Our 2008/9 season starts tomorrow night

The Unicorn Hero 95% 27grms

I've just being doing some very light practice in the last two weeks. Typically I'll play a game of Bob's 27, three games of 301 DS/DF, and three games of 501 straight in.

DartPro is really very useful in recording my progress in these three formats, and when playing the 301 & 501 games I class it as a defeat if my average for the leg is less than the prevailing 3-year average which I've built up over the years on DartPro. This adds a bit of pressure on the finishing shots, as slack finishing ruins the three dart average for the leg.

One slight difference to my grip has come about while trying to improve accuracy on the low doubles such as D3. I noticed I got better results by holding the dart nearer the tip, and in tightening up on the low doubles this grip seems to do well on the mid and high targets too.

Oh Happy Day

I think the hat was meant to be a tennis stick cover

Surely all of us dart players know what it feels like to be beaten by someone who picks the darts up for the first time and just play the game for a laugh. It hurts. They never play you again, or anyone else for that matter, so you don't get the chance to exact any sort of pathetic revenge.

So imagine my glee to beat Deborah at tennis whilst on Holiday. She used to practice and everything. She thinks she's dead good. I beat her on pure serve and volley 6 love. To top it all I've laid the old tennis bat down and I won't give her a chance to, erm, exact any sort of pathetic revenge :o)

League season opens next Tuesday

We had some great news at our informal practice night tonight as the fixtures were pinned up on the board ; as it stands all of last season's teams are still present with the addition of The Moorcock, so we'll have 16 teams.

The Moorcock is a typical old fashioned pub up on the moors and they have a very strong team. We had a great couple of Friendly games against them in October 2005 so I'm really pleased they have joined our league. We play them in December and I'm looking forward to it.

We open our season against The Castleside next Tuesday.

League News

Pictured : A practice shot on Doubles

I don't have any firm news to confirm from the recent League meeting, but at this stage it seems there will be at least as many teams competing in 2008/9 as last season.

This is good news, as I suspected one or two might drop out. One still may drop out, but we definately have a new addition. As soon as I have the starting 15 / 16 I'll publish the teams here.

Chelmsford 5 - 5 Wheatsheaf (2nd leg, Friendly)

Our team were missing three people from last week's game and we only just managed to field 6 players. A large party arrived from The Weatsheaf though, and we had a good night.

As with the previous week we made a really strong start and raced to a 3-0 lead before Wheatsheaf pulled it back and made it 5-5 in the final Singles game of the evening.

This will probably be our last game before the season starts in September, so it was good to put in a decent performance with a team line-up which could be fairly close to the team we'll be fielding next season.

New board, and a new personal 501 record

I've had the Unicorn Ecipse dart board for a few days now, and I now have a new personal best to break it in with - a 13 darter in a 501 game, which is an average of 115.62 per throw. The scores were 140, 140, 100, 81, and a D20 with the first dart. This is by far the best leg I've ever played. The other legs I played tonight were rubbish, but these brief highlights give me encouragement.

There have been no bounce outs whatsoever from the Unicorn Eclipse yet. The wiring is superb, and it is a huge improvement over the Winmau Blade III I've been using since August 2005. There are design problems with the Blade series which cause the wires to become raised from the board, and the treble wires can become flattened in a strange spider's web pattern.

One Week Trial - Titanium Stems

My trial of the Harrows "Silver" Short Titanium stems didn't go too well. They were too short for me, so I'll have to try the Medium ones to give them a proper airing. The short length caused inbalance on my 27g 5cm darts, so as mentioned I'll need the longer version to get a fair result.

Until then there are just a couple of observations ; some of the stems I received were not perfectly machined and did not spin "true" in the hand, so for every couple of packets you may need to bin the odd one. Also, the thread on the stem to attach the flight holder was incredibly fine and I'd prefer a chunky thread. I just didn't have confidence that these replacement tops would survive any sort of serious punishment with such a fine thread.

One very surprising positive is that you get a nice reflection on the dome part of the stem which acts as a strong guide for subsequent throws. I find this really helpful, as it allows you to concentrate on the throw and block out distractions. No other stem I've tried gives this type of reflection.

4th Americas Cup Pictures

Thanks to Rosemarie Duff for sending me some photos of the Americas Cup.

Pictured are Kim Whaley-Hilts (Womens title winner from Canada), the victorious USA team, and the Trinidad & Tobago team (red shirts) and Cayman team (white shirts).

Wheatsheaf 6 - 7 Chelmsford (1st leg, Friendly)

We got off to a great start against Wheatsheaf up in Leadgate last night, but we couldn't maintain the pace and they pulled the scroreline back to a more realistic looking single point victory for us.


I thought we played well against a team with so many strong players, and as expected following our battle for 5th place last season which Wheatsheaf eventually won nothing will be decided until next Tusdays return match.

We had a slightly different format on the night : Two teams of 8 players (a good turn out) played 1 1001X Team Game, 4 Doubles games, and finally 8 Singles games.

