Two Match Reports - Moorcock A Team

6/12/11 Moorcock A Team 3 - 7 Chelsmford
The opening team game found us both needing a D3 finish, which both teams split down to a D1 finish. Luckily Kris hit the D1 for us and it seemed to give us the edge in the following games.

Peter hit a 70 finish in two darts (T18, D8) in the Doubles games, but the rest of our finishes were all 40 and below. All players from The Chelmsford hit a winning double on the night, but Kris scored two of them and takes the Man Of The Match award with finishes on 3 and 36.

13/12/11 Chelmsford 5 - 5 Moorcock A Team
The Moorcock A Team were in far better form for the return game. Their finishing was much sharper and after winning the opening Team game they dominated the Doubles games to take a 3-1 lead.

It was all a bit of a struggle for us as we found ourselves missing several of our finishes. We fared far better in the Singles games but still needed to win the last two games to make it a 5-5 tie. Similar to the Away leg we had a 76 finish in two darts (T20, D8) with the rest of the finishes all 40 or under. Michael hit two of our winning doubles to take the Man Of The Match award.

Chelmsford 7 - 3 Shotley B

Firstly, a quick correction from my report on the Home leg against Shotley A Team : I referred to the earlier Away leg as a defeat when in fact it was a 4-6 victory for us.

Our Home game against their B Team on 29/11/2011 went well for us. Kris finished the opening Team game with an important finish on 5. Sometimes these small finishes are bust when aiming for the single to leave the Double. The scoreline then went to 3-3 but from this point we had a very strong showing in the final four Singles game to scoop the remaining points.

There are some pleasing highlights to report : Peter hit a 180 in his Singles game (Brownie Point recorded) and Michael finished on 72. Three of our players hit two finishing doubles each (Michael,Kris, Peter), but I'll award the Man Of The Match to Peter for the 180.

Bat Update (see below)

Here's the bat getting an escort out of the house. Bracken is on a "Leave" command so he won't even look at at

The bat did not struggle at all when gently picked up, and I left him on top of my dog kennel to fly away. I appreciate that bats have a lot of legislation to protect them and I have probably done something wrong, but I hope leaving him where he would have been three days ago before it flew into my house and hid would be OK.

Bats

My Bat

I have two match reports to update on here, but in the meantime have a look at the most interesting thing to happen recently :o) I returned home on Tuesday night after the darts to find a bat attached to my curtains.

The bat came into to my house three days ago and surprised me (to say the least) while I was in the kitchen, but I thought it must have left through the open front door and I couldn't find it after a long search of the house.

Any animals I find in my house gets safe passage out of the front door. Spiders, bees, wasps, anything - all encouraged to go elsewhere with gentle persuasion, so you can imagine the VIP status this beautiful little bat was given.

Shotley Club B Team 5 - 5 Chelmsford

Summer 2011

We were back at Shotley Club on Tuesday night to play their B Team. Both teams played fairly well and the points swung evenly between the tams. I was disappointed that the opening Team Game slipped away from us due to poor finishing, but from that point onwards all of the games were close.

Some highlights on the night were Chris from our team finishing on 50 in two darts (S10, D20), Jethro from their team hitting a high finish to win a point in a game we appeared to be winning, and Peter from their team hitting a couple of ton forties.

Following our two defeats against their A Team it was good to see us to settle down and contest a game evenly.

Chelmsford 3 - 7 Shotley Club A Team

Picture : Summer 2011

This was a very disappointing score for us. We scored quite well in the games but lost out in several of the matches with poor finishing .

Just like last week's defeat it all started so well again with us taking a 2-0 lead, but from that point onwards we consistently failed to hit our doubles and it needed Roger to make it 3-6 with a D7 finish before Shotley sealed it 3-7 to make it a convincing win for them on the night.

Despite the disappointment we do have a Man Of The Match to report, as I was impressed with Peter's 75 finish in two darts early on (T17, D12), and that was precisely the encouragement with the finishing we should have followed.

Shotley Club A Team 4 - 6 Chelmsford

We got off to a flying start on Tuesday night at Shotley Club against their A Team and took a 0-4 lead by winning the opening Team game and the three Doubles games. By the time we had played the second Singles game we were in a 1-5 lead, but from this point they raised their game and we only gained one further point as Shotley improved in the Singles games.

