Fund Raiser Event

Thanks and congratulations to Kris for organising a very enjoyable and successful fund raiser at The Chelmsford yesterday. From 15:00 hrs right through to Closing Time competitions were held for darts, dominoes, pool, and quoits and it all went extremely smoothly thanks to the excellent organisation of the event.

Kris has an ambitious plan to raise enough money to buy our own team transport and I'm sure yesterday's takings will been a step in the right direction towards this.

Race Night

No darts were played last night as the League held a Race Night up at Chopwell Central. There was a strong turn-out from the majority of league teams and a well organised event was held whereby we placed £1 bets on eight randomly chosen race videos. I'm sure this will have been a successful funds raiser for League and we all had a great night out.

I was quite good at selecting the horses which would be given the best odds after the bets were placed, but as usual it was all to no avail as not a single one of mine came in. Jean and a couple of others did well though.

As always, superb hospitality and facilities from the Chopwell Central.

We Love Darts Magazine

New to the Barbados touring party this year were Amanda and Steve representing the We Love Darts magazine. Amanda is an Assistant on the mag, and she did a great job of publicising it to everyone at the various festival events. Loads of dart flights and complimentary copies of the magazine were given out, and it's a wonder either of them had room for clothes in their suitcases!

She gave me a couple of back issues and I had a good read through them. The editorial style is light hearted and entertaining, and there is plenty of interesting content with comparatively few adverts.

The business side of launching a new mag was a real eye opener to me. I didn't know that Supermarkets charge such high fees for shelf space, and you need a lot of capital to stand any chance. All the best to them, because it is a decent read.

Barbados Highlights - The AT & T Hideaway

The AT&T Hideway

For some strange reason the AT&T Hideway evening has not appeared on the official schedule for the Barbados Darts Tournament for the last two years.

Thankfully Colin Smith rectified this by organising this himself unofficially, so we still got to play the best event going in a tradtitional Bajan venue.

Incredible hospitality and comradery. Top marks to Colin and the AT&T - the best night of the holiday by far!

The Turf 3 - 7 Chelmsford

Practice darts on the D4

In stark contrast to our poor start against Leadgate CC in October we got off to a flyer against The Turf last night, winning the first four games to take a 0-4 lead. It's a team game, so getting these points in the Team and all three Doubles games reflects well on us.

There were quite a few people in The Turf, with another League's match being played in the Main Bar on one of their three boards. With the pub trade subdued at the moment perhaps this shows one way it can be done?

Man of The Match goes to Roger for sinking the first two doubles of the night to set us on our way. Peter is mentioned in dispatches for a strong Singles game which had the possibility of being an 11 darter after two consecutive ton forties, but a little hesitation on the finish brought the average down.

Catch - up Results

Practice darts on D3

The team have been doing great while I have been away ( ! ) , and here are the results from the games I missed :

04/11/2009 - The Ox Inn 4 - 6 Chelmsford
The Man Of The Match was Kris.

11/11/2009 - Chelmsford 7 - 3 The Ox Inn
The Man Of The Match was Roger. I heard all about his exploits last night - very well done.

Back from The Barbados Darts Festival 2009

The hotel's beach at sunset

We returned back to England this afternoon after another memorable and eventful trip to beautiful Barbados for their Darts Festival.

Wayne Mardel was an excellent host. His sense of humour is well known to all, and it was on show throughout his time with us, as well as some spectacular exhibition tricks such as blowing the darts at the board with his mouth - to a higher accuracy on the D8 than I could ever get the normal way!

Over the next few weeks I'll post the main highlights of the trip. I think with darts you either win or learn when you play competitively, and I sure "learnt" a lot this time around :o)

Leadgate C.C. 7 - 3 Chelmsford

Practice darts

We made one of the worst starts I can remember on Tuesday night at the Leadgate Cricket Club, going 5-0 down. We were scoring reasonably well (in patches), but we just didn't take out our Doubles, and I think most of the games went down to both sides looking at low finishes so the chances were there.

