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The past 4 Seasons' Stats
My personal win rate continued to improve in the season just gone, and I'm really pleased with the increase in both Doubles and Singles games wins.
I just felt generally more relaxed when playing, and even when I took a bashing (for example against Davey Gill in the Singles Cup - my 60 / 59 / 45 shots were no good against his constant 100+'s) I felt good and wanted to keep on playing. This is a big difference from previous seasons where I became discouraged too easily.
DartPro Practice Stats
I think practising a bit less has helped, as sometimes when I was practising several times a week it all became a bit of a slog, and by the time Tuesday night came along I wasn't enjoying the game as much.
The practice stats are far more constant however. Each of those orange bars represents a month's average 501 SS/DF and there's no improvement there. Just a strange pattern of peaks and troughs.
I can only conclude what we all know already : There's no substitute to playing competitively, and practice is just an opportunity to experiment with equipment, stance, and finishes. Its nice to be able to swear loudly in the house too - I'd be thrown out of the pub if I chuntered on like I do on the practice board.
Finals Night again showed the standard required. 15 and 18 dart finishes are very rare from me, but they were the standard currency from all of them last Tuesday.
Finals night was again held at Leadgate Cricket Club last night. The big screen was not in use this time, but there were plenty of great darts to see if you got near enough to the board.
Davey Gill and Timmy Richardson won the Doubles final with a strong 3-0 victory over Chris and Sean. I got to mark the board for this one, and thanks to Macca for asking me.
The Singles final was a tight affair with Davey Gill coming from 2-0 down to even it up for a tense final leg against Dave Dodds. DG would have been a very popular winner but he seemed to lose his way a little after a big finish to make it 2-2 and his first shot throwing first in the decider seemed to immediately hand the throw back to DD. From that point DD kept his nose in front and took the title after a night of great darts from him.
Congratulations to all who took part though. There were a couple of 180's on the night and some long strings of 100+ shots. It was all played to a very high standard as always
Pictured : Switching to 19'sFirstly, sincere thanks to Zeeple and all the other people in the Shoot It Forward chain for allowing me the chance to try out something different, and these darts have been unlike anything I've thrown before.
As a thrower of 27g darts I found the step down to 17g to be a step too far, but I can still appreciate the quality of the Evolutions. The picture shows how I often needed to switch to 19's because the angle of the first dart would cover the T20, but I must stress this would have happened to me with any light dart. I might have fared better with something nearer the 20g mark.
I had no problem at all in finding the T20 with these, and it felt great when the first dart hit the T20 right in the middle of the bed. Strangely from this point 100's and 140's weren't as numerous as usual with such a good marker, but that would've come with more time.
Pros - Very high quality machining.
- They feel absolutely superb in the hand.
- The grip is the best I've thrown with. Those lugs allow you to position the dart perfectly in the hand. I don't get this consistent address with my current set.
- The all-in-one design means you just need to replace flights - not stems.
- They're different. No mean feat in dart design.
Cons - At 128 Euros they are a considered purchase which may deter people from experimenting with them. When you see the tolerances they are produced to on the Evolution site you can appreciate why they're not cheap.
- They are only available in one weight, and a very light one at that. This is because they are a hard point version of a successful soft tip model, where heavy darts are not allowed. I'd love to see a tungsten version of these steel darts.
Conclusion
The Evolutions are fully recommended to throwers of light darts. If you play soft tip too you will be able to have a similar Evolution dart in this format to give you consistency across both disciplines.
Don't be put off by the price - If they are right for you they are worth it, and I really wish I threw lighter ones after two weeks with these. I've enjoyed my time with them, and now I'll post them on the to next person in the chain.
Sadly the Evolution darts didn't make much of an impression with the team at last night's practice. The main complaint from them was the light weight. Alan throws a light dart but even he found the Evolutions to be just too light for him.
I watched the darts hitting the board as they were thrown and they didn't look that bad to me but a couple of the players mentioned the darts veering in flight. This may be due to the grip, which takes a little more time than they had on Tuesday to become accustomed to. In contrast to this I have found the Evolutions have helped with my problem of veering into so many T5's and I'm a big fan of the grip.
