The Dart Indoors

Voks Raptor Soft-Steel darts with extras

2011-06-15T15:32:00.002-05:00

21 gram Harrows Magnum (97% tungsten) steel tip

2011-06-15T15:23:00.001-05:00

18 gram custom soft tip darts

2011-06-15T15:19:00.003-05:00

16 gram DMI Radart ST soft tip darts

2011-06-15T15:08:00.001-05:00

30 gram Copper Tanks

2011-06-10T12:20:00.002-05:00

"Tanks" is the name given to these dart by my teammates. I have no idea what they really are.

26 gram old ringed Bottelsen Hammerheads

2011-06-06T15:06:00.002-05:00

23 gram custom smoothies

2011-06-06T15:05:00.001-05:00

30 gram vintage Copper Monsters

2011-06-06T14:59:00.001-05:00

28 gram Bottelsen Black GT Hammerheads

2011-06-06T14:56:00.000-05:00

22 gram Kenny MacNeil Puma Shot! darts

2011-06-06T14:51:00.001-05:00

20 gram P.E.N. Netherlands Range

2011-06-06T14:49:00.000-05:00

24 gram Voks Harpoons

2011-06-01T13:04:00.003-05:00

26 gram Copper Tungsten Customs

2011-06-01T13:01:00.002-05:00

25 gram Fixed Point Bottelsens

2011-06-01T12:56:00.001-05:00

25 gram Accudart Penetrators

2011-05-31T16:21:00.002-05:00

21 gram Harrows Rhinos

2011-05-31T16:20:00.002-05:00

20 gram Puma King's (97%)

2011-05-31T16:18:00.001-05:00

22 gram custom Copper Tungsten darts

2011-05-25T14:10:00.006-05:00

23 gram smooth Copper Tungsten darts

2011-05-25T14:10:00.005-05:00

Dynadags and Dynastar Combo

2011-05-25T13:46:00.004-05:00

22 gram Latinum Colin Lloyd's

2011-05-24T18:27:00.002-05:00

20 gram Halex Tungstens darts

2011-05-24T11:17:00.001-05:00

20 gram Stag Dartcraft darts

2011-05-24T11:14:00.004-05:00

These were an ebay purchase and the seller claimed they were a Stag Dartcraft product.

24 gram Bombs with Alpha Omega case

2011-05-24T11:10:00.003-05:00

23 gram unknown darts

2011-05-23T11:21:00.002-05:00

These darts are an unknown make and model but they have a terrific grip. Very reminiscent of the Magnum line from Harrows. If anyone has any info on these darts I'd live to know who makes them to see what other darts in their line up have this grip.

18 gram Mavericks

2011-05-23T11:20:00.002-05:00

24 gram John Parts (95%)

2011-05-23T11:19:00.000-05:00

25 gram Peter Evisons

2011-05-23T11:18:00.001-05:00

18 gram Target Distinction2's

2011-05-23T11:17:00.002-05:00

Dart Collection on Photobucket

2011-01-24T13:17:00.003-05:00

Sometimes it is advantageous to have all of your dart collection on one page of thumbnails :)

The link is here:

Dart Collection

and also on the upper right of the blog at the top of the link bar. I'll try to keep it current but that may be challenge give how frequently I trade away darts in my collection.

25 Gram Voks Rainbow Sidewinders

2011-01-20T22:41:00.004-05:00

This is a recent acquisition that left me feeling ambivalent almost immediately. Perhaps I just need time to warm up to them.

I was attracted to them in the first place for several reasons, first and foremost because I occasionally lament the trading away of my Bottelsen Gorilla Grip Hammerhead darts, and these seemed like a more affordable version of that dart. However, the nature of the mechanism that moves the point seems odd to me. I am thinking about replacing the points these darts came with with something else.

Dart Maul Wins :)

2011-01-20T06:04:00.000-05:00

Last night was a great finals match in the ECDO B League. Of course, our team was probably playing slightly below its level, given that we likely would have signed up for the A League if it weren't for all those darn Thursday night soccer practices, and also given that we (for the most part) decimated every team we hit this season. So on the one hand it was no surprise that we won the finals but on the other hand, the team we played against in the finals matched was able to keep it close and pushed us all the way towards the far end of the score sheet. They took eight off us in the end. So I am happy for a lot of reasons. I am happy because we won and that always feels good, but I am also happy that we had to fight for it in the last match of the post season. If it were an easy victory I am certain it would not have meant that much to us.

