Coach & Horses 7 – 3 Chelmsford

A bit of a defeat tonight, but we never felt outclassed. We won the opening Team game, with me sinking the winning D1. On a really cold night up in Leadgate (they left the main fire escape doors open for the smokers) we never felt comfortable on their new two tiered oche, but matched them quiet closely throughout.

Tonight's report has to be a little self centric, with “nerves” being the main theme. I love nerves – they usually give you a push, and add a bit of adrenaline, but after having to fight for my place in the team, the nerves really surfaced tonight. No problem in the Team game where I scored well and finished on D1, and no problem in the Doubles game where I scored better but never got the chance to finish. No. It was the Singles game against the guy who knocked me out of a cup competition last year ; I totally cracked in the finishing, but somehow managed to sink my stupid D3 to win the game.

I only ever feel the nerves in three or four matches all season, so there's one of them out of the way. Hitting the winning double for 2 of our 3 point of the night really ought to make me feel more confident, but this was sheer relief. Not enjoyable, and you'll never play decent darts when you're not enjoying it.

Practice Night

I had a great practice night on Friday up at the Derwentside. I only won about a third of my matches, but there were some really strong players on one of the busiest darts nights up there for a while.

My DartPro stats (pictured) are on an upward curve, which I hope will bode well for Barbados in October. The graph may seem a little erratic, but with the exception of June 2007 it shows that I've completed my 501 games within 10 throws. I'll need to up my average to 56 before I am finishing the games in 9 throws.

These are all averages of course, and any slack finishing is badly punished. On the other hand my game on 1/9/2007 with an average of 100.20 really helped the average! It went 60, 180, 77, 78, and then a 106 finish. Oh to do that in a League game?

Chelmsford 3 – 4 Jolly Drovers

We're out of the Blackhill Ward knock-out cup in the first round, but only on the dominoes tie beaker. It's a mixed darts / dominoes format, where 3 team games of 1001 (Double Start, Double Finish) are played and 3 games of Singles dominoes. It was 3-3 after these 6 games, and the Drovers opted to play the tie-breaker on dominoes. Sadly, we lost decider, but it was a tight game all night and all the best to the Drovers in the next round.

We lost the opening darts game, with only Peter Mc playing a decent game. I wasn't selected due to last week's resounding 10-0 win, and the decision to stick with the winning formula was vindicated as we turned around the darts game and won 2-1, getting stronger as the games went on.

Only the dominoes let us down. No Man Of The Match stood out, but Peter Mc and Paul C scored steadily, with Roger and Mark H providing the finishing. Maybe there'll be no place for me in next week's team against Coach & Horses, but we're top of the league (honest!), playing well, and for the first time in a long while I feel we are a strong darting team. The season will tell!

Chelmsford 10 – 0 Castleside

Pictured : Practice in the house

This is a first for our team in my time with them – a perfect 10-0 victory. I wasn't available for selection due to being in Birmingham earlier in the day, but when I arrived at 21:30 we were already 4-0 up and looking good.

Castleside had made several changes to their team from last week, but unfortunately they faired no better despite the changes. All of the matches were close, but for once our finishing was far more accurate.

On a perfect showing like this it hard to select a Man Of The Match, but it goes to Willie for the second week running due to his slick 51 finish in two darts (S19, D16). Peter was playing, and with our new player Paul continuing his good form and Alan playing well (he was really unlucky to take 9 darts to finish from his 32 – all against the wire) there is a really strong look to our team this season.

So I missed this game due to travel, and Lena (Captain) will rightly stick with the winning team for next Tuesday's home game against Coach & Horses. I'll just have console myself with winning our only Domino point of the evening, beating Barry 3-1.

Castleside Inn 3 – 7 Chelmsford

Pictured : The Castleside Inn

A great start to the season for us, with 7 points in the bag and and all 6 of us winning all of our Singles games for the first time in my time with the team. Willie and I won our Doubles game for the other point, but we had a rocky start against a patched up Castleside team. They won the opening Team game and subsequently took a 3-1 lead.

“Patched up” though they were, I was amazed to see one of their new players miss a 164 finish by a whisker (T20, T18, miss on the bull) and that let us know that they were not to be taken lightly.

Man Of The Match goes to Willie who beat their senior player in the Singles. It was a crucial point for us.

I was really happy to sink two winning doubles without ever feeling comfortable in the games. At this early point it is just a relief to get some points, regardless of the opposition being under strength. We have definitely lost this type of game in the past.

Pre-Season Practice

Pictured : The walk to Derwentside

My results have been getting gradually better, but they are still swinging around wildly.


Last night was typical ; A 138 finish (T20, T18, D12), and then in two games of 501 I had a 3 dart average of just 25 (really bad finishing), followed closely followed by a 3 dart average of over 100 as I scored a 180 and finished really well. I don't know Which type of form I'll be showing in the League, and would settle for just a bit more consistency.

Targets

Pictured - Practice targets

These are the targets I've been concentrating on during the close season. I reckon that decent accuracy on these will improve my game, and I've made a way of converting my results into an accuracy percentage. 35% is my current record.

Close Season Practice

The Derwentside have been providing me with some great practice on Friday nights. As well as Graham, Norman, Mark, Alan and the rest of the Derwentside regulars people from other teams have been dropping in on some nights (Davy, Chris Chivers etc) giving me a really tough time.

I probably only won about 20% of my games in there, but I enjoyed the challenge and I might make Fridays up there a regular thing.

The Blog re-opens for the 2007-8 season!

I've had a good break from darts in the close season, but the blog is now back open for reports on the 2007-8 season. There will be another “Barbados Special” this year, and I can't wait to blog that one!

We start our campaign on Tuesday night, away from home at the Castleside Inn. There are 15 teams again this season :

Castleside Inn
Chelmsford
Chopwell Central
Coach & Horses
Commercial
Cricketers
Delves Club
Derwentside
Jolly Drovers
Leadgate Cricket Club
Shotley Club
Smelters
Stanley Masons
Turf
Weatsheaf