It was a different story from Peter though. His first throw was millimetres away from being a maximum (T20, T20, S20), and the next two throws were both high scores with the T20 being found with ease.
A ton forty
The Evolution darts certainly are unlike anything I've thrown before. They're a very dark “gun metal” colour with what appears to be an oxidised finish which I'm hoping will provide a good grip.
They spin perfectly true in a point protector block, indicating they've been well machined and pointed. Cheap darts don't do this, and give a wobble as you spin them in the block. I've often wondered if the wobble of cheap darts would give the benefit of a rifled effect when thrown (gyroscopically stabilizing them during flight), but I certainly feel better about darts which don't have the wobble.
They are shorter than my usual 5cm darts with Medium nylon stems attached. They're probably the same length as my usual darts with Short stems fitted, and of course with the Evolutions there is no option to alter the length due to their “all in one” design.
The first thing I checked was the flights end of the darts to see if there'd been any damage from incoming darts. They are fine though, with no damage at all. I must admit I'm nervous about causing any damage to them myself, as in the past I've wrecked a set of shafts in a single week. This isn't happening to me any more though, so maybe a combination of switching to 19's when the T20 is blocked and a better throw has developed over the last year.
At 17g (steel) They're a fair bit lighter than the 27g (95% tungsten alloy) I usually throw so they may not benefit me personally, but I'm going to give them a full and fair assessment.
Evolution darts Picture courtesy of Zeeple
This morning I received in the post the set of Evolution "all-in-one" darts from Zeeple via Chavis Mutschler (spelling?) as Zeeple's "Shoot It Forward" concept comes to our small part of North East England.
You can read about Shoot It Forward here.
I'll post them on to the next person in the list when I receive instructions, but in the meantime I'll put them through their paces and post the results on here.
[L to R] Mark, Kris, Jean, and RogerOi, get those glasses away from the table!
We signed off the 2008 / 2009 season with an 8-2 defeat up at Chopwell, on a warm evening. The games progressed pretty much in the same manner as last week, but this time we were unable to take enough of our chances in what turned out to be 10 evenly matched legs.
Top marks to Lena and Alan P though, scoring our only two points of the night in their Singles games to put us on the scoreboard and avoid a whitewash.
We had a great time up there to round off a really enjoyable season which should see us finish in roughly 6th place from 15 teams, and I'm really not going to read too much into last night's defeat. We did enough over the season to allow us the odd off night.
I thought both teams struggled tonight and it was a fairly low key event. We won the opening Team game against the run of play and at least we took the few chances that came along to get some points against a good Chopwell team.
Sadly for me my good run of 12 consecutive Doubles wins came to an end, but we went out with a fight and this will be a great target to aim for next season. That's a decent run in a two horse race, and I'm really pleased with it, especially as it spanned the Delves and Wheatsheaf games.
Man Of the Match was definately Norman from Chopwell Central who played a strong game all night and hit a 180. Alan P played our best Singles game.
It's the last game of the season next week. I'll take the camera and there'll be the usual Season review to disect and take to my usual OCD level :o)
We had a much better showing on Tuesday night. Admittedly The Wheatsheaf stepped down a gear from last week, but we still had to be there and ready to take our chances as they came along.
Even though we lost the opening Team game every one of us had the chance to win the game in what became a D1 marathon. In contrast to last week we were close in all of the games, and can even rue a few missed chances after we got to five points with a couple of games remaining.
Alan P hit a nice 111 finish (S20, T17, d20) in his Singles game, and there was some good, confident play again from Kris to send us into the last two games of the season against Chopwell Central with some momentum. A good night for us.
Pictured : A practice Maximum
Our excellent recent run came to an abrupt end at The Wheatsheaf on Tuesday night. Our scoring was generally poor and this meant every time The Wheatsheaf hesitated over a double we were rarely in a position to take advantage, sometimes being a couple of hundred points behind.
They were good though, with some long strings of decent scores. Our only two points came from Peter and myself in our Doubles games, and Kris in his Singles game.
If we want to get a few more points in the home game we've simply got to score better than this. We were rarely near a finish in most of the games, with a few single digit scores to quickly forget!
Great food and hospitality as always up there.