Great hospitatlity was provided by the managgement, and thanks to Jay and Lena for arranging these games.

Americas Cup results from Rosemarie Duff

The 4TH America’s Cup in Darts took place at the Cascadia Hotel this weekend beginning a on Friday 25th and ending yesterday, Sunday 27th July. Eleven teams participated ranging from Canada to Brazil.

Once again the Caribbean teams were unable to take the Americas Cup from the Americans as they won for the fourth consecutive time ousting Canada in the finals on Sunday.

Kim Whaley- Hilts of Canada took the Ladies Title winning over Maureen Shepherd of Barbados. In the Men’s category, Gary Mawson of USA beat Canadian, Jerry Hull to take his place as top male player of the event. Mawson also won the award for the most 180’s scoring an impressive 17 in the Tournament.

While the T&T team played extremely well in the first round, qualifying at the top of their group after beating Barbados, Cayman Islands, Guyana and St. Lucia, they were edged out by Jamaica in the knockout quarter finals. However, the local team hopes to successfully defend their Caribbean Team Title in the next event.

The main competition, the 17th Caribbean Darts Championships, will begin on Monday 28th at 5pm. with the opening ceremony and parade of teams, to be followed by an Open Luck of the Draw Doubles. Team games will begin at 10am on Tuesday with 12 competing teams which include Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Florida, Guyana, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Turks and Caicos and Trinidad and Tobago. The public is invited to come and support their National Team at the Cascadia. Further information on this event can be found on the darts website at www.ttdarts.com.

Completed : One Week Trial - Alloy Stems

I've completed my one week trial of Alloy Stems, and the results are positive. I didn't break or bend any of them, and after a full week of play that is quite a surprise to me following my earlier experiences with them.

My DartPro stats for the week showed an improvement of 2 percenatge points against the rolling 28 month average, and I scoreed two 180's with them - well above my usual average of less than one per month.

The problem with them loosening during play disappeared, so it seems a few good tightenings make the thread work better with the tapping within the dart.

I'm almost a convert to the Alloys, and I'll take them to tomorrow night's friendly game against the Wheatsheaf before moving on to trial the Harrows Titanium Stems later in the week.

4th Americas Cup underway

The action has started in the 4th Americas Cup being hosted by Trinidad & Tobago.

The results and fixtures appear here.

MND Benefit Evening, Derwentside 02/08/2008

The Derwentside are holding a Motor Neurone Disease
benefit evening on Saturday 2nd August to commemorate their Landlord Ken, who sadly died earlier in the year.

Tickets are £5, and the featured bands are The Toxic Pixies (pictured) and YIC/DC, which I assume is a local AC/DC tribute band ("why aye" is local dialect for "yes").

I'll be attending with some others from The Chelmsford, and I'm sure it'll be a good night. They always have good music nights up there, and of course we'll be remembering Ken and supporting the cause.

One Week Trial - Alloy Stems

This week I'm trialing the "Silver" Short Alloy 35mm stems from Pure Darts. I'm going to give them a try for a full week and see if they offer anything over the Deflectagrip Nylon Original stems I normally use.

I'll post the results next Monday, but in the meantime there are some general observations I've noted following the first session with them :

• Although labeled "Short" they are actually in between the "Short" and "Medium" lengths of the Deflectagrips. This caused my first few shots to land in the board at a steeper angle, but after a few minutes I seemed to have sub consciously adjusted and the angle of attack is now perfect.
• Those "holes" you can see in the picture allow you to put a dart point through them to tighten them up firmly. Despite this I found that they became loose a couple of times, so you'd need some Silicone "O" Rings to stop this from happening.
• They look great. I'm sure there's no silver in the alloy, and I notice they put quotes around the "Silver" description. They're probably mostly aluminium, and they look really slick. it may sound irrelevant, but it's good to have kit which looks the part.

So, I'll now give them a full week's work-out and post the results.

TTDA 25th Anniversary

Trinidad and Tobago Team Pictures

The Trinidad & Tobago Darts Association was formed 25 years ago, and to coincide with the anniversary they are to host the 4th WDF Americas Cup and the 17th Caribbean Darts Championships. Running from the 25th of July to the 3rd of August at the Cascadia Hotel and Conference Centre the competitions will involve 13 teams, including Brazil, Florida, Canada and U.S.A. with a total of approximately 200 players.

After meeting the T&T team in 2006 and 2007 I am very interested in their progress. I've been in constant touch with Nannette Brooks (T&T Ladies' No 1) over the last two years, swapping tips and advice, and generally sharing our progress in our respective leagues. Although we play at vastly different levels it's great to have someone to share darts issues with as well as just keeping in touch.

