Wednesday, September 30, 2009

170-In (in practice)


Well what do you know about that? While throwing darts in my garage the other day I had spectacular showing of good hits and low(ish) dart games and the crowning achievement was this here pictured 170-in. This is a first for me, ever, and I often fantasize about pulling one of these off in competition. The game that this throw started did not end spectacularly at all, in fact it was completely unrememberable but the start was a nice highlight of my evening.

The darts I was using are the darts I used to hit my first ever competition 180 (previous post) and they are the 21 gram Cootes.

Someday I am going to hit a 170-in in competition. I can say this with authority because I always try for it even though maybe I should not be and maybe by always doing so I am cheating my teammates a little bit. Is this possible? Let me explain what I mean. As a member of a darts team, or any team for that matter one is expected to eschew personal glory in favor of making decisions and throwing at numbers that will better increase the chances of a in. The classic example of this is: Player A is at 131 points. He hits a single 2 and then a triple 20 with his first two darts leaving 51 with one dart in his hand. What does he do? Does he go for another single 20? If he hits it he gets a ton which is added to his "all star" points (personal glory) but he leaves his partner a 31 out. Or does he go for a single 19? Hitting it would leave his partner a nice 32 out but with 99 scored in a round he would not be able to all to his all star points?

I am the guy that goes for the 19. Not the 20. I am not that big a prick, and I am a good team player (in fact I was the captain for years) and so I have always had a very strong 'advance the team' mentality. But then how do you explain that I have at least one selfish dart in every 01 game whether it is a singles match or a doubles match? When I m trying to get on in a DIDO game my first dart is always, always, at the double bull. Hit or miss I do not spend any more at all trying to get on this way. My pattern is that I throw the first dart at the double bull. If I m so lucky as to have a hit I'll go for the triple 20 on the next two darts (like in my garage the other day!!) If I miss, my second dart goes at the double 20, if I miss then the third dart also goes double top. If I do not get on in my first round, then I go double 16 next round till on, and if that doesn't work I go double 11 until I am on no matter how many rounds. So this one selfish dart is all I afford myself during any given 01 game.

And I am at peace with that ;)

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

As Stoked As It Gets

Last Thursday, during the first match of the Fall 2009 A League season, during my first singles 301 game in fact, I hit the very first Maximum I have ever hit in competition. I could NOT be more stoked.


That hit carried me all night. Don't get me wrong I did not falter after that. I went on to collect a modest 520 all star points with a ton-40 and two more tons but the elation that that maximum carried with it stayed with me. I was cloud-nined for the rest of the match. I hope this stroke of happy play heralds in a very successful season for me. I have to say I have been more feeling like practicing lately on account of it so maybe this will be a case of success breeding success. Life tends to be that way after all. Winners become more winnerly and losers have a tendency to wallow in their loserness too much and so it may be with dart play as well.

I will practice and do well this season. Maybe hit some more maximums!

Thursday was fun for many reasons. Here is how the night went for me: we started the match with the team game, I didn't hit anything spectacular during the game but I was happy to hit the winning double for a nice opening win for our team. We then launched into the singles 301 games which is my favorite, and I won mine, hitting a maximum to leave 32, and taking that out a round or two later. This win was against a true gentleman, who borrowed me his phone to take a picture of the maximum, and is the only person I know who likes Eagles (the majestic bird, not the band) as much as I do. Despite my very unprofessional action of pausing the game to take a picture, he (I think) still likes me.

I played two more singles games but they were both cricket. I lost a point war, just barely, to Jim Carsner, and then won a low scoring cricket game (just barely) against Paul. In doubles I fared okay, picking up a ton-40 and two tons along the way but I do not remember the specifics of the games. I know I ended up 3 for 3 in them. Could be better, and against the very dangerous team we were up against, it certainly could have been worse. Our team lost the match 11-14 but I was happy to pick up that many games against a team that will in all likelihood make it to the playoffs (if not the finals).

Over all good opening night for the season.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

WeLoveDarts.com Surprise!

I was delighted to receive a copy in the mail of the most recent issue of welovedarts.com which is a print darts mag out of the UK. It was sent to me by a blog fan in Portugal named Vasco. Thanks Vasco! The reason he sent it to me has to do with a small snippet on page 17 that mentions my blog.


I read through the magazine page by page and I found it to be fantastic. What a great mag. It looks like it'll be a terrific was to keep up on what is going on in the UK premiere and pro levels. Not to sound unrefined or blue collar or anything but the best part was the article between pages 56 and 61. Pick up a copy and see what I mean. I hope she really is into darts although it seems too good to be true. But what the hell. Hope has kept me alive for 30-plus years so who am I to argue.

Also cool is all the ads for the darts and darts equipment. Dart geeks like me like to see whats new and this mag has a good amount of it.