The Chelmsford, April 2009
Neither team played particularly well last night, and The Commercial will be disappointed with a scoreline which flatters to suggest we were four points better than them.
We lost the Team game in a low scoring opening match where neither team were able to get steady scores. The points from the three Doubles games were shared evenly between us, and the first few Singles game went the same way. Luckily for us we won the final four Singles games of the evening to make it 7 - 3 for a scoreline which looked unlikely for most of the match.
A highlight for me was an 81 finish in two darts (T15, D18) in my Doubles game with Roger. I was teased that it would appear on here - they know me so well!
We have a week away from the darts and play in the Dominoes Singles competition up at Chopwell next Tuesday.
The sign has taken a battering!
We got off to a really poor start last night, losing the opening Team Game as The Commercial hit a string of 60+ shots and we struggled to keep up.
We equalised in the first Doubles game but the crucial part of this win was the way Roger and Mark beat their best two players on the night in their Singles games, both times needing to hold on and hope for errors in their finishing.
I had a horror show on Double 5 in my Singles game which you really can't cater for in practice. You tell yourself its just the same as a D20 shot, but it doesn't always help. Alan had some terrible luck with bounce outs but didn't let it bother him, and these were good points to collect with just five games remaining.
Great food and hospitality as always up there from Andy and company.
A Practice maximumLast Tuesday saw the end of our final chance at a cup this season - unless one of us can check out on 170 or score a bunch of ton eighties that is!
We were beaten by The Derwentside in the Team Cup Competition. This is the one where dominoes wins are as important as darts wins.
The Derwentside made amends for for their poor showings against us in the two league games, beating us 4-2 to progress to finals night. They won the darts 2-1 and beat us in the dominoes by the same scoreline. They're really well balanced in both disciplines, so they have a very good chance of winning this competition, and all the best to them from all of us at The Chelmsford.Also, apologies for all of the typos and rank bad spelling in the last post - I'll leave them there as punishment!
Bracken at One Year Old
The puppy I showed off last year is now one year old. It's been a lot of hard work because he's a very exitable dog with a real yearning for the outdoors but it has been worth it, and now the Winter is passed and I can quickly forget walking him on those bitterly cold mornings when I was full of flu and he was delighted to be covered in ice and tracking long gone rabbitts.
I pick him up from the kenells tomorrow night after a break up in Scotland and I am really missing him. He's my first dog and we've both been through a lot together. Many more advernture to come, no doubt.
He still loves horses even though he's been stood on and kicked by them, so we obviously have the same problem with memory :o)
A Shanghai start in 301 DSDF
Although the score was the same as last week's Away leg it was a very different game. The JDs put us under a lot of pressure by playing well in the opening Team game and then playing three very solid Doubles games. However, at the end of these four opening games the scores were tied at 2-2, and we'd managed to match their pace.
The Singles games were all close and although our finishing wasn't up to last week's standards it was still good enough to take all but one of the Singles points.
Roger impressed with his first 15 darts in his Singles game, and despite this leg being the only one that descended into a D1 marathon he was able to get the double. In the other legs The JDs made it an uncomfortable night for us, and I was a relief to get the 7 points.
Pictured : D2s in a game of "Bob's 27"
It was a great team effort from us last night. Firstly Kris and Mark kindly provided the transport when the coach didn't show, and we then had a strong success rate on the finishing doubles, with 6 of the finishes being hit with the first dart.
Kris set the tone for these 1st dart finishes by getting the winning double in the Team game, and by the time he did the same in the first Singles game of the night we were in a commanding 0-4 lead.
Although we played well as a team we couldn't quite maintain the pace from this point and The JDs pulled back 3 points in the Singles games before Roger completed a good night for us with a 98 finish on the second dart (T20, D19).
Last Thursday's boardIt may not look a good result for us but I really thought we put the Away leg behind us and competed well tonight. We can even look back on a couple of oher points that were in the balance.
Phil Borthwick looked to be at his usual best but their other players showed a few vulnerabilities which allowed us to snatch three points and make this a more respectable score-line following the 9-1 defeat on the 10th of March.
I was happy with my own game and I thought I got my mental game right despite a few nerves in the Singles game. The Delves games were a bit of a low point for me last season, but i think I showed them my better side this time around.
