Shotley Club (B) 3 - 7 Chelmsford

Picture from the Francis Frith site

We were unrecognisable from last week's game and beat a very strong Shotley Club B Team who had been undefeated since July.

We won the opening 1001 Team Game against the run of play largely thanks to Alan's three throws which averaged over 130. Shaun hit the winning double and this lightened the mood given the manner of last week's defeat..

However, it was 2-2 at the end of the Doubles games and back in the balance. We then gained five Singles points with some steady throwing in which we managed to find the Treble far more often than in the previous game. There was no high finishing on the evening, and all 10 finishes were simply three darts at a double as opposed to taking out a 40 plus finish. Our Man Of The Match was Shaun, who was the only player to hit two winning doubles.

It is Race Night up at Chopwell Central next week, which is always a great night out and a brief break from the League games.

Chelmsford 1 - 9 Shotley Club (A)

What an awful night for us. We were outscored in almost all of the ten games by Shotley, and they didn't spoil a single finish. Just good high scoring with plenty of tons and 120+ shots, and very efficient finishing. They played a great game and it was a pity to lose our unbeaten Home run with such an emphatic defeat.

The one exception was Peter's Singles game where he won the match in 18 darts with a 112 finish. So at least we avoided "the brush" in style, and there is plenty of room for improvement against their "B" team next week.

It's really hard to think who the Man Of The Match was. Only kidding, and two Brownie Points awarded to Peter. I think the rest of us will be hammering those practice boards.

Huge thanks to my team mates, who swelled the 'Tache fund by £16.05 on the night. The 5p was just a joke by the way, and the fund now stands at £32.30, with only the online donations visible at the moment on my Mo Space page.

Darting 'Taches

Shotley Club (A) 6 - 4 Chelsmford

Picture of Shotley Bridge by Dennis Lovett

Shotley Club is becoming a very familiar venue to us following our two friendly games up there in August, plus the fact we play their B team shortly too.

The opening team game of the night will live long in the memory - but not for the right reasons. I think all 12 players had 3 throws each at the finishing double, which unsurprisingly ended up being D1. Shotley ultimately hit it and then went into a 3-0 lead.

Both teams were hitting similar scores, but Shotley were more precise in their finishing. Poor finishing stayed with us during the night and we needed to win the final two Singles games of the evening to avoid defeat by a bigger margin.

They have a nice Blade III board up there, and there were no bounce-outs as far as I can remember.

Trevor

Trevor (2nd from left)

I've had some very sad news from Nannette at the Barbados Darts Festival 2010 : Trevor from the Cayman Islands Darts Association died suddenly while over there from what appears to have been a massive heart attack.

I really enjoyed his company on my three trips to this tournament and he was always at the centre of the evenings' entertainments. Very sad news and he will be deeply missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him.

Movember

Just a quick post to ask for your support during Movember, where my work colleagues and I will be growing 'taches during November in aid of prostate cancer.

Please visit my Mo Space page, rate it, leave a coment, and if you think the 'tache is any good a small donation would be really gratefully received. Don't worry about handing any cash to me - It's all automated so only trustworthy people get the donations :o)

The picture on display is a "Day 1" picture and will be updated each Monday. If the 'tache is particularly tastless I may even keep it.

Chelmsford 6 - 4 Leadgate Cricket Club

Leadgate CC played a strong game last night and will have felt unlucky to trail 4-0 in the opening games. They were scoring well, throwing in some useful tons, and often finding themselves 200 points in the lead.

They got their reward in the Singles games though, taking 4 of the 6 points on offer to give a fair scoreline.

No Man Of The Match emerged for us as it would be hard to choose between Kris and Peter Mc. They both collected two Brownie Points for their finishes, influencing the result on a night where we were often being outscored and needed to rely on the finishing.

How It's Made - Darts

Have a look at this. The first 40 seconds are a bit cheesy, but the rest is fascinating. I'll never look at a set cheap brass darts in the same light again.