But it wasn't, and it did ;)

The darts I used last night were the 26 gram Mavericks that I picked up off a defeated player way back in the day, and the recently acquired 24 gram 95% Parts. They both threw pretty well for me last night although I think I get a slightly better vibe off the Parts than off the Mavs. I did not wow myself in my performance last night by any measure with one exception (other than a general trend toward winning that is) and that one exception was a singles cricket match I played against one of their better, more seasoned players (Russ).

The cricket match started off with quickly closed 20's but he left the door open on the 19's. I had one already and threw a 7-count in the 19's to leap ahead early by 95 points. From that point on I stayed a steady course, closing (or opening) each number as I came to it up until the 16's then, after a single mark round I picked back up and finished the game with few misses and it was a clear decisive victory from the outset. So I was happy with that win more than any other of the night. My other singles was a 401 win over one of their weaker players, but that game was close. We both had several rounds throwing at our outs before I finally hit my D10 to win. A close call.

The evening started out with a small scare actually. They won the first three games of the match and it was not until I won my singles 401 game that we even had a non-zero score. But we won 4 of the 5 crickets and got a slight lead on them (Who Darted?). We kept that one game edge on them most of the night, until we got into the doubles cricket where we took 3 of the first 4 to win. I enjoy the team we have. Dart Maul was fun but I am hoping for a different team name in the Spring.

Cocodarts has a nice ring to it :)

Semi-finals down, Finals to go...

2011-01-13T02:57:00.004-05:00

Tonight's match felt great. We played against Team Drinks which was the fourth place team and we beat them handily but they put up a good fight and they are all good people to boot. The evening started out well. We won all five of our singles 01 matches and I was pitted against their captain, easily the best player on their team and I won. I was a little surprised as he is their best player and I think in the past he has had his wicked way with me on many occasions. But tonight I bested him the at least two tons and a decisive first dart out. That felt good and for me it set the tone of the evening. Then when I met him again in cricket he opened a can of whoop ass and despite a semi-heroic five bull round to catch up to him he still won. Good for him. He is a good guy and I think he should be proud of his teams accomplishments this year. Once we were done with the singles games I believe the evening was 7-3. By the time we got to the first doubles cricket game we won the match.

As I was pulling into the driveway, and whether or not I should have been driving is questionable, I got a text from the tavern rep indicating that at the other semi-finals match the third place team bested the second place team. This is good for us. The second place team almost beat us the last time we met them and I felt like they had a real chance against us in the finals. The third place team, tho, should put up less of a fight as far as I am concerned. They have one bat and I know how to take it away ;)

The above pic is the darts I used tonight. The set with the red stripes is the primary set and the 21 gram Magnums were the go to set for when the main set felt weak. Tonight though I almost used them interchangeably. I felt good all nifty so there was not the constant changing of darts that I sometimes fall into when I am simply not hitting my targets.

Warriors for Trade

2011-01-10T23:59:00.002-05:00

These darts are one of the more interesting sets in my collection, but due to the way they conflict with my preferred gripping style, I'd rather trade them out of my collection for something more appealing to me. It is a 90% tungsten dart, relatively short, with a very unique stem application. The stems are actually the top portion of the "Spinster" stems, available from sites such as A-Z Darts. The pic below indicates how they are currently configured, with Spiroline flights and flight protectors. As you can see there is a wee bit of rust on the points due to non-use, but this can be very easily removed with a fine grit sandpaper and the tungsten in the barrels has darkened just slightly with age.

I picked these beauties up at least five years ago and I still have the original case the came in. In the pic below you can see there is one spare set of stems (which are super super short) and the info card that comes with the darts. The spare flights were chewed up years ago (but they don't last long anyway).

There is no threading in the back of the dart. The stems are a push-in system and they spin too which makes the stem application doubly interesting in my opinion.

I have found a new home for these darts tho. They will soon be making the long happy journey to their new owner in the UK (who goes by Littleman124 over at DartPlayer.net). I am happy to have known them and had them in my collection but I to keep darts that will almost never be thrown again by me seems pointless and a little cruel. In exchange, I will be receiving a set of mature (grizzled, even) CT Fatties. I am looking forward to their arrival.