Peter was our Man Of The Match, hitting three of our six wining doubles and being the difference between the two teams with such a close scoreline.

Chelmsford 1 - 9 Derwentside "B"

We had an awful result on Tuesday night. The DB team gave us far more chances than the previous week when we lost 8-2 to them, but poor finishing meant we failed to take our chances. Several times we built up good leads in the games but then committed the cardinal sin of dallying on the finishes.

It was good stuff from DB though, and I think they'll do really well this season. We've seen two sides to them in our games : first a strong performance, and then a determined performance, with 17 points for their efforts.

Normally I'd hold back on a Man Of The Match award, but I simply have to award it to Roger for sparing us the indignity of a brushing with his 22 finish in his Singles game.

Derwentside B 8 - 2 Chelmsford

Wednesday morning at the foot of Ebchester Hill

We played the Derwentside B Team last night and had the use of their back room upstairs. It is great for darts, with a raised oche and perfect lighting. They are yet another team who have opted for a Blade 4 board this season and it seems to be the clear favourite this season.

Although DB were good value for their win with some consistently high scoring it was a little disappointing that we missed two or three chances to get more than just the two points. No complaints apart from that though, and when we're outscored like that we really need to take every single chance at a double we might get.

Our points on the night came from Peter in the opening Team Game and Roger with the last dart of the night. In the intervening games DB were were in impressive form and played a great game.

Turf 4 - 6 Chelmsford

Photo by Amy Thomas

The Turf played far better than last week, and it was a very close game. They are using a Unicorn Radius board. I've not seen this model before. It has thin rounded wires so I wouldn't prefer it to their Eclipse model, but there were no bounce-outs that I can remember.
We started well and took a lead in wining the opening Team Game, but yet again Frank was their secret weapon and he won his Doubles and Singles games to put The Turf in a 2-1 lead with a steady stream of ton plus shots. He played his games first to allow him to leave early.

We had our own secret weapon in Alan though, and he was our clear Man Of The Match with three D8 finishes in the Team / Doubles / Singles games to win half of our points on the night.

Chelmsford 8 - 2 Turf

Ebchester sunset from 30/9/2011

Firstly a quick recap from last Tuesday : We progressed to the next round of the Team Darts and Dominoes competition with a win Away at The Cricketers. It was a good night as always up there and their young team are a pleasure to play against.

Last night it was back to The League, and we took a very welcome eight points against The Turf. We started the game very strongly and eased into a 7-0 lead. We were throwing fairly average darts, but The Turf seemed to have problems in their score building. One exception to this was Frank from their team who was impressive all evening, hitting many 100 / 140 shots.

By the time The Turf finally got their first points of the game the damage had been done from their point of view and I'm sure they will be doing all they can to avoid falling so far behind in next week's return leg at their place.

It was a good evenly balanced performance across our team so I'll hold back the Man Of The Match award this week, though Frank from their team put in the best overall performance of the night.

Chelmsford 7 - 3 Commercial

Derwent Walk, late September 2011

The Commercial got off to a strong start on Tuesday night and won the opening Team game. They maintained their decent scoring in the remaining legs but their finishing seemed to desert them, and several times we were allowed to win points in which we were trailing at the mid point. One notable exception to this was Kris' Singles game where he played solidly throughout but still lost what felt like the quickest game of the night.

The majority of our 7 points were scored by three of us who each sank two winning doubles, but Man Of The Match goes to Roger for his memorable 68 finish on The Bull. The importance of finishing was yet again apparent on Tuesday, and Roger's finish was the highlight for us.

Commercial 5 - 5 Chelmsford

Ebchester's sunset on Tuesday night

On Tuesday night we played The Commercial who are now playing from The Coach and Horses pub. As with Blackhill Club they have also chosen a new Winmau Blade 4 board this season, and I still haven't seen a single bounce out on this model so my early impressions of it are favourable.

All ten of the games on Tuesday were close with neither side dominating. We were well matched with the points being shared throughout the night. Either team could make it a win in the return leg with just a bit more accuracy, so we'll see how that one goes.