Full details of the competitions are available at the official web site including photos of all the competing players and a timetable of events, and I'll post any additional news which Rosemarie Duff sends me. I'm certain Nannette and Vivekanand Dyal (nicknamed Rabbit due to his large family!) will do very well in the Womens and Mens titles. Good luck to both of them, as well as all of the players from the other teams who were such great company in Barbados (Barbados, Guyana, Cayman Islands, and T&T themselves). I really wish I could be there this year, but I think it'll be 2009 when I can next make it.

Practice Night

None of these on Tuesday

With no league games to compete in until September and only two friendly games arranged we had a fairly low key practice night on Tuesday. It was interesting to see the same type of things as on some match nights ; really slack shots from most of us, with only Alan P being on target.

That's OK on a practice night, but not when it happens in a League game - when it matters. It's hard to learn anything from it though.

Towards the end of the night I was getting plenty of good shots in, but had it been a league game this would have been at the point in the night when the opponents had left and we would be just winding down with a few friendly games. I would also be the time when you'd hear lots of "Why didn't you do that in the game?" type comments, and if only I knew the answer . . .

Wheatsheaf Friendly Games

Now the 2007/08 season is over our Tuesday nights will just be practice games until the new season starts in early September.

To break things up a bit we have arranged two friendly games against The Wheatsheaf in Leadgate :

Tuesday 29th July : Wheatsheaf V Chelsmford

Tuesday 5th August : Chelmsford V Wheatsheaf

The new "darts" shirt

Click image to enlarge

Whoa - my new shirt from Toffs arrived on Friday, and I think it may use it for next season's games.

It's a Middlesbrough "Away" shirt from the 1970's in thick cotton, and it's really comfortable to play in.

Note how the lighting set-up has been altered to be dog proof. If he'd have chewed the other side of the mid cable off switch Bracken would be in dog heaven now, so lesson learnt. Hey, he wouldn't do it again, would he :o)

League Placings, 2007/8

As suspected, we dropped to 6th position on the last day of the season, but we're still really pleased to appear well up in the top half of the table.

Congratulations to The Cricketers on their title, and they'll be collecting their trophy on Presentation Night, Delves Club, 08/07/2008.

On the table of leading Individual Singles players the Chelmsford's Peter McLean and myself both made it onto the leader board, in 13th and joint 15th position respectively. It was quite a buzz for me to see my name on that list of the top 24 players for the season. Peter would've been even higher if he'd been able to play more games.

180's Scored, 2007/8 Season

Congratulations to Alan Parkin for achieving joint fourth in the 180's table. This blog was useful to Alan in tracing one of his “lost” (unrecorded) 180's. By using the SEARCH BLOG option at top left we were able to find the details of all three of his maximums. One of these had not been recorded on the post-match game card, and we were able to rectify this.

Interestingly Phil Borthwick notched only a single 180. He went through the season undefeated to top the Individual Placings with 28 wins from 28 games, and he also won the Singles cup. This seems to be a prime example of “180's for show, Doubles for dough”, but I'd still have loved to get my name on the 180's list, and well done to Alan for being our only representative.

Finals Night 2007/08

Picture from Roger's mobile phone

Our League's “Finals Night” was held at Leadgate Cricket Club on Tuesday night.

The Chelmsford's only representative was Jimmy, who lost in the dominoes final to Joe of The Commercial.

The darts were of a really high standard. The big hitters in the league contested the Singles and Doubles semi finals and finals, with the action relayed on big screen. Here are some brief notes on the way it went :

Doubles 1st semi : Neville and Stevie beat Stu and Gary. S&G did well to pull back from a 2-0 deficit before Neville sank the D9 to make it 3-2 in a close game.

Doubles 2nd semi : Tim and Davey were in top form to overcome Graham and Phil 3-0 (18 darts, 14 darts, and 19 darts gave them an overall average of 88 per throw including the finishing).

Singles 1st semi : Phil beat Davey in a game where he was twice trailing, but got to grips with the darts he'd had to borrow due to an earlier emergency to take it 3-2. Most of the legs were 17 darters, with a 15 darter at the beginning.

Singles 2nd semi : Stevie had a bye due to his opponent being unavailable.

Doubles final : Tim and Davey were in great form and were righting any lax shots with 140's. They beat Neville and Stevie 3-0, with Davey taking out 25 (S9, D8) to clinch it.

Singles final : Phil was a very popular winner to beat Stevie in the final. Stevie has been a champion in earlier seasons and looked gutted to lose both the Doubles and Finals, but Phil had been getting stronger as the games went on and had totally found the T20 by the time he played the final.

Bob's 27

Bob's 27 is a great little practice routine I've been using for the last few weeks. It was devised by Bob Anderson and concentrates on Doubles accuracy.

You can keep a note of the running score on paper, in your head, or if you have a laptop handy DartPro handles it nicely with it's usual stats and graphs to help you identify the doubles you have the most trouble with.

You start off with 27 points and go round the board throwing three darts at each double from 1 to 20 in sequence, finishing on the Bull if you prefer. Every double you hit earns you the double's score and is added to your total, but missing a double with all three darts means you must subtract a single double from the total. Once you're down to zero or less the game is over.