Trading Away the EL's

2010-01-23T20:03:00.002-05:00

I am very happily trading trading away my 21 gram Eddie Lawrence signature darts (bought off someone over at SEWA) seen here:

To a gentleman named Johan in Sweden. I will be sending him exactly what is shown above. The darts themselves, which are in pretty good condition and short nylon stems and the two sets of unused pear shaped flights. The darts came to me in the case shown, even though that is clearly a Unicorn case and not a Puma case. So that's what I am sending to Sweden. I look forward to what he sends me in return...

I wonder what it will be!

- Posted from my iPhone

What's the Best Out for 90?

2010-01-21T21:41:00.002-05:00

I do not know the best out. In this particular game I went 20, 20, 50, and while that might seem like madness, there is a method to it! The reason this was interesting enough to me to take a picture (read: interesting enough to make me think about the blog) is because not 5 minutes prior to this hit, I was in a discussion with Warren Mundt regarding the best out for 90!

It was last night, and my teammate John and I were going through a Chicago Round prior to the semi-finals (we were about to play against Warren's team). We were on cricket and I hit a five count in 18's. While my brain was spinning Warren called out from the other board where he was warming up: "90. I remember that because a 90 out is triple 18, double 18." I responded with something like: "True, that is a common out, but I have to say, I don't like it." Then the 90 Out discussion ensued.

What it boils down to is that there are two camps. Those who follow the advice of just about every out chart ever printed: T18 - D18; and those few of us that think like me: T20 - S10 - D10. And the reason I think this is a better out strategy for 90 is essentially because if you miss into the single 20, 70 is still a good two dart out. To spell it out bit, with 70 and 2 darts you should go T20, D5, because if your first dart misses into the S20 then you still have the double bull with your last dart. You are maximizing your backup plan. So I think another good way to think about this is like this:

Which is the better two dart out? 70 or 72? I asked that same question to Warren and he agreed with me that 70 is a better two dart out because there is nothing you can aim at on the board where if you miss into the single you still have a one dart out. With 70 you do. With both out strategies for 90 you are aiming at a triple. If you miss your triple, you are better off with 70 than 72. Anyway, we had this small discussion while John and I were playing cricket, and then next up in the Chicago Round was one of the 01 games and I ended up with 90. Testing my theory I aimed at the triple 20 and missed. 70 left with 2 darts: I aimed at the triple 20 again and missed again! As you can see from the picture the last dart validated me just fine and dandy.

- Posted from my iPhone

18 darter

2010-01-08T18:16:00.003-05:00

This ties my previous best games. As I recall from the game I hit my 60 out with 3 darts, and not two as I previously misremembered. Another reason this game was special for me is because I am certain this is the first time I have ever hit back to back ton-40's. Now if I can only do that with maximums ;)

This game occurred at work. I was playing a three way 501 with Jake and Nathan. I am fortunate in that I am afforded the opportunity to take a break once a day to throw a couple of games with my colleagues. It makes for a nice break in the day and allows me to refocus a little better when I get back to my desk.

This ties my previous Lowest Game of 18 darts, which occurred against my friend and former captain at work sometime in April 2008, and then again in June.

- Posted from my iPhone

So Far So Good

2010-01-08T14:51:00.001-05:00

The title is because I snapped the pic early during the match on Thursday and I had a thought to actually blog from the match itself since I finally have a phone I can do that from. But my turn came up suddenly so I just had time to save the post instead of upload it. The picture itself is of a neat doubles trick that I pulled off in warm up against my first 301 opponent of the evening, a good shot in his own right, Derwin.

I like to go on in DIDO games with the double 11 since I have more vertical play in my misses than horizontal. Frequently I'll end up going on with the double 14 or double 8, which suits me just fine. In this particular warm up, all three warm up shots found their mark and it made me happy.