I think the yellow flights in the film are the R4X type that I use because you can see some small black text at one end of them. I'd love to be able to use the aluminium stems they've shown, but they always seem to need constant replacement.

Leadgate CC 4 - 6 Chelmsford

Three of our regular players were unavailable for the game last night, but the players who stepped in did well. We won the opening couple of games, and this proved to be an important start for us, as from this point the matches were shared quite evenly.

Leadgate's board was causing quite a few bounce outs for all of the players, but Alan suffered the most, bouncing off the T20 wire in three consecutive throws. The board itself seems to be a promotional item from the Wurth company, but they must prefer this board as there was a boxed Nodor put to one side.

Our Man of The Match was Willie, for his excellent Singles win. Alan remains top of the Brownie Points leader board.

Chelmsford 5 - 5 Turf

Picture courtesy of W/\NG

Our play slipped a bit on Tuesday night and we found it hard to put steady scores together. The Turf on the other hand were playing really well. They improved quite noticeably from their showing in the Away game a fortnight ago and were good value for the points they won.

After finding ourselves 0-3 down we managed to win the final Doubles game and four of the Singles games to scrape a draw, with Mickey B scoring the last point of the night to ensure we remained unbeaten on our new board.

Peter C played his first game since I've been with the team. He won an important Singles point, and I'm sure he'll be real asset.

Team Cup, 1st Round

Alertness, a wet nose, and a glowing coat. But enough about The Girlfriend :o)

We had a very successful evening at The Derwentside against their "B" Team to progress to the second round. I've never known us play so confidently through three Team games, coming down from 1001 with a double start like we did tonight, and The Derwentside were very complimentary about our game.

I'll give a single Brownie Point to Alan for finishing two of the games, because we didn't spoil any of the finishes and this needs to be acknowledged. It is so easy to let let good leads slip if the finishes are not taken quickly, and we made our leads count tonight.

Turf 1 - 9 Chelmsford

Practising in The Mad House

Three consecutive 9-1 wins are really going to help us in the league placings, so no complaints with the result. However, it was quite a slow paced game up at The Turf on Consett's Front Street and neither team got into any sustained rhythm.

We scored well in the opening Team Game and our Doubles games were reasonable, but a few of the Singles games were slightly low key, and there were at the very least 2 more points in this game for The Turf but for poor finishing.

The Consett League were playing next door in the main bar, and we had the Lounge which faces the main road to ourselves. Their board is an excellent Unicorn Eclipse Pro, but it could do with turning as the 20 bed is quite worn. The only bounce outs seemed to be darts slapping the board after a deflection and I really think this is the board to get if you want to minimise bounce outs.

Our Man Of The Match was Alan, who again hit three of our finishing doubles.

Chelmsford 9 - 1 The Cricketers

We again scored some good points in the return game against The Cricketers, but I have to admit they were not rewarded for increasing their scoring since the earlier game and meeting us down on the finishing doubles in most of the games.

Their opening score was a 140, and they also hit plenty of decent scores to put pressure on the games.

Despite the scoreline I didn't think we were as consistent as the previous week, but our finishing seemed to compensate for the slack shots.

Cricketers 1 - 9 Chelmsford

The Cricketers are fielding a new team of young players this season and there were many new faces from my point of view. Also, they are under new management and there is a really well designed beer garden at the back.

The game went well for us last night and we settled into some fairly consistent throwing. I felt we were hitting a few more trebles than in the previous games to equalise our lower scores, and we were generally getting down to the finishes first.

They have Unicorn board but not one of the models I'm familiar with. The Cricketers had a couple of bounce-outs on it, but none from us for a change. As always it is a nice spaceous throw up there, with plenty of room to play in and watch the games.

Man of The Match was Alan, who hit three of our winning doubles.

Clarification - The Brownie Points Thing

Oh, you want that don't you, fat boy

Just a bit of clarification regarding The Brownie Points Thing. Brownies are not cakes. I think people are confusing our outward bound youngsters with chocolate cake or something?

I've got one of these little black vacuum cleaners. Animal, vegetable, or mineral - It's all just food to a Labrador Retriever. He quite literally does summersaults as I bring the food bowl over. Or a stone, or a plant.