The Derwentside main BarThese were good points to collect against The Derwentside. I'd seen Mark and Alan play a superb game up at Blackhill Club on Tuesday (Doubles Cup night), and despite not winning they looked in great form (loads of 100+ shots). Also Norman threw a 180 in the warm up and looked to be back to his best throwing his 12g "wasps".
We lost the opening 1001X Team game to take us under a 50% success rate in this point for the season. We really need to do better in this. We then won our Doubles games to take a lead and the Singles games went reasonably well for us. Willie treated us to a D1 marathon though!
Graham and Collie don't play for The Derwentside anymore, but there's still a strong backbone in the team and I thought their two new players contributed well.
The throw at The Derwentside has been changed from last season, with the board now in the side room adjoining the main bar. There are a few more distracions in the preipheral vision when throwing, but I still prefer this new oche to the previous one where a wall to the left of the player made for a more tight feel when throwing.
The Derwent Walk at Ebchester Station [credit]This was our worst result for a while, and we did nothing to push Delves out of first gear. It's very disappointing when you don't push the opposition and let them canter through the game. In most of the 10 games we weren't even near a finish.
At least we avoided a whitewash, and I finished on the 68 (S20, S16, D16) that Alan P left for me in our Doubles game.
I put last year's nightmare game against Davey Crawley behind me and played a reasonably steady singles game against the throw, but had 88 on the board as my opponent sunk his double. I reall enjoyed it though and wanted to keep on throwing, so at least the mental game was right.
The return leg is in a fortnight's time due to the Doubles Cup next Tuesday, and it'll be a chance to show we can compete to a higher level than in this game.
Many thanks to Steven Dawson of Blackhill Club for arranging a great night out at the Metro Arena Newcastle for the PDC Premier League darts.
I've been to a few events before, but this was by far the largest and the most polished. The atmosphere was great and I'd love to do this again next year.
Its not a cheap night out when you're drinking greedy sized 2 pint cups of Arena priced beer, but worth every penny - and the sore head!
We lost the opening 1001X Team Game due to some poor finishing after building up a small lead, but from that point the games swung between the two teams quite evenly.
Peter Mc played the game of the night, getting down to a D1 finish in 15 darts and then taking it out with the last dart of his next throw. Alan Brunskill from their team again played a good game and won his Singles match.
I used my newer set of Unicorn Hero 27's in the game after taking both sets out with me to try. I think I'll stick with these ones now as they threw quite well for me.
The dates are out for the 2009 Barbados Darts Festival, and as you can see from the picture John Lowe is not hosting it this year. I'm sure Wayne Mardle will do a great job, but I'll really miss John and Karen.
The 10 days quoted include all of the touring party activities and tournaments, but the serious participants from USA / Canada / Caribbean / Guyana etc usually only participate in the final four days for the major tournaments. I have a brief PDF format flyer which I can forward to anyone who'd like to see it : my e-mail address is simon dot d dot thomas at gmx dot com.
The package prices start from £770 per person sharing, but if you prefer to book it all yourself just make sure your hotel is in the St Lawrence Gap district. My initial rough calculations show that for just a little more money you could have a full 14 days and stay in better accommodation if you book it privately. Plus, the official party only fly from Gatwick which is a real pain for me.
We normally don't fare to well up at LCC, but we were good value for our 7 points last night. However, just a little hesitation on some of the finishes will leave both teams thinking they could have scored more points.
The good news is that we're back on track in the opening 1001X Team game to bring our poor stats in this event back to a more reasonable 56% success rate.
Some highlights were Kris' bull finish, great score building from Alan P and Roger, and a fantastic finish from their veteran player Alan where the final 2 darts of the throw got the required 76 with T12, D18.
I had picked up my practice darts by mistake, but they threw OK for me. They just need a few more months of use to get the grip right. They're still a bit grippy, but a bit more wear will improve them. I was happy with my own game but it was well short of what I'll need next week in the last 16 of the Singles Cup.
Table courtesy of Blackhill DartsI 've just seen the draw for the last 16 of the Singles Cup posted on Blackhill Darts.
Its more than a little daunting to be on the same list as these players (notice how they represent only the top few teams), and I'll really have to up my game to avoid taking a bashing.