On the whole it was a good match. My teammates on the Dart Knights, John, Jeff, Andy and myself took on the Sofa kings in their home bar, the Kort Haus. An excellent establishment with a friendly bartender and lots of good munchies. I didn't really look at the standings all night although I am fairly certain we won the match. I did look at the glory points near then end and I believe I ended up with 661, which would be 4 tons, a ton-40 and a 121. The fact that I didn't look at the score sheet throughout the night should tell you something: I am starting to get a little burned out on darts. This is a sentiment that is also being expressed (and felt) by other teammates as well. We are all off our game somewhat, we have less enthusiasm than we did last season, and we keep talking about doing something else on Thursday nights but staying a group which I like the idea of. They are all a good bunch of guys.

In terms of personal performance, the night started iffy for me. After the doubles trick (pictured above) in the warm up, I promptly lost to Derwin despite getting on in the first round (on a double 11). To be fair he is a good shot and I had a few shots at an out but I didn't connect. He earned the win. My second 301 game was a win, although I do not remember the details. I then had the hands down funnest game of cricket I have played in recent memory. Up against Angie B., who is as deadly on the oche as she is friendly off it, I fell behind quickly. She had me on the ropes the entire game. In then end though, I couldn't miss the bulls and I couldn't hit the 15's, while she couldn't miss the triple 15 and did not fair so well on the bulls. It ended up being a tight point war and we both collected just over 300 points before I finally took it out. I think I won that game by virtue of luck.

I do not recall the specifics of the doubles matches, although I have the general feeling that my 01 games were better than my cricket games. I opened the team game with a ton and we won that too. I think we won the match, but however it went I am certain it was not a landslide in any direction.

Goodbye 2009

2010-01-05T19:22:00.001-05:00

As my final act of darting for 2009 I hit a couple of nice outs. This one was a 125: bull, T20, D20, to finish off a quick game on the work board.

Good In, Good Out, Ugly Night

2009-10-08T22:49:00.002-05:00

My second week in the season (almost a full week ago now) blew major chunks overall. My performance was poor to say the least and for the first time in a long long time I felt something insidious creeping into my game: Doubt. I felt it very saliently at one point in the night and at that moment, which was a moment of frightening clarity, I realized that I had been more or less coasting through the day (and lately in my life in general) in a state of... well I am not sure how to describe it... certainly not denial or anything like that, but at the very least I have let my guard partially down against those things which will dull your mental edge. Doubt in other words. Perhaps it is work. I have an awesome job that love but I have been putting in so may hours lately and stressing during s many of them that this might have played part in my recent demise.

Time to get mentally tough again.

Back to the night. We hosted the Knarr-cosis team at Coopers and did well against them overall. We took 14 off them out of 25 and that was nice, especially against the really high quality throwers they have, but I feel that I did not contribute significantly to the win. I lost all of my singles, and I was not involved in too many winning doubles games. The highlight of the night for me was my 109 in (32, 20, 57) in one of the 501's and in a different 501 a 110 out (20, 60, 30).

170-In (in practice)

2009-10-01T00:15:00.003-05:00

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 ;)

As Stoked As It Gets

2009-09-29T19:23:00.003-05:00

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.

WeLoveDarts.com Surprise!

2009-09-19T12:53:00.006-05:00

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.

21 gram Unicorn Adrian Lewis Contenders - SOLD

2009-06-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

SOLD! So another victim of the Purge is pictured below. The Lewis darts which I recieved in trade several months ago have found a newer better home where they might actually get some air time.

I think I would have liked these darts quite a bit more had they been just a little bit more on the short side. I threw them for a very short while and never in league. One of the characteristics that I really do like about them is the width of the grooves near the front of the barrel which is where I go my primary gripping. While this may not be my favorite dart that I have ever thrown, I am certaily glad that it passed through my collection even if in a highly transient manner. It is good to get to know the different darts out there and also it is nice to feel the darts in your hands that the top ranking pro's use. It is like having an exact replica of Ichiro's bat for example.

SOmetimes I wonder if it would not be a good idea to keep a set of Phil Taylor's current preferred dart on hand even if it is not my style dart. That way if I ever get itchy fingers and start feeling the call of the online dart stores I can pick them up, throw my 26, and think to myself: "If Phil were throwing these that would have been a maximum." Why you ask? What better reminder is there that it is not in the darts, but in the thrower.