Michael was our Man Of The Match, narrowly edging it for higher finishing on his two point winning doubles. Alan also won two points, with Kris getting the other one in his Singles game.

Chelmsford 3 - 7 Blackhill

Picture : Derwent Walk, Summer 2011

We played much better than last week but so did Blackhill and they increased their margin of victory by a point. It's good to make improvements from last week, but both teams can play better than this.

It was an enjoyable game as always against Blackhill, with some good highlights to report too. Graham from Blackhill hit a 180 and a Bull finish in his Singles game against me, Alan P somehow recovered from a first dart of D17 to complete his 63 finish, and Peter's 96 finish in 2 darts were probably the most memorable events.

On a personal note from me it was so strange to play without nicotine (I stopped smoking on 25/8/11) plus the shoulder injury from a cycle accident two weeks ago which has prevented any practice, but I was really pleased to play a reasonably solid game. I thought I'd miss the usual pre and post match cigs. I will however be marking the board whenever possible to keep these idle hands busy :o)

Finally, congratulations to our friends from The Shepherds. They have made the finals of the Pubmaster competition, to be played in Coventry on 22/10/11. Also, we're sad to hear the news regarding Lawrence Bell from their team. See the comments in The Shepherd's Progress post for details.

Blackhill 6 - 4 Chelmsford

A practice shot

What a relief to get our first points of the season Away to a team who whitewashed us 10-0 in the exact same opening day fixture last season.

As always with the darts, we actually played a very ordinary game but somehow managed to get 4 points. Last season we played out of our skins but couldn't buy a point, and that is just the way it goes.

Our 4 points were evenly spread within the team and our first Man Of The Match goes to Michael for getting the finishing double in his Doubles game plus our highest scoring Singles game, despite ultimately losing this one. There were pleasing Singles wins for Peter and Kris too.

I had a bad fall from my bicycle last Tuesday morning where I took the brunt of the impact on my right shoulder. I have difficulties putting a shirt on, but I threw OK on the night so no complaints :o)

Blackhill are now using a Blade 4 board which looked as beautiful as it played - congrats to Nev for choosing this one. I've not played on the Blade 4 before and I was impressed.

The Shepherds Progress

Signals like this did not help us in the Doubles games surprisingly

We were whitewashed again in the Return leg against The Shepherds of Houghton Le Spring on Sunday night. I was unable to attend due to a prior arrangement. Ronnie Scheu from their team very sportingly took my place and was trying hard for our cause by all accounts.

Still not a single point for us from the eleven on offer, but Peter McLean from our team scored a 180, and Micheal forced a deciding leg in a "best of three" Singles match, and I'm afraid that is the sum total we could manage against another very strong display from The Shepherds.

I hope Paul from their team can keep us posted with their progress in this cup competition. I'd be disappointed if they didn't make the finals at least. They have made a real impression on us.

Punch Darts Classic 2011 Round 3 North

Alan (left) collects the Player Of The Season trophy

We were very convincingly whitewashed 0-11 last night by an excellent Sheperds team from Houghton Le Spring. Their scoring was high (averaging over 100 per throw including the finish in one of the 701 legs) and their finishing rarely took more than one visit to the board. In most of the legs we were too far behind to put any pressure whatsoever on their finishes. One 88 finish was picked off in two darts (T16, D20) and was typical of their accuracy.

So, outclassed and we never had a sniff of a point all night. Kris probably came the closest by forcing a "best of three" Singles game into a deciding leg, but that was it for us!

Regards to Paul from their team who mentioned he had seen this blog prior to the match. I noticed he took a T20 route on a 101 finish, again because there was so little pressure there was no need to take the T17 route. The return leg is next week and I have no idea what sort of odds you'd get on us whitewashing them to force a play off. National Lottery type odds spring to mind.

Downtime

Downtime indeed, although we do have a cup match on Sunday night at The Chelmsford. We're through to the third round due to "byes" in the previous two rounds, and I never think that's a good thing - I'd rather play the games.