The practice starts now - it's only twelve days away. All of this practice on Doubles could be of little use if I don't get anywhere near a finish!
It was a surprising result last night. I practice with the Derwentside team in the close season and I know how good they all are, but it just didn't happen for them on Tuesday night. The opening Team Game was tight, and winning that got us off to a good start which we maintained.
These were good points to pick up after the disasters against Shotley Club. Willie R covered for the unavailable Roger and continued his good form whenever called upon.
Here's a decent doubles practice routine I've been using for the last few months. It has a couple of advantages over Bob's 27 in my opinion ; the doubles have to be hit as they would in a match with near misses causing a switch to another finish, and also it doesn't require any chalking.
You have two throws of three darts at each target. The target is actually the finishing score rather than just the double itself, so for example splitting the 20's sees you switching to 10's then 5's etc. This gets you nicely around the whole board, needing single segments and other doubles as you play through the game.
Hitting a target with the 1st or 2nd dart gives you a free throw at the next target which doesn't count as one of your two throws if you miss.
I like to use all three darts when practicing, so totally messing up a target and busting can be rescued by hitting a 50 Bull, giving you all three darts again.
Take the targets in any order, but I find top, bottom, left, right, the diagonals works well. It's game over if you fail to hit a target within the two throws, so it's back to the 20's for the order I take them in. The game is completed successfully when you hit the final target within the two throws.
[Picture credit]Tuesday's games were all called off on Monday evening due to the poor weather conditions. We had a practice night instead, and it went well.
I'm not sure what'll happen this Tuesday as the conditions are nearly as bad at the moment, with more snow forecast for Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday.
River Derwent, Ebchester [credit]This was a very comprehensive and disappointing defeat for us, but we actually played a better game than in the Away leg last week. SC raised their game too though, and they were on great form.
We actually won the opening team game with Alan P finishing on 70 with his last two darts (T20, D5). From that point onwards though we didn't win another game until Willie R continued his run of great performances to snatch a Singles point. Any neutral would say the overall result was correct though.
I was a bit stunned by the emphatic nature of the defeat, but I can honestly say I played above my normal standard. This was just a reminder that there are some very strong teams in this League, and when you get a chance to take points (i.e. against them in last week's game) you've got to take them.
Footnote : We had a team practice night last night to try and get us back on the right track. 501 legs and "Golf" like we used to play a couple of years ago. Maybe my "no practice" approach only works when things are going well, and I'll hit the practice board tonight.
River Derwent, Shotley BridgeThe break last week doesn't seem to have helped our game and we made a really poor start againstShotley Club last night. Losing the opening Team game and the first two Doubles game saw us 3-0 down and not looking steady at all.
Thankfully we pulled a few games back to make it look a reasonably close scoreline, but this was definitely our worst team performance of the season.
On a positive note there'll be times when we play better than that but win fewer points, so perhaps we made the best of a bad night.
Despite the same scoreline as the away leg a fortnight ago Moorcock were in much better form and pushed us all the way for the points. We lost the opening Team game with some really disappointing shots spread amongst our team. This allowed doubt to set in, whilst our opponents really warmed to the game.
Simon from their team was probably the steadiest player of the night. Special mention must go to their youngest player, who showed good focus to win the last point of the night and prevent a 7-3 defeat which would have been somewhat false.
Willie played a great Singles game for us to win the the only impressive point of the evening for us. We have a break next week to take part in the Doubles Dominoes competition. I'm not too bothered about Doms, but I still want to see us go as far as we can in all competitions this year.
Now I've had the chance to use my recovered darts alongside the replacements I can see a couple of differences between them. You can see in the picture the new gold ones have a slightly longer grip area and the the part where the point joins the barrel is slightly less bulbous. The new ones are exactly 27.0 grammes as opposed to 26.9 (they are laser etched with their weights to 0.1g precision).
These differences cause no problems at all, but the grip on the new ones is far more effective, and this is causing a worse release and my darts are veering to the left. I think this will decrease as they take a bit more damage and become smoother, but in the meantime I'll use the old ones for matches and the new ones for practice. Overcoming the poor release on the new ones seems to help overall technique when using the match darts, so I think this arrangement will work well.
