Shotley Bridge CC 3rd Annual Beer Festival 1010

We had a great Saturday, enjoying a very well organised Beer Festival down the road at Shotley Bridge Cricket Club. There were an impressive 46 ales on offer, with the vast majority of these being priced at £1 a half. The super strength ones were £2 a half, but I never bother with these in case I need the use of my legs later on.

The stand-out ale for me was Village Idiot 4.1% from White Horse Brewery. I said to Deb that it was quite ironic for me to drink a beer with such a name, but she observed it was even more ironic that I had earlier drank The Stud 4.3% :o)

My five favourites are pictured on the left. In the coming season there will be special shout-outs for any bar which serves a cask conditioned ale. Its always a nice touch when a bar gives you something new to try rather than just the usual suspects.

Friendly : Chelmsford 6 - 4 Shotley Club

Picture from last season by Simon Dixon

We had a better result than in last week's leg, but the standard was still a little rusty from both teams. We actually played the return "home" leg up at their place due to the inability to plan with certainty while The Chelmsford changed hands.

Both teams would probably like a little more time to ease into the new season, but we're not going to get it so we'd better hit those practice boards if we want to hit the ground running.

Next Tuesday we have a final Friendly game at Chopwell Central, and then the season begins. I'll post a list of the teams taking part as I think there have been a few changes but I believe we still have the same total number of teams.

Friendly : Shotley Club 7 - 3 Chelmsford

Picture from Simon Dixon

Two bit of news : Firstly, The Chelmsford is opening again tomorrow night 18/8/2010 at 16:00 hrs after the recent change of ownership. I hope a good few of us can be there to get it off to a good start.

Also, we played a Friendly game tonight away at Shotley Club. Both teams were a little rusty and the standard wasn't too impressive, but Shotley Club made a better job of the finishes when they arose so we'll just have to take the result on the chin and try to close the games out a little better in the return game next week. We then have another Friendly up at Chopwell Central.

Changes

Chu Chu Chu Chu Chu Chu Changes. Turn to face the strange.

Lyndon (the Landolord) is leaving our pub after a 5 year stint which coincided with my own arival in Ebchester.

All the best to Lyndon and good luck to him in whatever he does next.

Close Season

Peter (Left) collects the Player Of The Season Trophy

There's not a great deal happening at the moment. Finishing School has been running and has been quite a success. There are usually around five people taking part, and Kris is keeping track of all the points on the night.

It is a real challenge to finish the scores in just three darts, and there are a few different approaches which don't always adhere to the recognised outshots. I'll give you an example: on 65 you may choose the T17 route to leave D7. This would be a stupid way to go in a game of 501, but splitting an uneven double doesn't matter in Finishing School where there is no second throw, and hitting the S17 leaves 48 which gives an almost guaranteed shot at a familiar double (D16/D20) when you aim for the wire between S16 and S8.

Presentation Night 2010

Colin collects the Dominoes Singles trophy

I have a few pictures from Tuesday's Presentation Night and I'll post them on here over the next few days. Pride of place however must go to Colin Carr's achievement in winning the Dominoes Singles Cup this year.

Winning a dominoes trophy in this league is no mean feat - there are some real sharks out there! So congratulations to Colin and thanks for bringing a trophy back to The Chelmsford this year.

Finishing School

Last night was our induction into the Finishing School which Kris has organised for our close season Tuesdays. A points system and leader board is being used and there'll be a modest prize for the eventual winner.

The aim of the competition is to check out from high finishes (last night it was 100 to 90) in just three darts. There is no point in getting down to 32 or 40 for example, as missing the finish with three darts is simply a fail and you start again on the next throw.

I think we were a little surprised at just how difficult this can be. When throwing for 100 a stray shot into the S1 is simply "throw over", and quite a few times a good first two darts were let down by the final dart. It was hard work, and it makes a welcome change from just bashing away at the T20 - although admitedly that was the main target with the first dart!