So those new green polo shirts will be worn on Sunday night and I'll be presenting the Player Of The Season 2010/11 trophy to Alan - pictures to follow. The trophy is the same as last year's, with different dates of course :o)

Presentation Night 2011

First of The Summer Wine (Raspberries)

We had the end of season Presentation Night up at Blackhill Club on Tuesday night. The entertainment was provided by local band The Notice and they went down well with many of us.

Alan Parkin from our team collected his Dominoes Singles to retain this trophy for The Chelmsford following Colin Carr's success last year.

We'll still be meeting up for Tuesday nights darts in the close season, but we don't have anything like last year's Finishing School planned. I'll be doing my usual practice, and I'm hoping to come up with a golf type practice game where hitting the correct Singles is important, because we always have Bob's 27 to practice the doubles on. Details to follow soon.

Practice Night 6/7/11

The Derwent Walk

There's nothing much happening at the moment. We have Presentation Night next Tuesday at Blackhil Club though, where Alan P will be presented with his Singles Dominoes Trophy, which is our highlight of an otherwise settled season for us.

We had a practice night tonight with a good turn out. Perhaps we were lucky not to be fighting for League points on that display to be honest, but a good night nonetheless.

New Team Shirts

Deb wearing the new team shirt

Here's the new team shirt Angela bought for the team. I think they're great.

The Chelmsford has always been known as The Knack for some reason, hence the embroidered name. Let's hope they bring us luck. We've played in them twice at the end of the season with decent results.

Chopwell 5 - 5 Chelsmford

By The Steppy Stones, Ebchester

We finished the season up at Chopwell Central with another very welcome 5 points against the 2nd placed team. After losing the opening 1001x Team Game we briefly found ourselves in a 1-2 lead before sharing the Singles points between the two teams. It was down to Roger to throw our last darts of the season and equalise at 5-5 with a 40 outshot (D5, S2, D14)

It is a great place to play, but I find their Nodor Supabull II board causes plenty of bounce outs due to the large rounded wiring, and there were certainly plenty on the night. Great hospitality as always from them, including a tray of Aftershocks, which was a great touch!

Peter and Alan share the Man Of The Match award for us, sharing four of the match winning doubles with some good play. This means the Player Of The Season goes to Alan, who played in every match of the season and racked up 40 Brownie Points. The trophy is being engraved!

Chelmsford 5 - 5 Chopwell Central

Firstly, sincere thanks to our Landlady Angela who has bought darts team Polo shirts for us all. They're great and I'll post a picture soon.

We did really well to get 5 points against the League's 2nd placed team on Tuesday. I must admit we seemed to be getting the odd bit of luck, with any wayward T12 / T18 / D20 shots going our way, but we still had to finish well and take any chances which arose.

Michael was a very clear Man Of The Match, hitting three of our five winning doubles, including the final dart of the night to get the draw with a well grouped shot at D4. He has made a late dash at the Player Of The Season trophy, although the 4 point gap may be difficult to overcome with just one game remaining. Prior to the final game of the season the main runners are :

1) Alan - 37 points
2) Kris - 36 points
3) Peter and Michael - 32 Points

Chelmsford 4 - 6 Wheatsheaf

Picture from nearby Newlands, May 2011

We didn't play well on Tuesday and The Wheatsheaf did enough to get the win, despite playing to a lower standard than their usual too. We really wanted to finish the season strongly at this late stage in the season, but it just wasn't happening.

The highlights from The Wheatsheaf were two 180's, from Rocky and Shaun. From our team Peter played the best Singles match and finished in 18 darts. Our Man Of The Match was Michael, who provided the finishes for half of our wins on the night (a D20 in the Doubles game and a D8 in the Singles).

We are missing a few regular players for the penultimate game at Home to Chopwell Central on Tuesday so there may be some opportunities for the Dominoes and Darts specialists to swap disciplines.

Wheatsheaf 6 - 4 Chelmsford

We did quite well to get 4 points on Tuesday. We were hitting the odd good shot but not getting true consistency, and we quickly found ourselves 3-1 down. A good showing in the final 6 Singles games was almost enough to see us sneak a draw, but I think the result was a fair one.

