Friday, May 16, 2008

Dart Matter Wins First Place!

Last season my team, Dart Matter, captained then by Barn, won first place in the B League. We decided to try our luck in A League this season, and I agreed to revisit the old familiar Captain's Chair.

Engage!

Well last night we won the finals match against a really tough team called The Sofa Kings. It was a tough match and they really had us (okay maybe just me) scared by the time we hit the doubles cricket set because not only was that their strongest game but we could tell they were getting scrappier and picking up the kinda steam you get when you know you are about to lose it all. But in the end we did win a doubles cricket match which was all we needed for the win, final score: 13-8.

We are hoping to get one of their players for our team next year.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Max in Team Practice (#30)

My 30th Ton-80 came early on during Team Practice. I had the entire team over for a strong doubles practice since we are entering the finals round in league on Thursday. Everyone felt great, we were all pumped and all hitting mostly what we aimed at. By the end of the evening we were all still feeling very positive about Finals. Tonight I rest my arm.

I don't have a picture of the maximum unfortunately since my camera was low on batteries at the time and I did not wanna hold up the practice for too long since we were rolling. But I was using the 18 gram darts I bought off Ed in the Korthaus, configured with medium black and white Spiraline stems and all yellow slim Amazon flights. The coolest thing about these darts is that the Sofa Kings, the team we are to meet in the finals, plays out of the Korthaus. If I use the darts to beat them in the finals it will be like slaying a dragon with a sword plucked from it's own lair.


And also I hit a Doubles Trick during team practice, which is no slouchly feat:



The main theme of the practice was of course doubles so we split into teams and played "Around the World And Back Again" on the doubles with the Make-it-Take-it mod. Fun practice game to be sure, but not nearly as thrilling as an 01 or Cricket match. Once the team practice was over we aall felt strong and ready for the finals!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Thin Stylish Dart by Jeff Pickup

Jeff Pickup isn't just a good dart maker, he's an excellent dart designer. Just recently he was good enough to send me some pics of his latest creation (although sadly not the actual darts), pics which I could not resist posting here. And while he did not send the actual darts to me the pictures served to inspire my own imagination and now I have a similar set on the drawing boards. These darts were built to order apparently, for someone else.


As you can perhaps tell from the pic above the darts are very thin. Similar diameter to the M3 darts out of Germany, and they are made from 95% percent Tungsten, giving them a 20 gram weight despite their small size. This is increasingly important to me as I am once again shifting my ideal dart around. In league this year I happened upon a short thin barrel, 18 grams, that i have been deadly with. Without a heavy tungsten a short thin barrel can get too light.


The above pic kinda shows how thin the barrel is if you kinda compare it to the thickness of the point. It also shows how the barrel was sectioned with those tiny grooves. If those were ment as a guide for finger placement I can see how they'd be useful but I cannot see using grooves as insubstantial as that for grippage. But you know. Whatever floats your boat. After all I did not commission these.


The Pickup stem is a creation of Pickups to be sure. I have always admired it but I have never commissioned dart to use it until now (or the near future of now). He drills a hole in the back of the barrell, shoves in a tiny piece of ear clearner stem, and this creates the perfect tightness for a removable yet secure push in stem made from one of those wire jobbies you see online. But now as you can see from the dart above he has added a tiny "umbrella" he calls it to protect the back of the barrel from robin hood damage (after all darts do 1d3!). I am looking forward to this feature as well!


Different pieces of the disassembled dart. I'd love to know how much he charged for these beauties. If I find out I'll post it here! If you wanna order darts from him, you can send him an email here to ask about pricing: Email Jeff and ask about prices!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

New High In

I really enjoy attending the Sunday Shoots at Coopers. Sometimes you get enough people to play a blind draw doubles tournament which is always fun, and sometimes you do not. Tonight was one of those nights. We had six of us, which made for a fun singles 501 shoot. I ended up in the three way tie for first place which isn't saying too much since there were only six shooters, but the shooters that were there are all high quality shots. Three of us, in fact, will be participating in the A League finals on Thursday. So we had a three way open in 501 game to break the tie and I blew it. I was sitting on 73, hit the 57 with my first dart and flailed my third dart into the single 11. I ended up taking out a 2 a couple rounds later but not before one of the others took out their shot for the win. The evening was a good one for me in terms of tonnage. I hit four ton-40's, a 135, and a 121.

All in all it was a fun evening that ended in a delicious cheeseburger and onion rings, and an ice cold beer, all covered by my second place winnings. Perhaps the nicest part was the 2.2 mile walk home afterward in perfect spring weather. Not a bad way to spend a sunday evening!

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Short Thin Barrels

I posted these picks for the benefit of Jeff Pickup when trying to convey to him which way my dart tendencies have been leaning lately and that is towards the short thin barrel on a medium stem. It is funny how your preferences can do a full reversal over the course of several years but occur in such small increments that you never notice until you look at old blog posts. Several years ago when I started this blog (which was at least a couple years after I started playing darts) I had strongly held convictions toward a 24 gram barrel with short stems and standard dimplex flights.

This was back in the days when google groups was a worthwhile discussion medium and when dartbase was a scrolling forum. His forum is a phpBB borad now and still completely awesome.

I have not thrown a 24 gram dart in competition for what seems like ages. My best performance lately has been with my 18 gram Mavs.

The above barrel is very thin. 15 gram Featherlight. The Featherlights above did me right for a long time and they were always more than just a training dart for me. I used to keep them in my dart case when I went to league or shoots and I'd fall back on them when my regulars get squirrelly. I still throw them from time to time. Using them is what turned me onto medium stems since these are my shortest (well one of my shortest) barrels and it is hard to dress them in short stems which was always my usual fare.


The above is a 17 gram Featherlight which is 3 millimeters longer and just slightly thicker than the 15 grammer. I like it quite a bit.


The above is an 18 gram Maverick by Freeflight. 44 millimeters long and thicker though not by much than the standard nylon stem.