League Table Update, 15/01/08

.......Team...... Points . Played
1 ) Cricketers ... 118 ..... 14
2 ) Delves ....... 115 ..... 14
3 ) Chopwell ...... 95 ..... 14
4 ) Chelmsford .... 83 ..... 14
5 ) Coach & Horses. 79 ..... 12
6 ) Shotley Club .. 69 ..... 12
7 ) Commercial .... 67 ..... 14
8 ) Turf .......... 65 ..... 14
9 ) Wheatsheaf .... 57 ..... 12
10) Derwentside ... 50 ..... 14
11) Jolly Drovers . 50 ..... 12
12) Smelters ...... 46 ..... 12
13) Stanley Masons. 40 ..... 12
14) Leadgate CC ... 35 ..... 12
15) Castleside Inn. 11 ..... 14

Smelters 4 - 6 Chelmsford

A good night again for us, picking up 6 points and keeping the momentum going on a night where several of our players were missing and our non-playing Captain needed to play.

We won the opening team game and then continued to take a 0-3 lead. This seemed to spur The Smelters into action, and they took the next four games and make it 4-3. Chelmsford ended strongly though, taking the final 3 games to win the game 4-6.

I was pleased with my own game tonight, hitting the winning shot in the Team game, playing well in my Doubles game with Alan P, and doing just enough to win my Singles game with the aid of a fluke T18 while score building.

The Harrows Magnums

Harrows Magnum 97% Tungsten, 27 grms

Zeeple has asked for a closer look at the Magnums, so here we go.

The knuring is very light, and almost more like an engraved diamond pattern. The middle dart has some of the deep grooves missing, which leads me to suspect they are "rejects". I definitely would have sent them back if I'd paid £30 for them rather than them being a gift. Its purely cosmetic though, and they throw really well.

They are exactly 5 cm in length, with 2.5 cm points. The 97% tungsten content means they are extremely durable ; After 3 months of hammer they are still unmarked in any way, and remain in an almost new condition. This was not the case with the 85% tungsten darts I used to use, and they'd have all sorts of marks after this time. Also, there is no visible oxidation with the Magnums to date, and they remain shiny.

Nearly

My 180's have really dried up recently. It is not through lack of trying and near misses, but this practice shot took the biscuit! The first two darts went exactly where I aimed them, but the third dart seemed to hit the Treble wire and take both flights off the other two as it bounced out and fell to the floor.

The stem on the lower dart seems to have lost it's grip on the flights and is due for replacing, but it was still an incredible fluke to lose both flights on the shot.

Heavy darts, apparently

Pictured : Unicorn "Phil Taylor" 95% tungsten

The Harrows Magnum 97% 27grm darts I'm using are great, but they are now extremely hard to get hold of. Harrows have stopped manufacturing them in the 27 grm weight, and the last few UK suppliers have seemed to run dry over Christmas. This means as soon as my set are lost or stolen (it happens - especially when you only have one set of them!) I will have real problems in replacing them.

The pictured dart seems to be a fairly close match though. Slightly less tungsten in the alloy, but the same overall shape, and Unicorn seem to offer a 27 grm option across most of their range. These will probably be the replacements I get if I need them. it's just strange that a 27 grm option seems to have been dropped by Harrows in their top end darts. I don't consider them to be that heavy, but the trend seems to be on lighter darts than in earlier days when 30+ grms were freely available across the range.

One nice feature of the Unicorn darts are that they are all guaranteed to be within 0.1 grm of each other within the set of three, and they're engraved with their weight to that precision. Unicorn also offer a "Latinum" finish, but I' not too sure what this means - even after scrutinising the specs on their web site. It's something to do with the finish of the grip rather than the alloy I think. Maybe a gimmick, but who knows.

Chelmsford 8 – 2 Shotley

We played well as a team to get these 8 points. Shotley seemed to be slightly weaker than last week, with at least one of their key players missing. Still, as predicted all of the games were closer than the score suggests, and it was the finishing which was the difference.

We again won the opening 1001X team game, but this time it was far closer, with both teams seeming to average just 50 or so per shot as we both took our time to settle into the game.

Shotley’s 17 year old player gained more of the experience he needs and won his Singles game. Their only other point came in their Doubles game against myself and Mark H.

I was really pleased to keep my nerve and win my Singles game though. I was again playing against the darts and my opponent’s first shot was a 140. I replied with two tons, an 80+ and a 70+ to leave me approaching my finish. I missed a D20 opportunity before winning the game with a 4 finish (S2, D1). This was definitely a game I would have lost last season, and sometimes it seems better to come from behind rather than set the pace. I’m sure this doesn’t matter for the better players who just “play the board” though.

We have a break next Tuesday for the Doubles competition which Roger and I are still in. I’ll need to do some focussed practice this week, as we could be up against some of the top players in the league and we were lucky to get through the first round.

Remaining Fixtures

15/01/08 - Shotley Club (H)
29/01/08 - Smelters (A)
05/02/08 - Smelters (H)
12/02/08 - Jolly Drovers (A)
19/02/08 - Jolly Drovers (H)
04/03/08 - Leadgate Cricket (A)
11/03/08 - Leadgate Cricket (H)
18/03/08 - Delves Club (A)
01/04/08 - Delves Club (H)
08/04/08 - Derwentside (A)
15/04/08 - Derwentside (H)
06/05/08 - Commercial (A)
13/05/08 - Commercial (H)
03/06/08 - Chopwell Central (A)
10/06/08 - Chopwell Central (H)

Shotley Club 6 - 4 Chelmsford

Pictured : A practice maximum

We had a narrow defeat tonight against a very evenly matched team, who are just three places below us in the League. Things appeared to be going badly for us in the opening 1001X Team game, and we fell more than 300 points behind. Somehow we managed to retain our great form in this event we were guilty of daylight robbery as I sunk the winning 47 finish (15, D16).

The rest of the games swung very evenly between the two teams. I was really relieved to win my Singles game against the darts, despite some worrying practice darts all week, and Shotley's 17 yr old player did really well to win his Singles game too.

So, next week will be a really interesting return game, with each and every one of us thinking we can win our games.

Powerball

Here's something I've been using for the last two weeks. It's an exercise device for the hands, wrists, and arms. I don't know if it will help the darts, but it can't hurt.

Once it's in full swing it can theoretically weigh 40 lbs, but with my modest record of 10,743 RPM it's probably only weighing 10 lbs. Still, not bad for a piece of plastic the size of a tennis ball though. Further info available from http://www.powerballs.com/ and http://www.lovepowerball.co.uk/

After the Christmas break

After the long break over the Christmas period we restart out League campaign at Shotley Club on Tuesday night. We've been using taxis all season, but due to Shotley being so close we'll be getting the bus along. After missing the taxi in the last game at The Turf I may even walk - on purpose this time!

Roger came down for a practice night on Sunday. It's been very quiet on some nights over the festives, and Sunday was one of them. The darts were fairly poor, and we'll have to play better than that on Tuesday.