The main highlights were from the Wheatsheaf players, with a 180 from Rob, and a very stylish 120 Shanghai finish from Shaun who had to step well to the right to get his last dart in. Our best effort was a 72 finish from Alan (S20, S20, D16) with the rest of our finishes being under 50.

I'll hold back on a Man Of The Match for us this week as none of us really excelled, and this keeps things really tight for the result of our Player of The Season trophy. It is "as you were" from the last post, and looking like a two horse race between Alan and Kris.

We have a Race Night at The Chelmsford on Saturday night 28th May 2011 in support of the darts team, and I hope the Champions League final does not lose us any support for this event. At least you can mention any one of the darts team on Twitter without flouting a super injunction, and you won't catch any one of us messing about with glamour models - we're really noble like that :o)

Chelmsford 6 - 4 Comercial

We had another enjoyable game on Tuesday night in the return game against The Commercial. The scoring carried on from our Away leg last week with all of the games being evenly contested and the overall result was only decided in the final Singles game of the night.

Although we had a 5-2 lead at one point the games were all too close for us to feel confident in a win, and a strong finish to the match from The Commercial left it all riding on the last leg.

One pleasing aspect for us was another win in the opening 1001x Team game, giving us a 77% success rate in this for the season so far. Usually we struggle to get the 50%, so these are useful points that have helped us reach 4th place in The League.

Kris was a very clear Man Of The Match, hitting half of our wining doubles in one of his best games of the season. This has put Kris joint top of the Brownie Point League, tied with Alan on 35 BPs. Peter (30 BPs) can catch them if they slip up in the final few games, but it appears to be a three horse race for the Ebchester Darts Player of the Season 2010/11 Trophy.

Commercial 5 - 5 Chelmsford

Practicing "Tops"

Sadly, The Commercial was closed and demolished last year, but the good news is that the team stayed together and now play from The Coach and Horses in Leadgate, playing under their original team name.

There have been changes in the Coach's layout. They no longer use the raised oche which I preferred due to the throwing line, but no complains with the new Blade 3 board they now use on the other wall, and as expected with such a decent board there was just one bounce-out on the night.

We won an opening Team Game where we had built up a lead to get down to the finish first against the darts. The remaining nine games were far closer though, and The Commercial checked out their finishes better than we did, taking a 5-2 lead. We had to press really hard to take the final three Singles points and get a draw which had seemed unlikely at the halfway point.

There was some good scoring and finishing from both teams. The Commercial registered a 180 in the first Doubles game with their next score being a ton to make a real dent in the 701 required.

Chelmsford 7 - 3 Derwentside "B"

The Derwentside "B" team were a player short due to work commitments and this resulted in them giving us a "bye" point in one of the Singles games, a huge advantage in one of the Doubles games, as well as a free throw to us in each cycle of the opening Team game. Such a pity, as this would have been a very close game without this unwanted advantage.

Still, a good night of competition on another very warm April evening up at our place. We pushed our average to a 75% success rate in the opening Team game, which is a decent stat for us. It was 1-1 after the first Doubles game though, and good scoring with low finishes seemed to be the way that most of the games went.

Kris takes Man Of The Match for us with 36 and 48 finishes in his Doubles and Singles games respectively.

Derwentside "B" 4 - 6 Chelmsford

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge

Tuesday's game against The Derwentside "B" team played in a similar way to the ones against their "A" team, with both teams taking points in flourishes.

Our opening 1001x Team Game was excellent, with an average score of over 73 per throw including the finish, which was 89 in two darts from Mickey.

We took a 0-3 lead, then it was 2 to them, 2 to us, 2 to them before we took the final Singles point for a narrow win. I thought we were strong in the first few games but from that point they were all in the balance and it was another good night of darts at The Derwentside.

Mickey was a very clear Man Of The Match for us, hitting half of our winning doubles with precise finishes on 89, 32, and 40.

Chelmsford 7 - 3 Ox Inn

Pictured : A "Baby Ton Eighty" on the practice board

On Tuesday night we were knocked out of the Team Cup competition by Blackhill Club after we won only a single Doms game and a total brush on the dartboard. No complaints, and BC were as strong as usual.