Now I have tried these in both the Latinum and plain finishes I can see the benefit of Latinum. Maybe it is best to get them in this smoother finish and then roughen them up with the blade of a metal file if required. The pattern on the plain finish is extremely grippy.
I don't think too many of us settled into our games tonight as we saw several good leads wasted. On any other night I think we'd have scored a few more points but we just seemed determined to make a close game of it.
What a great location up at The Moorcock though. It feels like it should be aother County as you drive West past Castleside and out onto the moors.
Many thanks to Paul for finding my darts and passing them on.
Losing them was easy enough; being stupid enough to take them out with the dog for a walk in a coat that doesn't have decent pockets, but getting them returned was a harder journey. Someone found them and left them in a prominent position on a fence. Paul spotted them and left them thinking that the owner would find them easier if he left them where they were. Then he remembered the blog and matched the "lost" story. By this time they'd fallen off the fence and were in a field.
Many thanks to him for digging them out and letting me know. A huge relief, and I'm getting my 26's with the haymakers now :o)
Unicorn Golden Hero 95% 27g
I lost my regular set of darts last week. Maybe they'll turn up somewhere, but in the meantime I have been using the excellent Harrows Magnum 27g's. They're the best set I've ever owned (courtesy of Les allowing me to swap with him when we were given a free set each in Barbados), but sometimes they can be "twitchy" ; my tons become 140's with them, but the 45's become 26's if that makes any sort of sense.
I bet if I stuck in with them they'd be "the ones", but they're no longer available in 27g and I don't want to become dependant upon a dart which is no longer manufactured.
I've therefore ordered direct replacements for the Unicorn Hero 27g's from Pure Darts, and I've opted for the titanium finish pictured. When they arrive I'll need to file the points down to 2.5cm, so while I do that I may need to call upon the Magnums again for next week's game.
Tonight we played the Team Cup Competition where dominoes wins are just as important as darts wins. Basically it's a Team game of 1001 DSDF darts followed by a Singles game of dominoes, with the games swinging between the two disciplines until a winner is found.
We had no problems in the darts at all, but the dominoes were causing concern. Thankfully Roger hit the winning double for us in the final game of the night, but it was Willie who lead the way for us, sinking a D1 in one of the darts games and then winning his dominoes game.
Its a strange format, but this puts us into the final four. I was happy enough with my own game, but you don't get that many shots at the board in this format so it was hard to get into any sort of true rhythm.
Picture from last week's Away game
We carried a bit of good luck in last night's game, with several wayward shots finding their way into D20 and T12 etc. Mark H even scored a lucky ton with two unintentional D20s. Apart from that he played a strong game though, leading the way in the Team Game and carrying me in our doubles game.
Dawn from their team will be sick of the sight of me after four games against me in three weeks in Singles, Doubles, and Cup. There were many similarities to last week's game.
We're still quite low in the league table, but these 14 points in the last fortnight should see us moving in the right direction.
I mentioned in the previous post I avoid finishes that can "bust" if the first dart is wayward, but I noticed Bobby George took this to a higher level while commenting on the World Masters Darts today.
For a 72 finish he avoids my favoured T12 route as if you're left with 60 after the first dart you can bust it while aiming for a S20 to leave D20. It's a fair point, especially after seeing this happen on the stage today.
So I've had a bit of a rethink about a finish which was previously a reflex. The T20 approach must also be ruled out, as with 52 remaining you'd have the same problem on the S20. By illimination this just leaves the T16 route : Getting the treble leaves D12, but the single would leave 56. Again, I'd avoid S20 for the afforementioned reason and go S16 to leave D20 where an unwanted treble would still leave a nice D4.
This is hard to follow, isn't it? I bet I just go T12 next time I'm on 72 :o)
A Stanley sunset by Karen Burnip
It was a bitterly cold night last night and it was no surprised to find both our own bar and the Stanley Masons deserted apart from the participants themselves. We were at full strength apart from our non-playing captain's absence, but SM were missing one of their best players.
I've picked up a virus with all the dog walking in the early morning frost so it was just a night I wanted to get through, and I think I played a decent game under the circumstances. Hopefully It'll clear up by next Tuesday if I look after myself.
