The Huntsville Legion is a place steeped in tradition as the Town’s premier veteran support centre and one of its most important community service organizations.
In addition to providing representation and assistance to veterans, the Legion supports youth through the Canadian Cadet Programs and contributes countless thousands of volunteer hours every year to projects and services in this community.
With such a serious commitment to the betterment of Huntsville and those who live here, it is easy to forget that the Legion is also a place to have fun, a fact not wasted on the group that meets there every Tuesday night to play darts.
It’s their own tradition, more than ten years in the making.
It first began a decade ago on the greens of the Grandview golf course, where a group of friends would meet every Tuesday for a round of golf and dinner. On days when weather prevented the friends from playing, as well as during the offseason from October until May, they would instead play darts at the Legion.
As time went by, eventually the darts became the bigger draw between the two activities, and the group decided to make it a year-round event.
They might not play for money, but that doesn’t keep the games from being competitive and full of banter. Usually starting around 5:30 pm, the group will play for two hours before keeping true to their roots and heading out together for dinner (and a round of trivia straight out of that week’s edition of the Perkolator). As many as 14 players will come out on any given Tuesday, although the event revolves around a core of eight gentlemen. Barry Radford, the father-son duo of Kenneth and Neil Donald, Ron Downey, Jon Romanow, brothers Ray and Ron Richards and Grant Taylor are known as the Tuesday night “regulars” with various friends and family members making up the rest of the teams.
They mix up the games to keep things interesting, playing Cricket, 301, Golf, Baseball, Fives and Around the World, and mix up the teams to balance less experienced players with the seasoned pros. It’s a fair group that is about as friendly as you can imagine; they are always looking for new players to join their ranks, whether for a night or a season, and will more than likely insist you join them for dinner to get the full experience.
And, above all else, they know how to have fun.
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