A Week Off

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)

Darts Corner Catalogue 2010

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.

Chelmsford 5 - 5 Shotley Club

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.

Let it Snow

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.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

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

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!

Shotley Club 4 - 6 Chelmsford

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.

Barbados Highlights (?!) - Chefette

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.

Chelmsford 7 - 3 The Turf

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".

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.