A New High In

2009-06-13T14:49:00.001-05:00

My previous high in was 140. This occurred on 5-11-08 during the Sunday Luck at Coopers. It ended up being a 24 dart game, and a win. However, last Thursday at Murphy's pub I had a fine 142 in against Dart Dwarf. I think I'll update my side bar :)

A Semi-Fine Night

2009-06-13T14:04:00.004-05:00

Cocodarts (that is my current team name) opened up a few cans of whoop-ass this Thursday during the A-League Spring 2009 semi-finals match. We won 13-7 which is a greater margin than I would have expected considering we were up against a very high caliber team in the Aucham's Razor. AR (as we call them) is a fine team full of really terrific people. Anyone of them I would be happy to call a teammate in the future because they are all good people and they all take the sport as seriously as I do. Especially Paul with whom I share an affinity for Eagles (Eagle Scout that I am).

The above pic was taken in my garage a long time ago. It was a fine moment for me although it occurred in practice and while I was alone. On Thursday however, I repeated the feat (a 142-In: double 22, triple 20, triple 20) during my second singles 301 game against AR's captain (Dart Dwarf). That game was a modest ten dart game for me: 142, 59, 60, 40 (first dart) but it made me feel good, and it fueled my team's desire to win. I also had a very enjoyable cricket game against Paul. I was out of the gate early forcing him to chase most of the game, until I couldn't hit my 15's. He killed the 15's forcing me to point him elsewhere (20's) and then once I finally got my 15's he killed the Bulls (as he always does). I did barely beat him though, but it turned into a minor point war and got my heart racing a little bit (which I like).

The Purge Has Begun

2009-05-26T06:30:00.000-05:00

I have always believed (at least) two things about myself unshakably: Generally: when it comes to possessions I am a minimalist at heart and I find myself to be a happier person when I feel that there is little-to-no clutter in my life. And Specifically: I am not a collector of dart "stuff" and I do not own or buy things just for the sake of owning them. It is enough for something to be interesting and fun without having to actually own it. That is to say: I can (read 'should') appreciate the beauty of a flower without having to pick it.

Thus you can imagine my dismay when I realized I'd collected over 70 sets of darts in just a few short years and a bunch of other dart crap on top of that. I have sets of darts that not only do I never use them, I do not even like them. How did this come to pass? As a person who ostensibly values experience over possession to find myself in such a situation is embarrassing and quite contrary to my own self image. Thus it is finally time to do something about it.

Fire Sale!

Not really. But I am selling off most of my collection, slowly and intelligently. I am trying to find good homes for some of my more interesting sets and I am willing to part with almost everything except for a few custom sets I have had made, some darts which were gifts, and one or two others that are sentimental. Thus, if you see anything on this blog that you think you might like to buy please let me know and I'll indicate whether I'd be willing to sell it or not.

I currently have several sets on ebay (just look for therealzeeple) and I am listing items for sale through SEWA as well. Additionally, I'll be trying, attempting, intending, to maintain this informative post as well:

Dart Bloat

After all, I do want the memories, right?

More Great Darts from Jeff Pickup

2009-03-04T16:00:00.006-05:00

I got an email recently from our favorite dart maker north of the border which included some really nice looking darts. Jeff Pickup never ceases to amaze me with his fine craftsmanship. First, the goods:

Now, if you are interested in any of these darts, I encourage you to contact Jeff yourself for prices and customization. After all, customs are really his forte, and he has an uncanny knack for giving you what you ask for.

If you wanna order darts from him, you can send him an email here to ask about pricing: Email Jeff and ask about prices!

The "Shoot It Forward" Campaign

2008-09-28T19:06:00.008-05:00

I am thinking of a big idea. Today I was throwing some of the lighter sets in my collection and these include the Imagination darts from the German company Evolution. They were generous enough to send me a set of darts hoping to spread their brand name around the states some since they are less well known here. I have sent them my thoughts on the darts but I want to continue helping them by allowing other dedicated dart geeks the chance to throw them for a while and then send them to someone else, furthering the cause of helping this company. These are the darts of which I speak:

So here is my idea for a "Shoot it Forward" campaign. If you would like to participate, on a first come first serve basis, post a comment here, or on SEWA, and we'll try to get the darts to everyone who would like to give them a try. However, if you participate, you pledge to the following:

Once you have thrown them enough to formulate an opinion, you will email your comments to the Evolution company.
You will also send me your thoughts, and hopefully a picture so that I can post them here on The Dart Indoors.
You will not keep them too long (I am thinking a couple weeks or so should be enough time for a fair evaluation).
When done shooting with them, you will send them to the next person in line.

