Chelmsford 4 – 6 Castleside

This was a close game between two evenly matched teams. Castleside are higher in the League than us, and this edge showed, as they overcame being 100+ behind in the Team Game to end up winning it and taking a 0-1 lead. My average score over my three throws in this game was 66.3

Jon and Alan won their Doubles game to equalise, and then Jean and I won ours to make it 2-1. My average score was 51 and I finished the D4 Jean left me with the first dart.

Defeats for Lena and Willie in their Doubles game and John in his Singles game made it 2-3, but Alan won his Singles game to equalise again.

All of the games were close. Jean lost her Singles but I won mine to make it 4-4, finishing fairly quickly on D8 and hitting a 119 (S5, T19, T19).

There were to be no further wins however, and defeats for Lena and Willie resulted in a score of 4-6 on the night. I have to take Man Of The Match this week for my two winning finishes, but I don’t like to talk about it :o)

Our return game against Castleside next Tuesday will be the last match of the season.

Stanley Masons (A) 3 – 7 Chelmsford

My back problem (ripped muscle with the surrounding muscles in spasm) has responded fairly well to the anti inflammatory tablets I’m taking, and I was able to play last night.

We started very well. In the opening team game I scored steady 60’s and 59’s, and finished the D2 Jean left me with the 2nd dart to give us a 0-1 lead.

We then won all three of our Doubles games. Next, Peter and Jean won their Singles games to give us an amazing 0-6 lead, but I was the first one to drop a point; I was playing Buck against the darts (he thew first) and we were neck-and-neck all the way down. I had 55 to finish on, but Buck sunk his 63 before I had a throw at my finish. It’s always disappointing to lose, but I threw consistently all night, and will just have to take encouragement from the way I played.

Alan won his Singles game, but defeats for John and Brian meant the final score was 3-7, which is just a little disappointing after taking a 0-6 lead.

Man of the Match this week goes to Jean, with Alan and Peter also in the reckoning. Special mention must also go to Brian for his 180 in his Doubles game.

Chelmsford 6 - 4 Stanley Masons (A)

I’ve got a back problem which has prevented me playing (or even blogging) since last Thursday afternoon. Hopefully it’ll get sorted at the Doctors’ on Friday, but in the meantime here’s a brief summary of Tuesday night’s game.
I counted myself out of selection and was only on stand-by in case we had any no shows. I marked the board and supported the team.

We got off to a great start with a win in the opening Team game and then Jean and Peter won their Doubles game to make it 2-0. Roger and Willie lost their Doubles game, but three consecutive wins for Lena and Brian (Doubles), and Jean and Peter (Singles) put us into a commanding 5-1 lead.

Masons then rallied and won the next three games, beating Roger, Willie, and Lena. This made it 5-4, with everything riding on the final game, which was to decide whether it would be a 5-5 draw or a 6-4 victory.

Thankfully Brian won his Singles game to give us a deserved but narrow victory on the night. Brian was Man of the Match, with Jean and Peter also in the reckoning for winning all of the games they were involved with (Team, Doubles, and Singles).

Laptops

My old Toshiba laptop finally packed in this week. It’s either a cooling problem or something wrong with the hard disk, but after ever shortening periods of time it throws the most violent and noisy crashes. It then refuses to even power on until it’s had at least two hours to sulk.

I need a laptop to run the DartPro software, so I’ve ordered a budget model from Dell rather than pay for repairs to the really old Toshiba. It’s an Inspiron 1300 for under £340, but I’ve noticed they’ve just increased to £389. Good job I was impulsive when I ordered it on Tuesday then ;o)

I’m using the old practice methods in the meantime, and our season resumes on 14/3/06 for the final four games.

League Update 22/2/06

Here's the latest league table. The points total is followed by the Dominos standing in brackets :

1) Cricketers 166 (7)
1) Steel Club 166 (12)
3) Chopwell Central 156 (2)
4) Coach & Horses 139 (5)
5) Smelters 126 (13)
6) Commercial 120 (8)
7) Leadgate Cricket 113 (8)
8) Castleside Inn 105 (1)
9) Derwentside 101 (3)
9) Shotley Club 101 (3)
11) Chelmsford 98 (10)
11) Stanley Masons "A" 98 (15)
13) Jolly Drovers 63 (5)
14) Black Diamond 62 (10)
15) Stanley Masons "B" 56 (13)