Cricketers 8 - 2 Chelmsford

Willie was the man of the match, winning in his Doubles and Singles games to get us the two points to avoid a second white wash against The Cricketers.

I played an average game in the Team Game, but my scoring totally fell away in my Doubles game with John S. In my Singles game I didn't seem to improve, but it hardly mattered as my opponent finished in 15 darts, averaging over 100 with every throw including the finish. Sincere congratulations to him on his performance.

Cricketers Feedback

The Board : A Nodor Supabull. Like ours, it is nothing special.

The Oche : A flat brass strip marks the line. There is a raised area to the right for the pool table, and the marker leans over from here to mark the board. To the left there is a large projector screen and three round tables for the Home team. Quite a nice throwwith nothing to distract.

Lighting : Two halogen bulbs situated quite a long way from the board. Because the ambient lighting is so dim this works quite well.

Food : A huge spread including chicken legs, sarnies, pickles, pizza, pie, the lot basically, and it filled the entire covered pool table. Nice stuff.

Drink : The Guinness(£2.20) was good, but not allowed to settle halfway through pouring, so I switched to the John Smiths (£2). My only wise tactcal switch of the evening :o)

Comments : The Cricketers are a very popular team with our players, and I've enjoyed these two games despite my total lack of success on the board against them. They weren't quite as consitent as in the Home leg, but still managed to beat us at a canter.

League Tables, October 2005

Darts
1) Chopwell Central - 31
2) Cricketers - 28
2) Smelters - 28
4) Commercial - 21
4) Shotley Club - 21
6) Coach & Horses - 20
7) Steel Club - 18
8) Castleside Inn - 17
8) Leadgate Cricket - 17
10) Black Diamond - 16
10) Chelmsford - 16
12) Stanley Masons (A) - 13
13) Jolly Drovers - 12
14) Derwentside - 11
14) Stanley Masons (B) -11



Dominoes
1) Shotley Club - 13
1) Derwentside - 13
3) Castleside Inn - 12
3) Chopwell Central - 12
5) Commercial - 11
6) Stanley Masons (B) - 10
7) Black Diamond - 9
7) Coach & Horses - 9
7) Jolly Drovers - 9
7) Smelters - 9
7) Stanley Masons (A) - 9
12) Chelmsford - 7
12) Cricketers - 7
14) Steel Club - 6
15) Leadgate Cricket - 4

Monthly Draw : £30 Leadgate C.C., £20 Chelmsford
Highest Finish : 140 P. Renwick (Steel Club)
Next Meeting : 26/10/05, The Castleside Inn

Chelmsford 0 - 10 Cricketers

Yet another whitewash to report. It’s warts and all, this blog is.

Real disappointment for me in my Singles game ; I played well and got down to a 115 finish before my opponent was ready to finish. I hit T20, S15, but my shot for D20 got stuck in the D20 staple and was literally the 2mm width of the wire away from a 115 finish. That’s the margin between winning and losing against a team like this. Actually the margin was a bit wider in this particular game, as I still couldn’t hit my double with 6 more darts and I am so annoyed with myself.

Oddly, I’m not too discouraged by tonight. Most of the team played better than we normally do, but just like in the Chopwell whitewash we simply found ourselves up against a team who are far better than us. This will only serve to get me on the practice board next week for the return leg. I think I’ll concentrate on D20’s ;o)

Cricketers Preparation

I haven’t had the time to practice very much this week; I’ve had just one long session on DartPro (awful finishing all night, the monthly average is now low) and some more games of 301 Double Start Double finish in The Chelmsford on Sunday night.

During the week I’ve concentrated mostly on short blasts of warm up darts where the objective is to be comfortable an accurate after the same amount of throws that we normally get in League games. This has gone well, and the picture shows a target shot for T15 after only a handful warm up darts.

Chelmsford are currently 10th in the League, and I’ll post the full info including the doms shortly. The top finish is 140 from a Steel Club player.

The Cricketers start as favourites for tonight’s match, but I’m really looking forward to the challenge if selected to play, and a report will appear here after the game.

Commercial 8 - 2 Chelmsford

Pictured : The Commercial after their win.
Commercial beat us fairly comprehensively tonight. I settled in really quickly in the opening Team game, scoring 100 with my first throw, followed by 60 and then another ton. I then missed my double, but so did the entire team as we let this point slip away.

In my Doubles game I kept the momentum going, scoring a 140 and a 180 (my second of the season). My other shots were decent, but my finishing was poor, and myself and Lena lost this one too.

In my Singles against Alan I had to really scrape out a win with my scoring deserting me. No good scores at all in this game, and I had to rely on Alan messing up his finish. I messed up mine too, twice hitting T16 when I wanted S16 to leave me a double. Luckily, I regained (or actually "found") my composure to finish on 48 in 3 darts (S8, then D20).

The Lowlight was watching my scores tail away in the Singles game, but the highlights were my second 180 of the season, and a valuable Singles win in a game I had to chase.