I've only ever been right to the end of the game once, but for me it's a good bit of practice on the lower value doubles. That shot on D7 (pictured) is my best ever shot in Bob's 27 - I've not managed three in a given double before or since.

Tommys Darts

I get a lot of visits to this blog from people Googling the term "tommys darts". I've always praised them for their good customer service, and this week has been no exception.

They delivered the wrong flights, but immediately posted replacements when I queried it with them on their Pure Darts site.

I'd asked for the R4X flights (left), but they accidently sent the Amazon ones (right). I'm sure the Amazon range is for female players, so I didn't want to be seen using them after that business with the light purple (allegedly pink) flights from last year :o)

Incidentally, I've proven the Ruthless claim of them being 33% thicker than ordinary flights by clumping 18 of each type together and measuring the width. The results were 8.25mm for the R4X against the 6mm of ordinary flights. No wonder they are so durable.

No reason for this post . . .

. . . I just wanted to brighten things up a bit.

Don't be fooled by the curls - she can hit a 123 under pressure :o)

138 Finish

I don't get many big finishes, and this 138 is definitely the best I've hit for months. I was playing 501 legs on DartPro, and the first dart was perfectly in the T20.

This left 78, and I prefer 18's on this as hitting the single leaves 60, for a prospective D20 finish next time round.

Luckily the T18 just crept in, and instead of my usual trick of fluffing it on the 3rd dart I hit the D12 fairly centrally.

Season Review 2007 / 8

The Good

The opening 1001X team game: We always seemed to fare badly in the first match of a League meeting, but this season we notched a respectable 57.69% success rate. It was even in the 80's at one point, but we couldn't maintain it.

The Doubles games: I don't hold the percentages for team members, but I know that my success rate in the Doubles games this season was an improved 53.85%. I always feel the pressure in Doubles games as I don't want to let my partner down, so I'm relieved to have won more than we lost.

The Singles games. I've smashed my existing record, and this season's win rate will be my new standard to aim for in future seasons. The number's not important for the blog, as it just heaps the pressure on me – a good tip learned from Graham of The Derwentside last season.

Paul : Our new player for the first half of the season made a great impression and did really well. It's a pity that he wasn't available for the second half of the season, but I hope he can play for us at some point in the future.

The Bad

No 180's for me in League games this season, and very few close misses either. I know I'm unlikely to ever win the 180 trophy, but in previous seasons it was good to at least see my name on “the list”.

Travel : I really miss the team coach we had last season. Getting into as many as three taxis is just not the same. There are signs this may be resolved for next season.

Pressure : The nerves were there for me this season. I've had to wave goodbye to the care free days of my first season. I'm now well aware of the high standard around me and the need to just get on with my own game rather than worry about how good the other players are.

The Ugly

My game against Dave Crawley of Delves Club towards the end of the season. I had well more than 200 points remaining as he sunk the winning double – and I threw first! It was an absolute horror show from me, and I usually at least raise my game when I'm up against the leading players.

Chelmsford 2 - 8 Chopwell

The Chelmsford

Too little too late in the race for 5th spot I think, but I'll check for news from Jay (Wheatsheaf) after their game with The Turf. Strangely we played better than last week but didn't collect the points.

I had an awful Team game (40 average on the optimistic side), but cranked it up to win my Doubles game with Peter. I cranked it up even further in my Singles game but couldn't overcome Norman's two 140 shots with him throwing first. If he'd missed his winning double I'd have been looking at 34, so I certainly didn't bottle it.

Peter won his Singles game to get our other point, but there were near misses galore for us on a night where we played the game properly, but were just short of that finishing touch in hitting the doubles.

A fitting end to the season with us competing and making our opponents win the points rather than giving them away, and despite falling back to 6th or 7th in the League I really feel we showed ourselves to be a proper team this season. I should be a spin doctor or something :o)

All good things . . .

The 2007/8 season ends tomorrow night when we sign off with a home game against Chopwell Central. Regardless of the result this has been a great season for us – the best in my three years with The Chelmsford, and I'd like to think we've raised the bar for future seasons.

During the close season I'll continue with the practice and trips up to The Derwentside to see if anyone is playing up there on a Friday night, and I'll also post a few reviews of what went well / badly for us this year. In the meantime I'll get some practice in for tomorrow night, and we'll be doing all we can to hold on to 5^th position in the League.

Chopwell Central 6 - 4 Chelmsford

Practice darts / Alan

This was about the best result we could have hoped for against Chopwell, as they play to a very high standard. They scored a 180, with several near misses on further ones.

We almost had the chance to win the team game, and I would have been looking at 98 if Chris had missed their finish. The average throw from them including the finish was only 55.6, but they got back to their usual form in the following games.

I was pleased with my own game after a poor week on the practice board, but these 4 points may not be enough to allow us to hold on to 5th place; we are now just 3 points ahead of The Wheatsheaf, and if they can repeat their 9-1 scoreline from Tuesday night we'll find it very hard to get the points we need next week.

