Shotley Club 5 - 5 Chelmsford

Personal disappointment for me, as I was dropped with Lena correctly opting to stick with the team which had done so well the week before. The decision was proved correct as The Chelsmsford piled on the pressure and took a 3-0 lead before dropping back to just take the 5-5 draw on the night. Every point was close, and if it was to go either way it should have been our game.

It was important not to lose ground against Shotley Club though. They're just above us in the League, and the 10-10 result over both legs is one which we'll just have to be happy with.

Man Of The Match goes to our new player Brian, who won all three games he was involved with (as did Willie), and he overcame some bad luck throughout to ensure he sunk the winning doubles. Well done also to Jean for her superb 68 finish in the Team game; our highest finish on the night.

I was posted to Dominos duty, but was delighted to win 3-0 in my first ever game for the team against Dennis. I compete well in everything I try, so this was not a surprise to me, but I must admit I'd have prefered to chuck darts instead.

So, we now have a strengthened team who don't like to lose which I need to fight for my place in. I only wish we'd started the season like this :o)

A joke from Tommy’s

I’ve just been ordering some personalised flight for team mates. The catalogue shows some examples of names and nick names printed on the flights. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw this one :

"Sum T.Wat – Chinas No 1"

Sick

I’ve been ill with one of these bugs that are doing the rounds since last Friday, and I’ve only just returned to normality. The blogging has suffered, and there are two things to report :

Thursday 8/12/05; Chelmsford 3 – 6 Golden Lion (Cup)
As expected Golden Lion eased their way into the next round of the Boddington’s Cup after the formality of this return leg. On the night however they weren’t quite as focussed as the previous week, and we were a little unlucky only to chalk 3 points. Myself and Jean won our Doubles game, with Singles wins from Peter and Alan.

Tuesday 14/12/05; Chelmsford 5-5 Shotley Club
I was unable to attend this game. I presume Brian made his Chelmsford debut, and the result is a good one against a team who are slightly higher than us in the League. The dominos were not going well at the time this result was ‘phoned in to me by Lena.

Chelmsford 4 – 6 Leadgate Cricket

As I forecast last week this return leg was indeed tight, but on the night it was Leadgate Cricket who pushed that bit harder and grasped the win. Nonetheless, 9 points from a team in the top half of the League table isn’t a bad return for us over the two legs.

We lost the opening Team game, but they needed to finish well in this game as we had turned around a poor start and were catching up with them. We then went 0-2 down in the first Doubles game, and this set the tone for a night of chasing the game. We did quite well in catching them, but lost the last Singles match of the night to lose 4-6 overall.

I sank winning doubles in my Doubles (paired with Roger) and Singles games. They were small finishes of X5 and X1 respectively, but the X5 was taken with the first dart, and I feel this week’s practice on small finishes has been useful.

Our two other points came from Alan in his Singles game and also in his Doubles game paired with Peter. Man Of The Match goes to Alan. In particular his Doubles match with Peter was a very high standard of mostly 100+ shots.

Again their senior player (Alan) excelled, scoring consecutive 140’s and narrowly missing out on 180 on more than one occasion. He only recently stopped playing for the County, still plays for 5 teams 5 nights per week, and it really shows.

New Player Signed

Last night we signed a new player called Brian. He seems to be a good player and may get a start in next week’s match at home to Shotley Club. This will definitely strengthen the team, as we try to pull away from the bottom quarter of the league table.

Golden Lion Feedback

The Board : A Winmau Blade II in good condition. No bounce outs off the wire. My only bounce out was a ricochet off a dart barrel.
Lighting : Three bulbs set well back from the board. It was just a little dim on the board.
Oche : A portable "proper" oche with a few inches of elevation. I love these, as you can dig your foot in and not worry about being foul of the line.
Beer : This was a really cheap place to drink. The Boddingtons was only £1.60, and we opted to stay here after the game and play our Team game of Golf. I’ll have to post the rules on here – it’s a great game for 4 or more players.
Food : Not applicable / none laid on for this cup game.
Comments : It was a very quiet, so we virtually had the place to ourselves. We won’t be playing the Golden Lion again in the near future as they are in the other local league, so this was a great opportunity for me to play against new players (some were familiar from other League teams and had signed for the Golden Lion in this cup competition), and play at a different venue.

Golden Lion 8 – 1 Chelmsford (Cup)

Pictured : "Into the lion’s den"

Our cup dream seems to be over, with Golden Lion only requiring 2 points in the return leg next week. We all played at the top of our game even to compete with this team, but were only able to win a single point in Peter’s Singles match against Chris.

Jean and I played well in our Doubles game, but our opposition were scoring baby ton eighties (T20, T19, T19) and other high shots to leave us over 100 points behind when they finished.

In my Singles game I scored 4 consecutive shots of over 80 to make a big dent in the 501, and I ended up having 6 darts at D16, but was just shy of this double at every throw, and I lost the point.

Man of the match yet again goes to Peter for beating their best player on the night and avoiding a whitewash.

Despite the score we had a really good night, and it was a worthwhile outing on a Thursday night.

League Tables, end of November 2005

The Team Captains met at our pub on Wednesday night and the new league tables were announced:

Darts
1) Cricketers - 100
2) Steel Club - 88
3) Coach & Horses - 80
4) Commercial - 76
5) Chopwell Central - 68
6) Smelters - 64
7) Leadgate Cricket - 60
8) Castleside Inn - 58
8) Derwentside - 58
10) Stanley Masons (A) - 52
11) Shotley Club - 51
12) Chelmsford - 44
13) Stanley Masons (B) - 40
14) Black Diamond - 33
15) Jolly Drovers - 30

Dominos
1) Castleside Inn - 40
2) Coach & Horses - 36
3) Cricketers - 35
4) Derwentside - 33
5) Commercial – 32
6) Shotley Club – 31
7) Chopwell Central – 30
8) Black Diamond – 29
8) Chelmsford – 29
8) Jolly Drovers – 29
8) Stanley Masons (B) – 29
12) Leadgate Cricket – 26
13) Steel Club – 26
14) Smelters – 25
15) Stanley Masons (A) - 20