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Practice on Bob's 27 : Two and a marker
The Derwentside started well and quickly hit a consistent note. There were a few new faces in their team from my point of view (including their new Landlord) and they all seem to have settled in well.
I prefer where they have their board now in the side bar. It gives more space for people who like to stand to the left when throwing and there's a good atmosphere for darts.
On a disappointing night for us I still thought we had joint Players Of The Match nonetheless ; Peter and Kris both played well enough to win their Doubles and Single points. Without these performances it could have been even worse for us.
Congratulations to Alan / Mark / Craig and crew, and we look forward to seeing them in the return game.
Peter, Kris, and Alan represented The Chelmsford in the last 16 of the Singles Knock-out Cup up at The Derwentside last night. Sadly, Kris and Alan were knocked out despite them both finding the trebles and putting up a strong challenge.
Kris was getting a good number of 100+ shots and Alan seemed to be on his way to a win before his opponent made up a lot of ground with a 180 to snatch the winning leg.
Better news with Peter though, who made it through to the last four for the big match on Finals Night. Although he didn't reach his own high standards there was nothing wrong with the important part of the game - the finishing. If he takes his A Game up there he'll match anyone, so fingers crossed and well done Peter.
Although we played well in the opening Team game to take a lead it all went wrong from there. We lost all three of the Doubles games and the first Singles game to find ourselves 1 - 4 down despite some reasonable play from us.
Player of The Match though was Lena, who won a very important Singles point to steer us back on track and make it 2-4. Trailing 1-5 down would have been difficult to overcome, and thankfully we were able to win 3 of the remaining Singles game to secure a draw.
The Moorcock "B" Team are above us in the league, so these 11 points over the two games will be useful.
The Moorcock B Team are a good bunch of young players so these 6 points were a good result for us. We were really disappointed to lose the opening 1001X Team game after building up a decent lead but failing to finish, but by the end of the three Doubles games we were back to 2-2.
Although neither team really hit top form I thought Peter, Alan, Kris, and Mick were all doing well for us, and I'll hold back on a Man Of The Match this week because there was little between them.
Simon D took his camera and I hope to have some better shots for the blog from him, because even I'm geting sick of the dart board pictures I take.
Roger and I squeezed into the next round of the League's "Doubles" competition last night. I don't yet know the results from the rest of our team's games, as things ran a little late for us up at The Coach and Horses. It was midnight as Roger and I played the final game of the evening so I'm realy pleased we managed to get a result.
I love the throw at The Coach and Horses. It has a raised oche, good lighting, and no distractions in the line of sight. Unfortunately the board itself is a little dificult to play on. The large, rounded wires caused numerous bounce-outs for all players, and some of mine were landing behind me. I think if they get a Blade III or an Eclipse it would really help the players.
A local game, for local locals
The Moorcock really upped their game from last week and showed determination to get the points. The Special Stuff came from Moorcock's Jonathon Archer with a superb 118 (T20, S18, D20) finish in a Singles game he seemed to be losing.
As with last week we built our scores well, but this time we found that any misses on the finishes were punished, and at no point in the 10 games did anyone have more than a narrow lead on the scoreboard.
I'l hold back on a Man Of The Match this week, as I thought it was just a tight game.
We got off to a very good start in the opening 1001X Team game, and it seemed The Moorcock team couldn't get into their stride. This meant they didn't apply as much pressure as possible, and in several of the games we got down to the finish first and were then making sure that we didn't spoil the doubles.
Man Of The Match was Micky B. In his Doubles game he scored three consecutive 100+ shots, and he also hung in well to win a Singles point where the finishing was causing both players problems.
The Morcock is a great traditional pub up in the moors of Waskerley. They had a well stoked open fire and some superb Black Sheep on cask. It's a really good pub to play darts in.
There was no joy for myself or Jean at The Cricketers on Tuesday night. I was knocked out in the second round 2-1 by Collie of Blackhill Club. At least I raised my game from a poor first round 2-1 victory, and it was a close game.
Good news elsewhere though, as three of our leading lights progressed to the next stage. Alan, Peter, and Kris all made it, with Peter scoring an impressive two 180's on the night.
Good luck to our three and Collie. They're just a couple of wins away from Finals Night and It'd be great if The Chelmsford were represented in The Singles.
Practice darts
This was one of our best team efforts for a long time, playing against good quality opposition who are immediately above us in the League. Perhaps the 8 point swing we've gained in the last two games against them will have changed that.
We took a strong lead before losing one of the later Singles games. The big difference for us in this game was that we snatched a couple of Singles points which were looking unlikely and showed determination to stay in these games hoping for the slip-ups on their finishing which we needed. It might have been a 6-4 or 7-3 result without this aspect.
No Man Of The Match this week as I really felt this was a team performance.
The Singles cup is looming, and I hope a few of us can get into the next round.
Practising less favoured doublesIt was good to get back to League action after a break since our last game before Christmas. On that occasion it was a 5-5 draw against the Shotley 'A' team, and it was the same score against their 'B' team on Tuesday night.
We lost the opening Team game, but pulled it back to 2-2 by the end of the three Doubles games. With both teams quite evenly matched the points in the six Singles games were shared to result in a 5-5 draw on the night.
The Man Of The Match was in fact a Person Of The Match : Jean put in a great performance in the final Singles game of the night to earn the draw which I feel we were good for. Neither team really messed up any finishing, so we'll all be aware of the need to hit those doubles in the Return leg.
Dave ChisnallI'm a fan of the BDO competitions, but even I will admit this week's Lakeside games have shown both ends of the scale when it comes to the standard of play.
However, The Player of the Tournament so far must be Dave Chisnall, who has treated us to a spectacular comeback against Ted Hankey in the Quarter Final, and as I write he has just progressed to the Final with a breathtaking display against O'Shea. There was one string of consecutive shots which were a 164 finish for Chisnall, immediately followed by them both trading 180's.