A couple of courtesy items come to mind. One, if you do not like the darts, please do not publicly trash them. Remember that this company was being very generous in sending out free darts for people to try them and I think it would be too unkind to post negative reviews around. So please send your frank and honest opinions to the company but try to find some positive things to say too.

I am sincerely hoping that no one will get selfish and keep the darts without forwarding them on to the next darter. So I am thinking about requiring some form of integrity check before you can participate. Something like a certain number of posts on SEWA. 50 post or more, that kind of thing. I would also like to eventually get them to Tommo and Nick Williams over in England too, so SEWA cannot be the only metric.

When it comes to mail, things DO get lost from time to time so I am thinking we should always send the darts with Delivery Confirmation. That way they are more trackable. Also, Evo sent me a bunch of flights too, so once you have sent the darts on to the next person, I would like to mail you a set of flights as a fun thank you for participating. I hope at least a few other people can get excitied about this idea.

Best of 14: Mike Baxter

2008-09-26T23:00:00.000-05:00

This is an interview with Mike Baxter for publication in the ECDO Newsletter. The name of the column is "Best of 14" because the idea is to conduct the interview while playing a best of 14 match with the interviewee. Unfortunately we only had time for ten games, and we split them, 5 to 5.

Name: Mike Baxter
City, St: Auburn WA

Where were you born and raised? I was born in Fairfield California in Travis Air Force Base. Your father was in the air force? Yes, and I was raised in Tacoma.

How long have you been playing darts? Since December of 2006. And before that you'd never played darts? I played for a few months in college. My roommate had a dartboard, and we played cricket. I didn't even play 01 until I started playing with the league but um, yeah, we just screwed around. I don't know what got him to buy a board but he got a board and tungsten darts and the whole deal and instead of sitting on the couch watching the game we'd play darts and watch the game on television. So fewer than two years? Yeah. But you've picked up a tremendous amount of skill in that time. I guess so (chuckles).

You play Super A? Yeah, my first season wasn't as successful as I would have liked it. But uh, first season in Super A anyways. You've never played B League? No, my first league was A, spring of 2007.

Whose responsible for getting you into darts? Id have to say, what happened was, in December 2006 we had a big wind storm and my power was knocked out for a couple days and I was looking for something to do. For whatever reason I thought of my darts, I still had my darts which in my junk drawer and I don't know how I ended up at Murphy's but I ended up at Murphy's. I think maybe it was the closest place off the freeway that had steel tip darts or something. And uh, so it turned out that that Friday night the power was out on University way and the Friday night dart crowd ended up at Murphy's where I was. And I remember Paul and Elisa, uh, and it was just you know when anybody new shows up at a shoot everybody is very inviting and wants you to keep coming back. I did. you know I always liked throwing darts before and I just found everybody to be friendly and inviting. I would say its probably that Friday night crowd that hangs out at the Knarr.

Do you still have those darts? No, no I loaned them to a girl and she subsequently lost them. Do you remember what kid of darts they were? Yeah, they were 19 gram Maverick Wrangler darts and they had a scallop in the middle. I don't throw scalloped darts anymore though.

Would you say that you play for fun or do you play to win? Um I'll say winning is fun. No, other than that there were plenty of nights at the Knarr where I had to play for fun, out of not winning. Do you still have fun even if you don't win? Yeah I do, honestly I do but it is very fun to win. Have you every played and your performance was so poor that you just felt disgusted and you just didn't wanna play darts anymore? No. I would say there re some nights where I question why I play darts but it has never been an issue of I wanna quit darts.

What kind of darts do you use? Phil Taylor 24 gram Purists. How do you configure them? Medium stem? Nylon stem? Um, an extra long aluminum shaft and slim flights. Did you play around with different configurations before you settled on that or did you choose that for a reason? No not really, um, of course the other thing that kinda got me hooked on darts, you know after playing for a few months I found all sorts of dart videos on youtube and there was a match, there was a world championship final between Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld and that was kinda my first introduction to Phil Taylor. And I thought well if this guy is such a champ 13 times over I just wanna experience the dart he throws to see what it is, you know of course its not the dart its the dart player, but I was curious to see what he threw and so I bought a set and they worked for me and I have not really deviated or changed since.