The Brownie Points Thing

In the new arbitrary Brownie Points system for the Player Of The Season trophy there are points to be won and we'd better all know how it is done, so here goes: Brownie Points are collected for any of the following, plus anything noteworthy that anyone wants to bring to the table. That's why its arbitrary I suppose:

• A Man Of The Match award
• Scoring a 180
• Hitting a winning double in Team / Doubles / Singles games
• A 9 darter (hey, it could happen)
• More realistically, a 15 darter
• Consecutive ton forties

If anyone feels they have scored a Brownie Point which is not detailed here please come and see me after the game and talk to the hand. It's not that arbitrary for Juninho's sake :o)

Chelmsford 5 - 5 Blackhill Club

We had all three tonight - all of us

What a relief to get some points on the board at last. It is so difficult writing a blog with a 10-0 thrashing to try and summarise on the opening day of the season. You just see a big empty screen and somehow try to write something.

I must mention our sincere thanks to the new management for supporting the team so well. Angela bought us a new Winmau Diamond board which is great, and a buffet was laid on even though The Kitchen is being refurbished.

Kris got us off to the best possible start with a 180 for the first throw of the game. Hard to follow, and from that point onwards I thought we were perhaps 10 - 20% lower in the scoring than last week, but this time we were given a few more throws at finishing doubles by a Blackhill team who didn't hit their usual game.

They still made a tough game of it though, and after taking a 2-0 lead we traded points all night until we won the last two Singles matches to secure a draw, and as Roger jokingly said remain unbeaten on the new board.

Kris was Man of the Match for us and he leads the points table for our Player Of The Season Trophy - more details of this to follow. In a change to last season's competition others picked up Brownie Points too :o)

Shirt Idea

Picture courtsey of Rags

I love this shirt idea. I've had some great advice over the years. I've had a World Champion watch my throw and tell me what was wrong. International players from Trinidad & Tobago like Nannette Brooks and Rose, plus Bajan seniors such as Clyde. Closer to home Graham and the Derwentside crew at Blackhill and the seniors from our team like Parky and Peter.

They really helped me out and spent time with me to go through a few things. And then there's the other. The absolute bo****ks you get from well meaning yet clueless idiots who don't "walk the walk" themselves. They'll criticise your finishing strategies while shouting out "something big down the bottom" like it is some sort of gem?

Please, if you're not mentioned in the first paragraph do us all a favour and STFU!

Blackhill 10 - 0 Chelmsford

This was not what it is all about . . .

Stephen Hawking has been asking some profoundly searching questions recently regarding the meaning of life and the universe(s). Well, I can confidently relay to Mr Hawking that last night's result against Blackhill Club is certainly not what it is all about. The Hokey Kokey is nearer to what it is all about than last night's outing!

We lost all of the dominoes games too, so basically it was a 16-0 thrashing, and it hurts. It's not that we played badly. In seven of the games we were looking at finishing doubles and only the Davey Gill 14 darter could be described as truly emphatic. But on nights like this one you just have to admit that if we want to take points from a team like BC we've got to raise it just that bit further.

There are perfect throwing conditions up there, with good lighting, an oche with no distractions and an assured aluminium strip, and an Eclipse Pro board with the box marked "Tuesdays Only". They're great people too, and rounded off with a superb pint of Samuel Smiths bitter it wasn't such a bad night after all.

Friendly : Chopwell 7 - 3 Chelmsford

Picture from last season by Simon Dixon

Tuesday saw our final friendly game prior to the start of the new season on 7th September, and thankfully we improved our performance despite the losing scoreline.

Chopwell Central is a great place to play, but there were quite a few bounce outs on their board. In one throw I had 120 points on the floor. Michael had one particular bounce out where he said he was actually aiming for the T20 wire, so no complaints on that one!

The fixtures are out but I didn't get a chance to see them. I'm looking forward to it though after a steadier performance from us and hopefully we can build on this for next Tuesday.