Cricketers Ladies 1 - 6 Chelmsford (Friendly)

Luckily the big boy (pictured with Deb) is now big enough to be left alone for a few hours hours, and I was able to take part in a great Friendly game up at The Cricketers. I think Bracken must have been crossed with a bear or something.

I think we surprised them by taking a 2-1 lead in their favoured game of Coits (throwing two rope circles at a spindle), and we then won the remaining darts games (three games of 501X Doubles, plus a 1001X team game). Dominoes were also planned, but we ran out of time on a very relaxing night out up at Blackhill.

The Cricketers laid on a nice spread of bar snacks and we had a brilliant evening away from the League, while we sat out a game due to the uneven number of teams in the league. I think we'll be playing them in the close season too, and we're all looking forward to another night like this.

The Crickters men's team arrived back from their game at Coach & Horses with a 9-1 win under their belts, plus a 3-2 win in the dominoes. They are well poised to win both the darts and the doms titles in their final two games against Delves, so good luck to them and we'll see what happens.

Cricketers Ladies 3 -6 Chelmsford (Cup game)

Roger advises we got the points we needed to go through to the next round on Thursday night. Alan P was probably our best player, scoring nothing under 60 in his Singles game and finishing well.

They all had a great time and stayed behind after the game to play some friendly games. Looks like I missed all the fun, but I hope to be available for the last two league matches.

No darts for me tonight

I'll have to miss the return leg against Cricketers Ladies tonight. I've just got this great little puppy and I don't want to leave him with anyone until he is settled.

He is a 10 week old Labrador called Bracken.

Roger will pass the match news for me to post tomorrow. We're 9-0 up from the first leg, but I'm sure nothing will be taken for granted in tonight's game.

Cup : Chelmsford 9 - 0 Cricketers Ladies

Practice darts from Peter Mc

This was a surprise game that I only found out about last night. It's a cup competition much like the ones we enjoyed so much last season. A nice diversion from the League and a chance to meet other teams.

Stevie and his girlfriend were there, but the rest of the team were entirely new to me. Really great people though, and the scoreline flatters us in that at least five of the games were all down to the finishing double and we were just a bit better at hitting the doubles.

I played a really poor Singles game, but a solitary 125 and quick finish allowed me to nick it after a long string of scores which didn't even average 40. Junk from me, and very annoying after a bit of progress on the practice board this week.

I thought we would be playing the usual Cricketers team, and decided to try the Unicorn Hero 27g / 95T's in anger. I'd hit some decent stuff with them in practice, but nothing much of note in this game, so I'm still undecided as to whether they're the ones for me. We'll see. It's amazing how just that 0.5 mm in width can make them feel so different to the Harrows Magnums. More than ever with these darts they need to be held right at the tip and "pulled" towards the board rather than pushed.

The return leg is on Thursday, and it is the only thing going on at the moment as we have another couple of weeks off in the League.

Thanks to our Landlord Lyndon for laying some food on when the kitchen was closed and he wasn't expecting a game on - very much appreciated as always.

Chelmsford 6 - 4 Commercial

Practice darts with the Unicorn Hero 27's

We managed to equalise last week's 6-4 defeat to make it honours even over the two legs tonight. I thought Commercial showed a few weaknesses to allow us in after surely the worst opening team game we have ever played. I can't even remember our scores in this game (denial!) but they were terrible, and we went down 0-1.

From that point we played better and the games swung around evenly, with Peter winning the final game to make it 6-4.

It was great to speak to Stevie on their team. He doesn't normally play for them, but he recognised my Banks Beer polo shirt and we were able to share memories of drinking this admittedly ordinary beer in the admittedly outstanding place of Barbados :o)

Two weeks break for us before our final games against Chopwell Central, and then this blog can finally get back to the minor stuff of my practice routines and mental tortures ;o)

Commercial 6 – 4 Chelmsford

We had a close game up in Leadgate with the scoreline remaining even until the last couple of Singles games when The Comercial pulled away to notch a won.

We lost the opening Team Game but from that point we matched them quite well.

I had an indifferent night, but at least I raised my game from a really poor 1^st three throws in the team game to compete fairly well despite losing my Singles game to Alan. It was just a struggle though.

Great hospitality as always from The Commercial, and we're well set up for the return game on Tuesday.

Bank Holiday Special

We had a Bank Holiday “special” at The Chelmsford this weekend. Peter and Lena organised the events, and Lyndon and Sue were great hosts as usual.

Peter laid on a brilliant Quiz, with some really interesting questions. Sian's Superstars won this by a margin of only one point (Deb, Simon, Caroline, myself).

In the Dominos competition Tracy was the victor. She doesn't play in public that often, but has learnt a shrewd game playing with Jean and Gareth in the home.