From my experience the BDO standards are mainly criticised by non players, Pro's, and County standard players. Most of the happy enthusiast players like myself enjoy the way you honestly don't know what will happen next at the Lakeside. Sure, I'm fascinated to watch Phil Taylor carefully plant his darts from right to left from the bottom corner of the T20 bed but I never feel emotion watching PDC games - it's a different experience altogether.
Chisnall may well gravitate to the PDC in the future, but you can be sure there'll be another young talent to take his place at The Lakeside, which screens on free-to-air terrestrial TV in the UK - unlike the subscription required for PDC games. What's there not to like?
Steadier than my walking skills!No league darts this week as we had a break. Actually I didn't realise we weren't playing and I rushed down on Tuesday night and had a heavy fall in the ice.
Nothing broken, but I'd put that down to the 4 layers I was wearing. Have a great New Year and we'll be back out on the oche soon. I hope to have a pair of crampons by then. They won't improve the darts, but at least I'll get there in one piece :o)
I've just received the new Darts Corner Catalogue for 2010 and the stock they carry is amazing. I've used their web site before but because I was just searching for the specific items I was interested in I didn't appreciate their full range. For example, I didn't even know that those "real feather" flights were still freely available, but at Darts Corner you get a choice of shape, colour, and 2BA / Qtr Inch threads. Here's an example.
One slight thing they may want to improve upon is to give bulk discounts for flights and stems, because I can't see any sliding scale costs based on quantities as you get with Tommy's Darts, and 10 of my favourite Ruthless R4X flights look a little more expensive with DC than with TD. If I were to order 50 sets it would be a 30% difference unless there is a bulk discount I can't find in the catalogue?
This is a very minor point though, and their product range matches anything I've seen. All of those odd little hard to find things are covered in their catalogue - in detail and with choices. Also, they were one the first companies I noticed to print the specific dimensions of the darts rather than just the weight and tungsten ratio. They handled my last order well and I'll definitely use them again. Try search words of "shirt" and "trophy" on their site as two quick examples of what they offer, and then try the same search words on other sites. It's the same for those hard to find things I mentioned.
We got off to such a strong start last night it really was a disappointment to lose so many of the final games. We took a 4-0 lead by winning the Team and Doubles games, but from that point Shotley raised their game and allowed us just one win in the final six singles games.
The roads have remained treacherous this week, and luckily the trip from Shotley to the Chelmsford is a short one without inclines. I hope the other teams had no problems.
Man of The Match goes to Kris for winning our only Singles match of the night.
Look at this shameful display of wreckless drink driving in Ebchester. He's all over the shop!
You can see on this film just how little snow is needed before some of our roads become no-go. This shot was taken opposite the church pointing towards The Chelmsford.
There's a great commentary on this film!
I'm not sure whethere there'll be any darts on Tuesday night, but at the moment Ebchester has come to a stand-still. This is what just 3 inches of snow does to us.
The Unicorn Eclipse board
Back in August 2008 I blogged about The Unicorn Eclipse dart board. There was feedback received which warned that my poor experiences with The Blade III were due to Winmau's early models of this board.
I've now given the Eclipse board sixteen months of hammer and it still feels like new. There is no deterioration of the bristle, the wires are not damaged, and bounce outs are incredibly rare due to the superb design. I have no complaints whatsover, and I've personally never owned a better board.
The only possible negative point I could raise is that I seldomly play on a board this good in League match play, so maybe I should practice on a poor board at home to simulate the misery of important bounce-outs :o) I know people like Steve D use boards with artificially narrow doubles and trebles to practice on, but if I ever wanted that sort of handicap I'd just put the Blade III back up!
More strange bounce outs on the practice board
We played quite well at Shotley Club last night despite losing the opening Team game. The points were shared evenly though, and we needed to win the last Singles game of the night for a narrow victory.
Man Of The Match goes to Alan, who cranked the scoring up as the night went on and was solid in his Doubles and Singles games. Also, Alan seldom seems to stray away from clean D16 / D8 finishes.
We have no game next Tuesday due to being knocked out of the Team Cup Competition in the first round back in early October. We'll still meet up for a practice night though.
Fast food?
This was a laugh. All holiday long in Barbados Deb and I were laughing about the "service" we were getting in Barbados. Too cool for school, I suppose.
The Chefette outlet in Bridgetown took the biscuit though. I could't believe how they made 10 customers into a 5 minute queue in a fast food outlet where there were so many staff.
Our server moseyed on over to the serving hatch, then back over to the counter to pick up the cutlery, to then mosey on back to the serving hatch to put it on the tray, to then shuffle back to the counter. Now I'm not a "process" person, but even I could have saved her a 10 yard trundle there! It was like Resident Evil - you know, when you've only got the knife, but you really want the shotgun :o)
Be prepared for a very laid back attitude to customers in Barbados. We got great service though from The Ship Inn and Bert's Bar for example, and they got tipped. The rest were about about as pleased with my gratitude as I was with their attitude.
It was the same points haul for us as the Away leg, but this time we shipped points early in the game. We lost the opening 1001x Team Game, which descended into a Double 1 marathon where I think every player had 3 throws to try and put an end to the misery!
The Turf brought a good crew with them and I really enjoyed the night. There were good strings of scoring from Peter (3 consecutive tons) and Kris (5 consecutive 60+ scores) but I'll hold back a Man Of The Match award this week to see if anyone can really grab it next time.
This Saturday's practice will definitely include some work on the small, odd finishes where a Single is needed to get to a double. I never feel I have this nailed and the importance of it was on show in "the marathon".
Practice on Bob's 27 : Two and a marker