There weren't too many moments worthy of mention, but our new player Kris has developed a really steady throw and is hitting the steady S20's which are so valuable at this level.
Actually, one thing worthy of mention: I noticed one of our players tackle a 49 finish by going S17, D16. As so often happens he bust it by hitting an unwanted T17 with the first dart. I'll blog about this aspect of finishing later, as I would have tried S9, D20 to avoid that. Even an unwanted T9 would have left a nice D11 at shoulder height. We all know s**t happens, so why give it a helping hand?
A picture from the Away leg a fortnight ago
A result that flatters us a bit, but seven valuable points nonetheless. We won the opening Team Game to give us a 50% success rate in Team Games for the season so far. Punch Bowl immediately equalised in the next Doubles game but from that point we showed some good finishing to built a lead.
I was pleased with my own game and managed to show some proper focus. I think this is the result of a reduced practice regime, meaning that I approach match nights as a change rather than just part of a weekly slog. I just have the one practice session a week now to try and improve my throw and become steadier.
Some good news is that Peter Mc will be available for all of the games up to January at least so there'll be some good competition for selection.
Remember the new puppy I blogged about in May? He's fairly grown up now (7 months) and has rapidly become a really well trained dog. This is just the breed rather than my skills though. Labs are just so compliant you can't go wrong with them.
He has loads of commands and tricks. The one and only darts command he has is visual; When I point at my darts he gets up off the floor and walks away from the practice oche, well out of bounce-out range.
One command I'm proud of with him though is "other side"; he'll be walking to heel off lead and swaps over to the opposite side. This is really handy on the Derwent Walk when cycles and other dogs approach.
And with Labs they'll stick to the rules you set like sitting calm when a sheep or other dog appears even if you are 40 yards away - he'll just sit and wait for you to catch up with him.
Top dog. I can't wait to see what he can do at a year. Maybe retrieving the bounce-outs might suit his breed - and save my back :o)
Practice shot on the Mad House
Roger and I got through to the next round of the Cup Doubles competition last night at the Wheatsheaf in Leadgate. We didn't play very well but managed to scrape through 2-1 against Buck and Dawn from Stanley Masons in a game where none of the four will have been happy with our performances.The other games on the night were of a much higher standard, and Roger and I will have to play far better than we did to get any further when the next round is played next March.To take a positive I thought our finishing was decent, but that usually happens when the score building isn't good.Meanwhile back at The Chelmsford Alan P and Peter M got through with a "bye".
We had our first trip to League newcomers The Punch Bowl of Edmundbyers last night. It's a smart country pub in the traditional style with an open plan layout, and it's a 7 mile drive through the back roads from Ebchester.
They're a comparatively young team and although we got off to a good start the matches started going their way. We needed to win the final two Singles matches to secure a narrow victory.
One of their players finished his 501 game in 19 darts and it would have been even less if he hadn't slipped up on two throws.
We have the Cup Doubles competition next week before we host the return leg against the Punch Bowl on the 25th of November.
The new range of Deflectafrips
I noticed from the new Tommys Darts catalogue that the humble Deflectagrip stems have undergone a bit of an image change recently, and their online store Puredarts reflects the changes.
I'm all for change and trying new products, but the Fluro, GLO, and 2 Tone additions to the usual choice of just plain old Black / Blue / Red / White seem to have undermined the age old beauty and selling point of the Deflectagrips : They're boring. Unashamedly and utterly boring. No matter how many dart barrels and flight shapes I've tinkered with the Deflectagrips are the constant where you fit a set and know you're not going to be replacing any broken ones for months on end. Sometimes I swap between Short tand Medium, but that's it.
I enjoyed using the aluminium and titanium ones earlier in the year, but I wouldn't dream of taking them on a trip away from base like the the Barbados tourney because the spares I'd need would take up too much luggage space! With the Deflectagrips I'd take four sets with me and bring back two unopened.
So, it's nice to have a wider choice, but I don't think I'll be exercising that choice thanks. I prefer to think of them as dependable rather than boring ;o)
As expected the Blackhill Cricketers put last week's poor start behind them. Consistent scoring ond good finishing saw them win the opening Team Game and all three of the Doubles games. This put us 0-4 down and we needed to scrape a few points in the remaining six Singles game to avoid a heavy defeat.