Coming totally out of left field I surprised everyone (not least myself) by winning the Pool competition. I put it all down to watching the Snooker World Championship on the TV until Lena pointed out that I watch the darts too, so that doesn't make any sense :o)

The Darts competition was won by Peter, who beat our barman Chris. Good darts from Chris, and I was unbiasedly impressed with Debs' 128 against Peter in the Semis.

There was also a Curry competition, where about 10 different dishes were laid out for us to taste and judge. A split prize was given for this, due to all the entries being so good.

We had a great day, and we travel to The Commerrcial tomorrow night as the darts league nears its end.

League Update

.1) Cricketers ....... 191 . 22
.2) Delves Club ...... 182 . 22
.3) Chopwell Central . 171 . 24
.4) Coach & Horses ... 143 . 22
.5) Chelmsford ....... 131 . 24
.6) Commercial ....... 108 . 22
.7) Shotley Club ..... 104 . 22
.8) Wheatsheaf ....... 100 . 22
.9) Derwentside ....... 94 . 22
10) Leadgate CC ....... 93 . 22
11) Jolly Drovers ..... 88 . 22
12) Smelters .......... 86 . 22
13) Turf .............. 85 . 22
14) Stanley Masons .... 67 . 22
15) Castleside Inn .... 37 . 24

As feared, Jay's old team the Coach & Horses have overtaken us since last month's table. They've played two games less than us, so to be realistic all we can hope to do in the remaining four games is to try and keep fifth spot. Our games against sixth placed Commercial on 6/5 and 13/5 will be crucial.

The guys from The Commercial sometimes read this blog, and they'll be interested to know we have a tough challenge against Chopwell Central in the final two games. Still, it's good to have something to play for right to the end of the season, and there aren't a lot of points seperating the middle third in the table.

The Darts / Dominoes Cup Competition

We had a night off tonight as Chopwell and Cricketers entertained us with a great game up at our place in the Team Darts / Dominoes competition. Our small bar was packed with both competing teams and the usual regulars, and I thought the atmosphere was great for darts.

The darts are played to a slightly different format in this competition ; The two teams of six play games of 1001 DS/DF, and Cricketers took a 1-0 lead in a really high scoring game.

The second leg was a bit more subdued. Cricketers couldn't get off with a starting double, and Chopwell had problems in finishing. Chopwell finally hit the D1 to equalise despite an agonisingly close miss from Timmy Richardson on a 126 Bull finish as they tried to make amends for taking more than 6 attempts to start.

In the next game Cricketers were far more focused and won to make it 2-1. Meanwhile the dominoes decided the game, with Cricketers winning the final game of the night and progressing to the next round.

180's from Chris (Chopwell) and Davey Gill (Cricketers), plus two close misses on high bull finishes from Timmy Richardson were the highlights.

Chelmsford 6 - 4 Derwentside

A practice shot

We played a far better game tonight, and managed to win some evenly matched games to make amends for last week's defeat.

I was much happier with my own game despite a wobble on the finishing and feeling some heavy nerves on the end game. Alan and I were both down to a finish after about 15 darts, but we both ended up in the Mad House to spoil it somewhat.

Norman was his usual self, stringing together some consistently high scores with his 12 grm darts, and hitting a great Bull finish in his Singles game against Mark H.

Collie was unavailable, and we saw Darren step in and continue the good form that has seen him win a long string of Singles games. He was just short of beating Peter on the night though.

It was great to see the Derwentside team up here again, and I'm really looking forward to a good Friday night practice with them this weekend.

Derwentside 7 - 3 Chelmsford

The Derwentside team

We were up in Blackhill last night, taking on The Derwentside. Sadly for us it didn't go too well, with only Peter and Alan able to win any points for us. Peter won his Singles and Doubles game, so was our man of the match on a night where we struggled to put any pressure on Derwentside.

Far too many of my own darts were missing the 20's, and although I didn't play that badly I didn't do enough to beat Craig in my Singles game.

John was new to their team, and I thought he built some good scores. He was unlucky to face Peter in his Singles game, and will probably win a fair few points in future games.

So yet again we have shipped points in the opening away leg, and will need to take every chance we get next week. I noticed Alan from Derwentside was very focused on the night, and I just hope I can again get back into that frame of mind on Tuesday.

The Unicorns

I'm really starting to warm to the Unicorn Hero 95%'s I've been tinkering with for the last couple of weeks. I've taken the metal file to them again, and they are now throwing really well for me. In the picture the first dart was the wayward T5 (very nearly a lucky T12), and the other two made the correction. They're all hitting the board at this nice angle now, and I've tested to ensure I don't get any benefits from changing from the current Medium / Standard config.

I was also trying some 26grm Alan Glazier Sharks, but I found that D20 seemed to be a difficult target to hit. Surely just 1grm can't make any sort of tangible difference, but even if it was psychological it was still definitely "there". The Heros are good at the high and low doubles though, and I've been getting some good consistent shots in at the Bull as a medium height target.

