Chelmsford 9 - 1 Jolly Drovers

We continued our recent run if good results on Tuesday night, but it was always going to be a struggle for the Jollies ; they were a man down on the night which means they had to forfeit a Singles point, be heavily disadvantaged in one of the Doubles games, plus they missed one throw in six during the opening 1001x Team game.

We won the Team game by a large margin, but the score went to 2-1 when they won a Doubles game and it may have been a different result if they had their full compliment. From that point in the game they were unlucky to lose all of the six Singles games, as several of games had close finishes. All of our finishes were small shots at D16 etc.

Alan P was yet again our Man Of The Match, hitting three of our winning doubles, but an extra Brownie Point goes to Peter for the 180 in his Singles game.

Jolly Drovers 2 - 8 Chelmsford

The dartboard pictures are back!

The game started off far closer than the final score implies. We trailed throughout the opening team game and considered ourselves lucky when Kris sank the D4 to pinch the point. The Doubles games also were close affairs, as The Jollies brought it back to 2-2.

The six Singles games were a different matter though. We had started to score well and settle on their board, and although most of our finishes on the night were shots at low doubles we played a very strong game and won all 6 of the Singles points.

I'll give Kris Man Of The Match for his important finish on the opening game in which we struggled as well as a great 74 finish in a game against their strongest payer on the night (Paul). Forgive me for a quick humble mention to my 180 followed by a 135 too!

We now have two weeks away from the League. The Chelmsford will be the neutral host of the Team Cup competition semi final on 3rd April and there will be a Race Night at Chopwell Central on 10th April.

Chelmsford 9 - 1 Cricketers

Although we didn't play particularly well last night we were allowed to scoop another 9 points against The Cricketers who did not build their scoring as well as they did two weeks ago in the Away leg.

We started well and got down to the double fairly quickly in the opening Team game, with Peter finishing it on D4. By the time the Doubles games were played we had a 3-1 lead, but after their good scoring in the earlier game I thought they'd be good for a few Singles points.

Although we won all of the Singles games they were a really mixed affair and several times we had to rely on The Cricketers missing their doubles and having some bad luck. Two points from the two games for them really isn't a fair reflection on their efforts, but as always it is the finishes that count.

Peter was the Man Of The Match, getting three of our winning doubles.

Singles Cup Night

What a great night for our 4 team members who made it through to the last 16 of the Darts Singles Cup. The games were played at The Derwentside last night and many of our team went up to support them.

Peter was first up for us, but lost 2-1 to Alan W from Coach & Horses. Alan played a very steady game with good scoring. He rarely strayed from the 20 bed and was impressive all night.

We were guaranteed a success though as Roger and Alan were drawn against eachother. Roger edged it 2-1 to progress. Kris too made it into the next round with a 2-0 victory over NC.

To top off a great night for us Roger booked his place on Finals Night with 2-0 victory over Thomas, and Kris called upon his AAA game to beat Steve Dawson 2-0 and join Roger in the last 4 on Finals Night.

Cricketers 1 - 9 Chelmsford

We picked up some useful points on Tuesday night after a long string of 6-4 results which have seen us slip down to 10th in the League Table. We played a reasonable game but The Cricketers were let down by some poor finishing and would have scored two more points at the very least if they had finished off the games they were doing well in.

Our finishing was better than in previous weeks with a 76 from Peter, 55 from Alan, and a 68 from Roger being the best three.

Alan P was again the clear Man Of The Match for us, hitting three winning doubles in his Team, Doubles, and Singles games.

Chelmsford 6 - 4 Stanley Masons

Yet another 6-4 result to report from Tuesday night, and again it was in our favour. We were scoring well and getting down to the doubles first, but several times we faltered on the finishes.

We took the lead on the opening Team game and won two of the three Doubles games, but from this point the Singles games were shared and we had to just take a narrow victory on a night where better finishing would have seen far more points for us

Alan P was again the Man Of The Match for us, hitting half of the winning doubles for us.

Doubles Cup Night

It was the Doubles Cup on Tuesday. One wining team of Doubles partners went through from each of the four venues to Finals Night.

None of our players from The Chelmsford made it through, but myself and Roger enjoyed our game up at Shotley Club, losing 2-1 to Peter and his partner. Whittling the eight Doubles teams down to one worked well on the night with not too much waiting around to play the games.

Stanley Masons 4 - 6 Chelmsford

Derwent Walk, Winter 2011 / 12

For the third game in a row the result was 6-4, but this time it was in our favour. There were some high scores being hit, but the finishing was generally poor. The one exception was a D16, D16 finish on 64 for Stanley Masons in the Singles Games.