Have you ever used any other darts than those? Yeah. I mean not on a regular basis but I tinkered. I uh, I got a set of hand me down Black Widows from my step dad, the Fansteels that I keep forgetting to bring and I received a couple of sets of darts from Glen Huff. Hammerheads. Bottelsen Hammerheads and uh Harrows Eric Bristows. But I always come back to the Taylors.

How many nights a week do you play darts competitively? Did you say competitively? During the fall I would say three: Tuesday singles in Tacoma, ECDO on Thursday, and of course the Knarr blind draw on Friday. How many nights a week do you play just for practice? Not counting?... Lets see I got four days... I try to do two or three of these days and I like to do four but... So the only two leagues you participate in are the Tacoma singles and the ECDO? Yeah, SSDA is the South Sound Dart Association. How would you compare SSDA to ECDO? Its uh... SSDA is more, obviously SSDA is more singles oriented. They only do singles and doubles and so I view that as being more competitive whereas ECDO, 4 to 6 person team is more of a social activity. I mean its competitive, people want to win, but there's a lot more BS'ing, joking around.

Do you have any heroes in the dart world? Phil Taylor. Anybody else? No, but I like James Wade I think he's the next big thing in darts. What do you like about Phil Taylor so much? Why is he your hero of darts? Because he is head and shoulders above everybody else. We have guys at the local level who are really good shots and win most of the time, but there's not the one guy who wins everything. But Phil Taylor wins everything at the highest level. Why do you think James Wade is the next big thing in darts? Because of his age. He's what? 24? 25? Something like that and um he's already, the last three majors, he's finished runner up to Phil Taylor and so if not for Phil Taylor he would have had three more majors under his belt. So just the fact that he's sso young and he's got 20 years ahead of him.

As far as your own game goes, what do you feel could use the most improvement? My scoring. More tons. So you feel like your doubles are better than your high shots? I feel my finishing game is better than my scoring game. Too inconsistent on the scoring, a little more consistent on the finishing.

What is your practice philosophy? Um, try to do something everyday. Even if its just a few darts at the 20. Even if thats all that time allows you, and then if you do have time for practice then try to do it uninterrupted. So in other words, don't let people or your dog interrupt you kind thing? Well you know, don't be doing the wash or laundry or something so you have these intermittent breaks every so often or something. Just section off a block of time where you can turn up some tunes and throw some darts. So you listen to music while you practice? Yeah, just for background and you know it's, uh, what the atmosphere is in the bar.

Lets say its a Wednesday night and you've got nothing at all that you need to do so you can dedicate yourself to practice. How much time do you spend and what is your routine? I would say 2 to 4 hours, depending on how early I start. Sometimes I get a later start but uh, I try to hit every segment on the board once a day so I go fat singles, skinny singles, doubles, and triples. And I am shooting bull in between each of those. How many shots at the bull in between? Until i hit it. I move on when I hit what I am shooting at. When you say bull do you mean double bull or any bull? Uh, well like when I am doing my round of singles, fat singles and skinny singles, I try to hit single bull but if I'm doing doubles and triples I try to hit a double bull before I move on. If after a round of fat singles and you are trying for a single bull but you hit a double bull, do you keep trying till you hit the single bull? No, most times when your throwing at bull in competition, unless you're finishing, its like your percentage of hitting the single is greater.

Why do you practice the skinny singles? Do you ever throw at the skinny singles in competition? No, so I can hit whatever I want to on the board, that's basically it. You never are shooting at the skinny singles but if you want to have command of the board you should be able to hit every segment if you want. So anyways, that's kind of like the leg work or heavy lifting. For practice, like routines, I'll do the practice games on SEWA. 100 darts at the 20, 50 darts at the bull, or Bob Anderson's doubles game so on and so forth.

How much time do you spend online? Do you consider yourself to be a part of the online dart community? Yes, on SEWA, I'd say I check in at least once a day and uh maybe I spend like 30 minutes to half an hour at a time checking out posts. if there's nothing new or interesting you know... Do you go to any other forums other than SEWA? I drop in on Superstars of Darts every once in a while but other than that no. Like I never even posted to Superstars. It is the SEWA equivalent over in England. Do you have your own dart website? or dart blog? No.