Maybe I'll try them up at The Derwentside on Tuesday, but I'll take the Magnums along just in case. I just wish I got more competitive games to try these sort of changes. Dimensions wise the only difference between the two is the Heros are less than 1mm wider - a tiny difference, but it's strange how I immediately knew they were wider just by looking at them.

Chelmsford 2 - 8 Delves Club

My first maximum with the Unicorn Hero 95s

Although this return match against Delves ended with the same score line, we played a far better game. The opening 1001 Team Game was our worst showing, and we had 300 points on the board as they took the point against the throw.

It was a comprehensive point for them, and it got worse for us as we lost all three of our 701 Doubles games to trail 0-4.

Our best chances for points came in the 501 Singles games. Mark H was very unlucky not to beat Dave Crawley (what a scalp that would have been - Dave has now won all 18 of his Singles games I think), and Alan P too had the chance to finish his game with a really interesting end game ; with 86 remaining he hit S18. That left 68, and instead of going for a straight S18 he aimed just inside the double wire on the 18 knowing that either a single or a double would leave a finish. It strayed into the D18, but he couldn't hit the D16. I would've probably aimed for the T18 as I'd be fearful of missing the board altogether by aiming around the double, so it's not an approach I could try in a game.

Near misses aside we fell behind 0-7 before Peter played a great game against the darts to pull one back and avoid the dreaded whitewash. I was next up and thankfully throwing with the darts (i.e. throwing first). A 123 start and some decent score building put me in a good position. The nerves kicked in as I realised I could get something, but I held it together to finish on 48 in two darts.

Unicorn Hero 95%

Unicorn Hero 95% Tungsten, 27 grms

These are the new Unicorn Hero 95% 27 grm darts I've been trying for the last few weeks. They're waiting in the wings in case I lose my Harrows Magnum 27grm, which are no longer manufactured.

I accidentally selected the "Latinum" option when I ordered them. It's hard to find out exactly what Latinum actually means, but one site described it as "New Unicorn Latinum Tungsten Technology Gives Smooth Release & Soft Feel".

"Smooth release and soft feel" is a bit of an understatement! They always felt greasy and wet, and I couldn't actually grip them properly. It's like a fine satin finish, and really hard to explain until you actually hold them. Anyway, to counter this I've taken a metal file to them and roughened them up a bit. You can see the effect in the picture. This makes all the difference, and I can throw them quite well. Also, I took 3mm off the points to make them exactly 2.5cm in length, which is the length on all of my favourite sets (Hi-Tec, Alan Glazier Shark, Magnum).

You'd be wise to avoid the Latinum finish unless you really need this silky smooth finish on your darts, but apart from this I'm quite pleased with them. They are individually laser etched with "26.9g", so I didn't file that bit :o)

My odds of ever hitting a nine darter

Pictured : The bad news

My odds of achieving a 9 dart finish in a game of 501X are an absurd 18 million to one.

Using my DartPro data from the last 1,207 legs of 501 I've been able to work it out:

I get a 180 every 300 shots, so an opening score of 180 would be 300 / 1

To follow it up with another 180 I'm assuming the odds would be roughly the same, give or take a few extra nerves when it dawned on me that the 9 darter was "on".

That would leave 141. I only hit finishes as large as this this at a rate of once every 200 games, so that's 200 /1

This gives us the 18 million to one (300 X 300 X 200 = 18,000,000)

I probably play around 70 games per month, which is 840 per year. I can therefore confidently predict that I should finally have my 9 darter in the year 23,437

Doubles Cup, 2008

Pictured : Practice darts. Only two of these "count"

Roger and I competed in the last 16 of Doubles cup competition last night at the Coach & Horses, Leadgate. We were knocked out in the first round 2-1, but we both played a decent game and made sure that our opponents (Stevie and Chris Chivers) had to beat us rather than us giving them anything. I felt a lot more stable following that practice routine I'll be explaining later in the week, and I got a fair few steady 60's, 59's and a couple of tons over the three legs. I missed a 112 finish by an inch on the last dart, but Roger finished the D10 I left.

Jay Coulson played his first game after a shoulder injury and did well to get into the second round, before losing to Tim Richardson and Davy Gill. There was the usual high standard on display at this stage of the competition, and several players seemed to be scoring several consecutive tons and showing just how well you have to play to progress into the final 8 teams.

The oche in the Coach & Horses was perfect, despite the stepped walk up when retrieving the darts. The lighting seemed to be the main factor, and I was able to totally concentrate on the board with no distractions in peripheral vision. Nights like these are a real highlight of the season, and Roger and I both enjoyed the event. I just wish I got more competitive matches like this to bring my game along.

Delves Club 8 - 2 Chelmsford

Delves Club beat us at a canter last night. They weren't playing as well as they can, but most of the times they needed to “up” the pace they were able to do so. One impressive string of scores from them came from Fish, with a 100 / 180 / 100 sequence.