Alan P hit a 180 for us in the opening Team game, but it was not enough to prevent us losing this leg as they finally hit a D1 after several attempts. We won all three of the Doubles games and a good start in the Singles games saw us take a 2-5 lead. Stanley Masons hit a 180 of their own in a strong finish to the Singles games, and the 4-6 result was a fair one.

We played in a small room up at The Masons. The board's lighting was a little too dim, and I feel they could improve it by moving the existing spot lights to the beam which is nearer the board. The board is a Unicorn Eclipse Pro which sounded great as the darts went in.

Alan P was a clear Man Of The Match for us, finding the T20 bed with great regularity in all three of his games and he was averaging over 100 at several points in the evening. This is one of those rare occasions where 4 brownie points are awarded to a single player (the MoTM award, the 180 in the Team Game, a winning Doubles finish, and a winning Singles finish).

Chelmsford 4 - 6 Leadgate Cricket Club

It was a really good night of darts in The Chelmsford last night. There was a high standard of play from both teams and there were some bid scores being hit.

We got off to a great start by taking a 2-0 lead in the Team and first Doubles game, but from that point LCC really cranked up the pressure. They won the next five conecutive games to make it 2-5 before Peter and Chris had fine Singles wins to bring it back to 4-5. We lost the final Singles game however, and the final result was a 6-4 defeat for us as it was in the Away leg a couple of weeks ago.

It was a very enjoyable night of darts though. I won't award a Man Of The Match this week, but those 4 points were so hard fought for I'll award double Brownie Points to all those who hit winning doubles (KC, MB, PMc, and CM).

Doubles Dominos Cup 2012

It was the League's Dominoes Doubles Cup at The Jolly Drovers last night. The Chelmsford were well represented there but sadly none of us made it through to Finals Night. Myself and Angela made it through to the 3rd Round before being narrowly beaten 5-3 by Ian and Shaz.

I must admit I'm not always fully motivated in the Dominos cup games but last night was great, and I could't have tried any harder.

Its back to the darts next week for the Return leg against Leadgate CC.

Leadgate Cricket Club 6 - 4 Chelmsford

Photo by Deborah McIntyre

We were at full strength minus just one player for the first time in a good few weeks and I was expecting a better performance from us on Tuesday. Kris was the only one who played at all well in the opening Team Game (one brownie point awarded for showing the way) and we lost the game disappointingly. There was a damaging string of five scores which were all under 30, and it is really difficult to recover from such low scoring.

I prefer the Cricket Club's new oche of a line on the carpet rather than the aluminium bar they used to have, but we were finding it hard to put some decent scores together. It seemed the harder we tried the more T1 and T5's we were getting. There was no shortage of effort though.

We only picked up 2 of the 6 Singles points, and Roger finished his 32 really well to get us the last point of the evening and keep the scoreline reasonable.

Chelmsford 5 - 5 Moorcock B

We lost the opening team game in an appalling way on Tuesday - leading by 300 points we each took two turns at messing up the finish while Moorcock B quietly got down to the finish and hit it. Worse was to follow as we found ourselves 1-3 down after the Doubles games despite playing a decent game.

Any of the Moorcock players who weren't scoring too highly were making up for it by hitting the doubles. The Singles games were better for us though, and we made up a bit of ground by winning 4 of the 6 to at least get the draw.

Our Man Of The Match was Alan P. He hit a 180 in his Singles game which he followed with an 80+ shot to consolidate it. Typical of much of our finishing he still allowed a big lead to be lost due to hesitance on the finishing, but thankfully he finally got the finish to make it 5-4 in the penultimate game.

Moorcock B Team 7 - 3 Chelmsford

Open fire in The Chelmsford Bar

We were without 4 of our regular players on Tuesday night, but still put up a decent show. The score may not look too good but in every one of the 10 legs we were down to a good double (i.e. D16 etc, not D1!) and just a little more accuracy on the doubles would have seen us draw at the very least.

Michael and Alan both won their Singles games, and I'll award Alan the Man Of The Match for his 70 finish in the Singles as well as a winning performance with me in the Doubles game. They are our three points on the night, but we've played far worse than this and won in the past - it can be a strange game.

Tuesday was a very windy evening up there in Waskerley and many seemed to have chosen to stay at home, with only the 12 participants in the Bar. That said, Helen put on a great buffet and the roaring open fire was so hot you had to keep well out of its way.

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.