7 points from 2 games are a reasonable return for us against The Cricketers though, and believe me when your opponents are disappointed with throws like 135 you know you're in for a tough time and every point counts.
They're hosting a competition at the weekend, and I'll do my best to enter it. It's all good experience and I'm sure it'll be a great event.
Sadly The Castleside Inn have dropped out of the League, and all points scored against them are void.
It's really sad to lose a team and I suspect they've suffered from the problems that most pubs and clubs have been facing for the last few years.
The Beer & Pub Association report that pub closures are approaching 30 a week (source), and it's worrying times for a game like darts which is heavily dependant upon the pubs that we play in. Special events and unique selling points can only go so far to compete for the pound in your pocket during times of economic uncertainty.
All the best to Noel and co. up there, and I hope they're able to field a team at some point in the future.
Picture from Stevie's phone camera, thanksWe had a great night up in Blackhill on Tuesday. The Cicketers are one of the League's best teams so we had the chance to pit ourselves against a team who will be in the top two at the end of the season.
There was EPL football being screened in the main bar so we had to play in the side room, but this turned out to be a good thing as they erected their full size professional standard oche. The lighting was flawless and the throw was absolutely perfect. If the other bars have made no changes to their boards from last season I can confiedntly say that this is the best throw in the league. Strangely I think they only use this set-up when the main bar can't be used. The stage must take some setting up I suppose.
On a night where Cricketers took a while to settle we took some good early points in the opening Team game and the Doubles games. This settled us, as no matter how positive you feel mentally there's always the chance of getting beaten soundly against the top three teams.
I predict a backlash from them next week. This will feel like 4 points lost to them and we'll need to be focussed.
Photo from the Blackhill Cricketers site
The Blackhill Cricketers Darts Team now have an online presence at Blackhill Darts. There are a few sections under construction, but it's a great idea to have a team site and I'll check it for updates throughout the season.
They're certainly piling the points on in the League.
We had a strangely low key and quiet night up at the Coach & Horses, Leadgate tonight. I endured the best and worst of my own game to scrape through to the last 16 for the first time. At one point I had the dreaded 1-0 lead and throwing really well against the darts to clinch it, but my finishing deserted me and it had to go to the wire in the 3rd leg.
I was a bit disappointed to get all of the poor mental game that I've done so much to remove from my League games come back on Cup night, but I did just enough to make it through to the second round where the heat will really be on and we can see those problems properly magnified :o)
Pictured : On my wish list - the John Part Unicorn "Hero Golden" 95%Most of the players from both teams "upped" their games from last week, and this resulted in a very close match where all of games went right to the wire. The Turf brought good support with them which made for a great atmosphere.
Sadly for us our newest player Kris has switched job and wasn't there. He's now working up at Slaley Hall and is unlikely to make many more appearances for us. On the other hand our old stalwart Chris picked up the darts for his first game during my time with the team, and he played a very strong game despite losing his Singles game.
I personally had a few problems score building, but my finishing was good. I never seem to get both aspects together these days.
A very enjoyable evening and I'll be watching for The Turf in the League, as I think they'll pick up a lot of points and do well this season.
A good result for our team, and I had to console myself with a "team" performance, getting the winning doubles in the opening Team game and my Doubles game with Roger, but losing in my Singles game. Too many of my first darts were straying into the 5's.
Peter and Alan were our most consistent players on a night where we never felt comfortable or settled. The Turf's board is Unicorn Eclipse like my practice board (excellent, and needless to say there were no bounce outs on the night), but it is the stark lighting which takes some getting used to.
After my long walk home from The Turf last season I made sure I was first on the team bus :o)
We had a break from the League last night and played Stanley Masons at home in the The Blackhill Ward Knock Out, 1st Round.
The format is a mix of darts and dominoes. The darts consist of three team games of 1001 DSDF, and although we got the right result with a 2-1 win in the darts none of us really settled and played well. In one game both teams struggled to even get a steady 60.
The other two legs were OK though and I was pleased to get the D9 finish in the opening game.
The dominoes result went the right way too, and we've progressed into the next round which will be played on the 16th December 2008.
The past 4 Seasons' Stats