Alan P from our team hit a 180 in his Singles game too, but lost the match due to narrowly missing his finishing doubles. Peter was easily our man of the match, winning his Singles game and his Doubles game paired with Mark.

No joy at all for me. I couldn't get steady shots into the board despite the great throw they have at Delves. I hit a large number of 45's and 41'1 and lost my Singles game to Dave Crawley who absolutely battered me, and I am desperate to show them the better side of my game in the return match next week.

Peter has given me a really interesting practice challenge and I'll blog it later in the week. Keep tuned, because I'd be surprised if many people will have heard about this new idea for “stance”.

Chelmsford 5 - 5 Leadgate Cricket Club

This was a much better showing from us tonight, as we drew with the team who had beaten us so easily last Tuesday. We lost the opening 1001x Team Game, but not by such a great margin this time, and we had a two darter left if they had missed their winning double.

Again, Gerry (the Celtic fan I mentioned last week) seemed to be their strongest player, and he was a real threat all night. It's hard to learn from players who just seem to hit such a high percentage of 20's, but I'd love to be able to play so solidly.

Paul C was back for our team after a few weeks off, and I think he was our steadiest player, winning his Singles game and contributing well all night. Roger played a decent game too, on a night when he wasn't expected to be available.

I played well in my Doubles game with Roger (a couple of 80+ scores and a 140 to allow us to overcome playing against the throw), but I was still happy seeing him hit the D1 I had trouble hitting. Also, I got a win in my Singles game against last week's opponent, Les.

All square on the night then, but we dropped the points last week, and it could cost us 4th position in the league.

Stance

I've been trying a new stance over the weekend (figure 1). Both feet firmly on the floor with the weight evenly spread between them, and a straight back with no lean whatsoever. This is so weird for me, because as you can see from figure 2 I normally put all of my weight on the right leg, with an awful lift of the left foot as I throw. I want to get rid of this lifting of the foot, even though I've made improvements over the last few months.

I've had some incredible practice shots with figure 1, regularly putting three darts in the same double bed, and my best ever shot on the Bull (50, 50, 25). But the bad shots are worse than ever, and after a fair bit of DartPro recording I've proved that figure 2 is the more accurate over a long enough stint on the oche.

The good news is that when I revert to figure 2 the lifting isn't as bad and it seems to have improved my overall stance. I'll stick to the old way for now, but during the close season I'm thinking of roughing it out and becoming good at figure 1. I daren't do anything drastic at this important point in the season, but I'll use it in practice to improve my balance etc. Figure 2 could never be used in a long tournament because it is so tiring, but I can throw all day in figure 1.

Leadgate Cricket Club 7 - 3 Chelmsford

We suffered a heavy defeat on Tuesday night. It wasn't just the 7-3 score, but more our really poor showing and overall performance. This doesn't detract from LCC in any way though, as they played consistently well all night and could have won more legs. At one point they were 300+ ahead of us in the 1001X Team game, which was a real first for us this season, and losing this opening game so emphatically set us off on the wrong foot.

Their veteran player Andy was as sharp as ever, and the rest of the team were playing up to his standards. Remember I've been praying for some good solid steady 60 shots? One of their players (Celtic fan – didn't catch his name) had this totally nailed with long strings of 60 / 60 / 100 / 60 throws.

For next week's return leg at least we know we can only play better, but we've put pressure on ourselves by losing so many points in the first leg.

Our only points on the night were a Doubles win for Pater and Alan, and Singles wins for myself and Willie. Peter narrowly missed a 164 finish (25 instead of the Bull), and Roger played a good consistent game, so it wasn't all bad.

Darts Exhibition Night

Pictured : Bob Anderson

Here are some further details of the event Alan from the Derwentside commented upon ;

On Friday 14^th March, the Derwentside are hosting a Darts Exhibition Night featuring Bob Anderson. Tickets are on sale now priced at £8, available from The Derwentside tel 01207 502562

The Limestone Cowboy has a string of world and international titles, including World Professional Champion 1988.

This should be another great night at The Derwentside, and I'll blog some pictures and a review of the event.

League Update 19th Feb 2008

The good news is that we've maintained our position in 4th place, but Coach & Horses are just 3 points behind us with two games in hand.


Pos... Team ............. Points . Played
.1) Cricketers ............ 137 ... 16
.2) Delves Club ........... 130 ... 16
.3) Chopwell Central ...... 123 ... 18
.4) Chelmsford ............ 110 ... 18
.5) Coach & Horses ........ 107 ... 16
.6) Commercial ............. 91 ... 18
.7) Shotley Club ........... 84 ... 16
.8) Turf ................... 79 ... 18
.9) Wheatsheaf ............. 70 ... 16
10) Derwentside ............ 69 ... 18
11) Jolly Drovers .......... 66 ... 16
12) Leadgate Cricket Club .. 65 ... 16
13) Smelters ............... 58 ... 16
14) Stanley Masons ......... 22 ... 18