Thankfully Peter, Alan, and Kris won their Singles game to stop it from being a total mare, and Peter takes this week's MOTM for putting a good string of steady scores together and getting that all important first point of the night.

There were some good all round performances from LCC's Jan, Roly, and Macca. Also, the person who seemed to be covering for Taff chipped in very well.

The Shirt from Rags

I ordered a darts shirt from Rags on 10th October and just 11 days later it arrived all the way from the USA.

It's a good quality cotton polo shirt with nothing on the front but this brilliant design on the back. The sizing seems to be the same as the UK, with the XL version pictured giving just that little bit of freedom for the throwing arm.

Check out the great designs here and you can expect slick and efficient service from the Cafepress people who handle the orders.

Chelmsford 5 - 5 Leadgate Cricket Club

Pictured : A bounce-out rests on the other darts

For the second week running we drew 5-5 in an evenly matched game, though the standard was a little lower than last week's effort against The Wheatsheaf. We almost took it in turns to win points with LCC winning the opening game, and us getting the final Singles point of the night to avoid defeat.

Their veteran player Alan had a quiet night by his standards, but still checked out a precise 92 finish in his Doubles game (T20, marker dart, D16). Good finishing from Peter and Roger in their Doubles game too with Roger scoring 121 to leave 150, Peter reducing this to a 32 finish, and Roger taking out the double. It was a little against the flow of their match, but a very strong final three throws nonetheless.

No MOTM award this week, as I felt we were all of a similar standard with no-one really leading the way.

Chelmsford 5 - 5 Wheatsheaf

We played a very tight and competitive match against The Wheatsheaf on Tuesday night. The standard was higher than the Away leg a couple of weeks ago and I think this would've been a decent game to watch.

Good performances from players of both teams, and I thought we stood up to the challenge well.

Man of The Match goes to Peter M for a fantastic showing against Sean in a game that was broadcast quality. After trading 100+ shots Peter finished on 66 with 2 darts in his hand with S16, Bull.

It was good to see Jay Coulson selected for The Wheatsheaf and he played a strong game all night. We were both disappointed not to be drawn in our Singles games against each other. Its just a friendly rivalry that wanders into football as well :o)

A reasonable match to report on for the first time in a few weeks, and a fair result for both teams' efforts.

Team Cup Competition 2009 / 10

Popcorn on the third dart

We were knocked out of the Team Cup Competition in the 1st round last night with a scoreline of Chelmsford 2 - 4 Chopwell Central.

It was a disappointment to take a 2-0 lead and then lose all of the subsequent legs. In this competition the games swing between 1001 DSDF Team darts games and Doubles dominoes games, with both points being of equal importance.

It's sad to exit this so early because it is a competition I always think we stand a fair chance of doing well in.

No one will admit it but there seems to be a nervous ripple when the darts players realise they need a double to start. In two of the darts legs I noticed that the team that took longer to get off managed to turn it around and win the leg. I suppose 1001 allows you some time to make up a deficit.

We used to play League games with a double start (before my time), but I gather it wasn't popular. I'm undecided either way - it certainly adds a bit of tension from the very start.

Wheatsheaf 7 - 3 Chelmsford

Practice darts : A "dog's dinner" on D20

I think this was a disappointing game for both teams. The scoring wasn't good, but at least the finishing was reasonable. With The Wheatsheaf having an off-night I was hopeful we'd get some points on the board, but 3 was the best we could manage.

Kris got us off to a good start by finishing in the opening team game but things went badly for us in the Doubles games and we found ourselves 3-1 down.

I was again on the lucky side of a robbery in my Singles match as my opponent had appallingly bad luck on his finishing doubles. Really - I could hardly bare to watch as he bashed the wires so many times. As in my Doubles game with Kris at Blackhill I just kept on going to avoid embarassment and somehow managed to sneak it. You just can't learn from games like this.

The other games seemed reasonably close, but our finishing was a little off and I think Wheatsheaf will have been relieved to get those crucial doubles. We should have capitalised but we just couldn't manage it.

Roger gets the MOTM this week for an important Singles win to prevent an even heavier defeat towards the end of the evening when we were trailing badly.

