challenge to a game\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fiA3TdpqqU4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>She\n said it wouldn\u2019t have been possible to have attended nationals without \nsponsors like Ken-Etic Auto in Windsor Junction; Acadian Fish and Chips \nin Hammonds Plains who surprised her with a on-the-house supper upon her\n return on May 20; her parents who help out with everything and support \nher 100 per cent of the way; L-Style; 180; Smurf Darts; BullsEye \nMagazine; Terri\u2019s Place in Lower Sackville; and C&amp;A Automotive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey\n all made it so I could get out to the nationals and just focus on \nplaying darts and not worrying about the money side,\u201d said Alford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beaver Bank native almost earned invite to two world tournaments in October through qualifiers BEAVER BANK: It would seem that Emily Alford\u2019s mantra of eat, sleep, and play darts is paying off with big dividends. The Lockview High student, who hails from Beaver Bank, captured the Canadian Junior Girls darts championship along with a few [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12],"tags":[10,509,510,511,5],"class_list":["post-10341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","tag-beaver-bank","tag-canadian-jr-girls-darts-champion","tag-darts-n-s","tag-emily-alford","tag-lockview-high"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}