Finals Night 2010

We were very well represented in Finals Night up at Leadgate Cricket Club last night, and with so many of us taking part it would have been a shame to walk away empty handed. And thankfully it was Colin who won our only trophy in the Dominoes Singles competition.

Myself and Roger went out of the Doubles competition 3-1 in the first game of the evening, only to be followed by Peter and Alan. I really enjoyed the game though, and this will be one I'll remember just like the Singles game against Davey Gill last season.

Our best chance of a darts trophy was in Peter's Singles game. He forced a 2-0 lead against Ray but ran out of steam slightly to lose 3-2. There was a high standard of game as you'd expect from these two.

Well done to Colin in the doms though, and this season's cup competitions have been very eventful for The Chelmsford.

Result - Player of the Season 2009/10

The trophy

I've totted up the Player of the Match awards from the season just gone and the first winner of this new award is Peter. He and Kris matched each other throughout, and between them they took an impressive 60% of the weekly awards, excluding the 4 occasions when an award was not made.

In the end Peter won just by just two points and congratulations to both of them for a great contribution this season.

Chopwell 4 - 6 Chelmsford

Our season which started against Blackhill Club back in September 2009 came to an end last night at Chopwell.

Although we didn't really play any better than last week we got a far better result. It started poorly for us though, going 3-0 down. With both teams finding it difficult to hit the T20 with any regularity most of the games could have gone either way, but thankfully we managed to get the points in the final Doubles game and five of the six Singles game.

Man of The Match this week goes to Kris for a spirited Singles win in one of the higher scoring games. I'll now count the MOTM awards and announce the winner of the Player Of The Season trophy very shortly.

We may have some friendly games in the close season and I'll wait for the details before posting anything. Also Kris is keen for a Finishing School competition on spare Tuesday nights.

Chelmsford 5 - 5 Chopwell

After a disappointing start to the game where we threw away a large lead in the opening Team Game we did quite well to match Chopwell and take some good points against a team which we normally struggle against.

Chopwell were not playing quite as consistently as usual and we traded points throughout the evening, with the draw being a fair result.

On a good night for us it was difficult to choose The Man Of The Match, but I feel Peter just shaded it for sinking two of our five winning doubles. Regarding the Player of the Season title : With only one game to go I'm purposely avoiding the previous stats to ensure my judgement will not be affected. If there is a tie between two or more players I will use the MOTM awards which were awarded during our worst defeats (9-1, 8-2 etc) on the premise that on such nights at least one of us was trying to lead the way.

We're all looking forward to the final game of the season up at Chopwell Central, which is a great place to play darts.

Chelmsford 3 - 7 Cricketers

I was unable to attend the game on Tuesday night due to a chronic case of the Brad Pitts, and the other end wasn't faring much better I'm afraid.

The feedback I've received from Mickey B was upbeat for a losing scoreline though, and he enjoyed the game. Sadly we've moved down a place in The League but I feel there is a lot of learning going on this season and its good to hear such positive feedback about the night as a whole rather than just regret for the final score.

I fully acknowledge Kris' award of Man Of The Match to Mickey on his site, but Mickey himself has graciously told me he'd prefer it to go to Roger for finding the T20 so often and playing to the full. So I'll give it to Roger on gut feeling. And I've had plenty of that this week!

Cricketers 5 - 5 Chelmsford

It feels like Summer already up here

After a very strong start to this game it was disappointing to lose so many of the final six Singles games. There are a few new but familiar players in the Cricketers team this season and they played well as a team.

Bounce outs were a very common feature of the game, and I think Cricketers were suffering more than us on this count. There were at least 10 bounce outs, and I really think round wired boards with staples at the intersections have had their day. I could play all night on my Eclipse and not get a single bounce out, and for very little extra cost this type of board would make a real difference in League games.

At least three of our team were level pegging for the Man Of The Match award after the Team and Doubles games, but in the final Singles game of the night I felt it was Peter who edged forward to take the title with a good display and a 93 finish (T19, split D18, D9) to make it 5-5.