Chelmsford 7 - 3 Coach & Horses

Getting the horizontal accuracy right

Neither team played particularly well last night, and many of us from both teams found it difficult to get some steady score building. In a low scoring opening Team Game Kris sunk the winning 32 with his first dart, and we then won the next two Doubles games to build a 3-0 lead. This good start was key to getting the win because the points swung evenly from this point.

Man Of The Match this week is not an easy choice, but I think Peter should have it for playing the smoothest game with some good scoring while many of us struggled for consistency.

The C&H Landlord (Darren) was playing for them last night and he is quite a character. He's not been in the job up there for very long and I really hope he makes a success of it.

Coach & Horses 4 - 6 Chelmsford

It was a quiet night up in Leadgate last night. We went 2-0 down and we were not finishing when the chances arose. We fared better in several of the Singles games though, and managed to turn it around to a narrow victory.

C&H have a really nice oche, and although the darts cabinet seems to be ordinary it makes a great sound when the darts hit the board

Our MOTM was Kris who played a steady game all night and I can't remember a slack shot from him over the 3 games he played in.

New Personal Best

Practice darts

I hit a new personal best in a 501 game with Roger in The Chelmsford last night : A 14 darter in 501 SSDF. There were a couple of 140's and a quick finish on D18.

I hit a 13 darter this time last year but that was on the practice board in the house. I'd love to be able to do this more often, but at least I know I can do and it just needs bringing out.

Chelmsford 2 - 8 Blackhill Club

I thought we played better than last week, but Blackhill's slick finishing condemned us to a heavier defeat. Not a great start on our new Blade III board!

The best Singles game of the evening was was a really quick affair with Nev showing absolute focus to edge out Peter who was keeping up with the high scoring. I could tell from the practice darts before their game that they were both going to go for it.

Peter won't want the MOTM with a scoreline like this, but he is getting it nonetheless as our best player on the night. We played well and showed determination despite the score, and I'm sure we'll pick the points up with more of the same.

I felt I prepared far better for this game and got my mental game right. I'll see if I can learn from this prep and try to figure out what works best.

Blackhill Club 7 - 3 Chelmsford

We kicked off the season with a reasonable effort against Blackhill Club. After narrowly losing the opening Team game of 1001X we managed to pull it back to 2-2, but from that point Blackhill lost only one further leg to make it a deserved 7-3 victory for them.

There were some great highlights on the night : Peter finished well in his Doubles game (a 98 with T5, T17, D16) and Nev finished on 102 against Peter who was scoring well.

Kris and I were involved in a case of robbery in our Doubles game. We were trailing heavily in the 701x leg due to superb scoring from Collie. He opened with a 180 and followed it up with a 140. The other shots from them were all decent too and I thought we'd be lucky to get out of the 300's but they ended up in the Mad House and Kris finished it for us on D16 to be our MOTM for a good evening's play.

It's a good throw up there. There's a new Blade III board, perfect lighting, and no distractions while throwing. They usually have the excellent Samuel Smiths beer up there, but the Cameron's Ruby Red was just as good on the night.

Opening Games 2009 / 2010 Season

The new pub sign

We start the season on Tuesday night away to Blackhill Club. Our next two opponents are Coach & Horses and The Wheatsheaf. This is a very tough opening six games for us, home and away against the three, and I think we'll have learnt a lot about ourselves by mid October.

Its great to see a full 16 teams in the League this season. Some teams are not present this time around, but there's a new addition (The Ox Inn) and The Moorcock and Shotley Club are both entering A and B teams.

The 2009 / 2010 Season

The new season starts on Tuesday 1st September 2009, and the people who run the League will have again been doing the hard work in getting everything together.

I had some practice in the house on my return from a week in Loch Lomond and I'm always interested to see what happens when I've had a break from the game. I got a large number of steady 60 / 59 / 58 shots and some good accuracy on the finishing doubles, but not many high scores. I think steady 60's are only useful if they are supplemented with the odd high shot so I'll do my best to "find" the trebles over the next nine days.

No heavy practice sessions on DartPro though - just as many games with other players as possible.