The previous evening we played our Home leg against The Ox Inn, which had been rescheduled due to bad weather in late January. Despite the long gap between the two games we picked up where we left off and repeated the 7-3 scoreline, although this time we had a "bye" awarded in a Singles games due to one of their party receiving an urgent message.

The scoring was quite erratic for both teams. It seemed every god shot was followed by a clanger, and there were quite a few scores which barely broke double figures mixed in with the tons and steady 60's.

Our Man Of The Match was Mick, who despite losing his Singles game was the only player to hit two winning doubles, including a innovative 13 finish of T1/D5 !

Chelmsford 4 - 6 Derwentside

The Quayside, Newcastle

Another great game to report between our two teams. We started very well and took a 3-0 lead, but the Derwentside took the next four points to take a 3-4 lead. With Kris getting our only Singles point in the six Singles games The Derwentside completed their come back for a win on the night.

There was plenty of effort on display from both teams, and some good scoring too. Our winning doubles were spread evenly between four players, but I'll award MOTM to Kris for the all important Singles point which should have been the basis of at least a draw for us if we could have followed suit.

Well done to Colin for his one dart X8 finish in the opening Team Game. Colin only plays when we are missing a regular, but he played a straong game all night.

Derwentside 2 - 8 Chelmsford

The Swing Bridge, Newcastle

We had a fantastic result against a good Derwentside team last night, almost 4 years to the day since they beat us 9-1 in the same fixture up in Blackhill. Looking back at previous results we seem to take it in turns to get a high scoring win, and certainly we're well matched pair of teams.

In the opening team game we were 200 points behind and beaten at a canter, so it was a relief to quickly equalise and then press on with six consecutive points. There was great hospitality as always, with the use of the back room, a roaring open fire, a choice of cask ales, and a good buffet.

Peter, Kris, and Alan all hit two winning doubles each, but Man Of The Match goes to Michael for a very steady 501 Singles display in which his first five throws were all high scoring and had him down to a small finish.

Chelmsford 5 - 5 Moorcock "B"

Swing Bridge, Newcastle

The Moorcock "B" team made three changes to their team from the previous week, but the result was the same on the night, with a repeat of the 5-5 draw.

This game played out quite differently however. We took a 5-1 lead after losing only one of the Doubles games and were playing reasonably well. The Moorcock's team changes may have been forced upon them as they were not scoring as highly as the week before. They showed much determination to win the final four Singles points of the night though, and there can be no complaints with the draw on the night.

No Man Of The Match this week, as our 5 winning doubles were spread evenly between five players.

Regarding the picture : I was looking for a bit of symmetry with a shot of Newcastle's Swing Bridge taken from the Tyne Bridge, but the car passing at the exact mid point was a bit of a surprise when I loaded it up on the PC. No, actually it was intentional :o)

Moorcock "B" 5 - 5 Chelmsford

We were a little lucky to get a draw against The Moorcock "B" team as one of their players was missing. This meant that one Singles point was given to us by default, and then in a Doubles game we had the odd situation of two of our players taking on just one of theirs. This means the solo player has to score twice as highly as the opponents to stand any chance, and unsurprisingly Mike and Roger took the point.

We also had a slight advantage in the Team game as they had to skip one turn in each six throws. However, Kris's finish for us was a well taken 74 (T14, D16) so the point didn't feel like a gift.

Moorcock "B" are a young team of mostly tall players and they always looked the more likely to get the several 140's which peppered the games. It was their big scores which swung a couple of legs in which we were doing well up to that point. If they can get all six players to our place for the return game we are going to have to raise our game to get a result.

Man Of The Match was Kris. In addtion to the aforementioned 74 in the Doubles he finished on 42 points in his Singles game and was the only one of us to hit two winning doubles.

Doubles Cup Night

I'm afraid The Chelmsford drew a blank on Doubles Cup night on Tuesday, with none of our players going through to the second round.

Roger and I were the only ones playing at The Chelmsford, with our team mates playing at the other venues. We had a good night despite losing 2-1 in our first game. The best darts of the night came from the pairing of Davey Gill and Nev who were the only ones who had to play two rounds to get through, due to the nine teams competing. Four pairings progressed through to the next round later in the year.