Player of the season 2009/10

Ebchester Darts Player of the Season trophy

The end of the season us nearly upon us with just four games to go against The Cricketers and Chopwell Central. The person who collected the most Player Of The Match awards will be picking up the little beauty in the photo.

I honestly don't know for certain who is in the lead as it my subconsciously affect the awards in the final games, but I think there'll be three players in contention. I obtained concensus awards for the games I missed, so this really will be the prize for a hard season's graft for one of us.

I wanted to try something a little different than the usual style trophies, and Darts Corner came up trumps with this design. It is quite small but heavy, and I can't see anyone's partner objecting to it being on display in the Living Room. You see, a lot of thought goes into this :o)

I'll ask Lena to present it on Trophy Night and get a pic for the blog.

Dominoes Singles Cup Night 2009/10

There were no League darts on Tuesday night and most of us competed in the 2009/10 Dominoes Singles Cup. A few of us got quite far in the five rounds which were played, but only Colin from our team made it to the finals themselves on Finals Night. Very well done to Colin, and it is further Chelmsford interest in Finals Night.

We were playing at Chopwell Central which is one of my favourite venues. We play them at the end of the season and I'll try and get some photos to put on here.

Chelmsford 1 - 9 Commercial

A night to forget for us, but more points piled on by a determined Commercial team. If anything, they dropped the pace from last week, but we were really struggling to build the scores and apply any sort of pressure.

It didn't start too badly either. Although we lost the opening team game we quickly equalised in the first Doubles game. However, that was to be the end of our scoring on the night and we have to take a heavy defeat on the chin.

Man Of The Match was Kris. He was the only one of us to find the T20 regularly and play a strong game.

We have just four more games this season against The Cricketers and Chopwell and I really hope we can end the season on a higher note than this pair of games against Commercial.

Commercial 7 - 3 Chelmsford

Spring has sprung up here

The Commercial played a very solid game last night and it has to be said they were good value for their 7 points. Four of their six players in particular were throwing some very steady darts. On two of the points we lost things were going fairly well for us, but both times they closed out the game with Bull finishes on the last dart.

After losing a close opening Team game we fared well in the Doubles games to pull it back to 2-2, but we lost most of our Singles games against a Commercial team who were looking very comfortable.

Our Man Of The Match was Michael. We'd have got a better result if we all played as well as he did.

Doubles Cup Night

The Chelmsford were very well represented in last night's Doubles Cup Competition up at Blackhill Comrades Club. We had three Pairs there bidding to get into the semi finals to played on Finals Night.

It went very well for us with Peter and Alan plus myself and Roger making it through to the Semi Finals. It was very hard luck for Kris and Michael though, as they played a strong game to get past the first round only to then allow Roger and I to really ride our luck against them in the next round.

You never want to be drawn against team mates, but if it happens again on Finals night The Chelmsford would either be guaranteed a finalist, or better still a trophy.

Chelmsford 8 - 2 Jolly Drovers

A Winter 2009/10 shot by Simon Dixon

We had another good result against The Joly Drovers in the Home leg last night. Usually I'd say it is the finishing which is the most important aspect, but last night our steady score building got us down to the doubles first and allowed the finishing to be without pressure in several games.

I had a chance to use the 3 dart 90 finish discussed by Zeeple, and for once the theory paid off for me in a League game. Definitely this time last year I would have gone T18 almost as a reflex, but I now don't think D15 should be avoided if it is part of a percentage shot like the T20 route which gives a few options during the throw. I must admit in a Doubles game I'd be mindful of not wanting to leave "15 to go" for my partner though.

Man of The Match was Peter, who opened our six Singles game with a very assured 18 darter to set us on our way.

The Chelsmford Race Night

Photo by Simon Dixon

Thanks to Lena, Jimmy, and Glen for holding a race night at The Chelmsford on Bank Holiday Monday 5th April 2010. The event raised over £200 for the darts team, and money was also collected for the fund which Lyndon has organised for a girl who has cerebral palsey.

This was at least the third one of these Race events I've been to that have been run by Jimmy and Glen, and they're always a good laugh. There was quite a good crowd there too, and it was a successful event.