Commercial Feedback

The Board : Generic with no decals, rounded wires, and loads of bounce outs! It was in good condition though.

Lighting : Excellent ; an array of 4 halogen bulbs giving strong but smooth lighting on the board.

Oche : The wall to the right of the thrower gives a nice enclosed feeling, with strong lighting on the throwers’ hand. It’s a little claustrophobic for the marker though, as he has to stand really near to the darts hitting the board. Only Joe from their team actually seemed to enjoy standing in the firing line! A nice throw which I’d now class as a lucky throw from me following on from last season.

Beer : A good pint of John Smiths for £2. I didn’t mix ‘em for once :o)

Food : Faultless. Andy laid on chicken and dumplings in a spicy broth, with a pasta dish too.

Atmosphere : This is one of the teams I remember vividly from my first season last year - a great bunch of lads.

Comments : Despite the result this is what it is all about. I had a great time playing this team in both legs. They were very supportive and encouraging of all players.

Chelmsford 4 - 6 Commercial

Pictured : Lyndon and Catherine
A bad overall result, but for only the second time in recollection I really was "in the zone" (tm) tonight, and I won my Doubles game with Willie, and my singles game against Sammy.

I was very focused tonight to a high degree, and in all three games I can’t remember anything but solid scoring and good finishing. Loads of 60’s, 59’s, 58’s, and the odd ton too. Not spectacular, but very solid, and that’s almost more satisfying than hitting big shots but the odd poor shot to spoil it.

My lowlight was hitting a D7 instead of the intended S7 when finishing in the Team game (a game we went on to lose), but the highlights were nice tight finishing in the Doubles game (19 = S3, D8 in two darts) and a reasonable finish on D10 in the Singles game. I’m more than satisfied with my performance tonight.

301, Double Start, Double Finish

Heath started a new trend last night when he played me at 301 Double Start, Double Finish. He used to play darts more often, and fancied putting some pressure on me with a Double Start game. It worked well, but I still managed to beat him 2-0 to the disappointment of those watching (he’s a very popular competitor in there, mostly on the Pool table these days).

Alan P then played me at the same format and beat me 2-1. One of his legs contained a 180, so there weren’t many points remaining for him to score in a game of 301 after a shot like that. In the following game I had two in the T20 bed, with the 3rd dart wedged between them but not actually touching the board! A 180 reply from me would have been nice, but I had to settle for the 120 points instead.

Finally, I beat Willie 2-1 in the same match format to conclude a short but enjoyable night’s practice in The Chelmsford. The Double Start aspect on such short games really cranks up the pressure, and I’ll be proposing we continue with this format, as it will make League games seem "easier" on Match nights. We’ll see what the others think.

Harry and Jan Return To Germany

Pictured : Harry
Harry and Jan went back to Hamburg at the weekend. They were great company during their three week stay, and were often in The Chelmsford playing darts and supporting us on Match nights.

Hopefully they'll be back next year, and best wishes to them in the meantime.

Analysis, September 2005

DartPro : September wasn’t a bad month. It started very poorly, but from the 15th onwards I had switched from Short to Medium stems, and this seems to have helped the overall average settle at being my third best on record with a three dart average of over 53 including the finishes .

The score card (above) hasn’t improved much from last month ; my 3 dart average remains at 52 (52.01), scores of less than 60 remain at 68%), scores of 100 and over are now 6.60% (slightly up from 6.54%), and my average finish is now 24.98 (slightly up from 24.90).

League Matches : I’ve made a score card on Lotus 1-2-3 to track my progress in League games throughout the season. My targets before the start of the season were for the team to finish higher than 9th (last season’s placing), for me to win more than half of my Singles games, and for me to score more than one 180 throughout the season.

Friendly : Chelmsford 8 – 6 Moorcock (estimate!)

Another great night with our friends from The Moorcock. Lyndon (landlord) was so pleased with the atmosphere we created on this usually quiet Thursday night that he handed out free slo gin to both teams. A real success, and hopefully more of these nights to come.

Myself and Lena were consigned to The Moorcock’s team to even the numbers up in a 9 a side game consisting of a Team game (1001), 3 Trebles games (701), and 9 Singles games (301). I was drawn against Willie in the Singles game and beat him with a nice finish on double 8, a double which has been causing me problems in the last few weeks for some reason. I won on double 8 on Tuesday night too, so maybe I’ve overcome this problem.

A good spread of food was laid on by Lyndon and it was a really enjoyable evening. I’d love another trip up to the moors to play against The Moorcock, so fingers crossed for a return game before too long.

Practice Music, October 2005

Go West were OK, but a few of the tracks such as "Call Me" had introductions which were a total distraction. Not bad though, and they certainly didn’t stink in the way Kullrad supposed they would.

For October I’ll be practising to "On Every Street" by Dire Straits. I’ve already had a few practice sessions with it, and I sense greatness with this one.