I know the league are always fine tuning these events to ensure there are no late finishes, and I thought it worked well on this year, with the final games completing in good time.

Chelmsford 5 - 5 Moorcock "A" Team

Picture by Bradley (thanks Kris)

Last night's return leg against The Moorcock "A" Team was another low scoring game, but this time they were far more determined with some very pleasing performances within their team, and a draw was the least they deserved.

Things started off well for us with a win in the opening Team game, but from that point onwards we always seemed to be chasing, and we were 2-4 down at one point.

This was our first Home game in he refurbished Bar area, and the management have done a great job with it. In particular there's an open fire in the corner now and the treated floor boards look impressive.

We had a close tie again for Man Of The Match this week, with Alan and Chris hitting all but one of our winning doubles between them, but Alan shades it with his D20 and D8 finishes, and is now at the head of the leaderboard.

Moorcock "A" Team 3 - 7 Chelmsford

A 90 finish on the practice board

We didn't have a darts game last Tuesday due to the Dominoes Doubles Cup, where sadly none of us made it through to the next round. We've got some decent dominoes players in the team so it was a real disappointment to come away with nothing other than the usual good night up at the Jolly Drovers.

Last night it was back to the darts league, and despite a slow start in a game which rarely hit any heights we were able to win the game by taking the final four Singles points of the night.

They've got an authentic old fashioned country pub up there with a decent Blade III board, but none of us found it a comfortable throw for some reason. We'd better get used to it because we play their "B" team back there again soon.

There was some real competition for the Man Of The Match award this week, as three of our players sunk two winning doubles each (Peter, Alan, and Micheal). The award goes to Alan however, with his solid 76 finish in his Singles game (S20, S16, D20). He also finished the awful X1 I left him in the team game, which was a huge relief to me.

No game for us on Tuesday gone

We didn't have a game on Tuesday 25th Jan due to The Chelmsford being decorated.

I'd better stick in with the practice because this has been my worst month in nearly two years according to my DartPro stats. I've been making changes to the way I throw to try and get more stability. I think it will be worth persevering with. Maybe the stats for Feb 2011 will show some sort of progress with it all.

Ox Inn 3 - 7 Chelmsford

Both teams played reasonably well on Tuesday, but we seemed to take leads and finish well to ensure a victory. We took four of the final five Singles points, which was a marked improvement from our last game where so many Singles points were shipped.

From our team Alan P hit a 165 to leave a good out shot for Willie in the Doubles, but Peter takes the Man Of The Match for being the only one of us to hit two finishing doubles. Although they were both D1 shots they were taken at the first time of asking and it is so easy to spoil a game on this finish.

It was my first visit to The Ox Inn, having missed this fixture last season. It is a smart modern pub which is thoughtfully laid out and I enjoyed the night up there. They had three different types of keg conditioned beer from The Consett Brewery which is based at The Grey Horse which is just 6 miles away. It travelled well!

Singles Cup 2010/11

Pull!

I tried my hand at a different sort of target shooting today and I only wish I could play darts as well as the clay pigeons went. I know they'll have set the trajectory very much for beginners, but I still got the first two clays, and 17/24 overall. It felt fantastic, and I might take it up. Target shooting only of course.

The Singles cup didn't go quite as well on Tuesday night and Craig and I played a truly abysmal first round game. Thankfully things improved in the 2nd and 3rd rounds and Alan and myself from The Chelmsford are in the hat for the last 16. I've really got to sort out my consistency though because that first round game really shook my confidence.

Chelmsford 6 - 4 Jolly Drovers

We were very rusty in our first League game since 18th December and our scoring was lower than in previous games. It was all a bit erratic from us which led to some frustration. The Drovers on the other hand played a stronger game than in the Away leg and were well worth their points.

We took a 4-1 lead but The Drovers upped their performance in the six Singles matches to win three of them, with Danny and Maureen in particular playing very steady darts for them.

There would have been a tie for man of the match as our 6 points were shared equally between three players, but I'll give it to Peter for getting our highest finish of 60 and being the most consistent on the night.

Next Tuesday we are all spread to the winds to play the Singles Cup competition at the various venues.