What is your general philosophy toward the game and toward other players? Um, well, as Bob Ross says it really is just a stupid bar game, and so I try to keep that in mind. I try not to take it too seriously but at the same time we go to tournaments and we take part in league because we all have some competitive thing to feed. So I try not to take it too seriously but I apply myself enough to where I can be as good a player as I can anyway.

Who are your favorite partners for league play and tournaments? Id' have to say Brian Smith because we've won two tournaments. We won the South Sound Winter Open cricket doubles, and we won the Tacoma Open. That was 2008 I think. Uh, boy you know that was last year 2007. The South Sound Winter Open. But then you won just recently at the Tacoma Open? Yeah, that was July of this year. Was that also Cricket? No, 501. Open Doubles.

How do you spend your time away from darts? I just keep up on current events. I've played guitar off and on for ten years. When the urge hits me I try to exercise, but that has been too few and far between. And then I teach skiing at Snoqualmie in the winter. Alpine skiing.

What would you say is your greatest achievement in darts? Well I haven't achieved anything as far as singles go. I have not won any tournaments, so I'd have to day that first doubles win with Brian. Have you ever hit a Ton-80? Yeah. How often? Depends, maybe a handful a week on my betters weeks. If I am having an off week maybe less than that. Have you ever hit a dead eye? Once. I never thought I would. You know is a lot harder, you have a lot less space to work with. Was it a cricket match? No just at home throwing at the board.

Whats the furthest you've ever traveled for darts? The uh, either, I don't know the distances. Either Tri-Cities, Vancouver or Portland, take your pick. I don't know which one's furthest.

Do you have any closing statements or have anything you want to say? No, I just appreciate the league for what it is and the friendships that come about I can easily say that prior to playing darts to now I have fifty-plus new acquaintances. Friends and acquaintances.

Dart Bloat

2008-09-26T22:11:00.040-05:00

I have seen many impressive collections of darts online recently, especially this one: Bilbo's Darts (link stopped working). For those folks who enjoy collecting darts, and wish to amass a large quantity of sets, more power to them. I am not one of these people yet I have over 60 sets. How is that possible? I am an unintentional collector. I gathered these sets mostly by accident and it is high time I purge out the sets I neither like nor want.

There are many that fit that description. I imagine I will keep most of my custom sets, all the sets which were gifts, most of my GTish sets, and one or two that I do really well with. But the rest I am certain should not be cluttering my already too cluttered life. It is high time for a return to simplicity. Time to re-embrace the minimalism of possession that I valued so highly in my more transient youth. I think I'll take this opportunity to list my current dart collection:

Sale-able:

That's about it. For the record, I am starting with 70 sets on September 26th, 2008. I'll try to turn each of these list items into links so more details on the sets can be viewed. To my recollection, these are the sets of darts which I have owned in the past which I have sold or traded away:

28g laserdarts smooth black widows, traded to JME in July 08 for the gt-pluses
27g gt3's, traded to crashfromboston for the new world darts
24g bottelsens, traded to griff for the target sports
23g unicorn john part latinums, traded to sleepykramer for the accudart penetrators
24g Harrows Powerpoint Dimplex, traded to bret23 for the unknown bottelsens
24g laserdart kc's traded to griff for the fixed point gt's
23g Harrows Magnums, traded to ??? for the Lewis' and the V-wings
24g Unicorn F136's (gifted to my friend Glen for his birthday)
19g halex hawkeyes (ebayed for a pittance)
25g black "edge" great whites (ebayed for a fair price)
30g smooth original hammerheads (ebayed for a fair price)
25g crossfires (ebayed for a fair price)
26g ringed generics (ebayed for a pittance)
26g nodors (ebayed for a pittance)
10g unicorn bantams (sold to Barry Leigh for a fair price)
24g scoundrels (sold to Mick in Canada for a fair price)
26g Unicorn Bullets (ebayed to a guy in Spain)
12g harrows crown jewels (ebayed)
14g college darts (ebayed)
21g Harrows V-Wing (ebayed)
27g harrows axis (ebayed)
20g accudart 501's nickel-silver (ebayed)
17g halex silversofts (ebayed)
21g adrian lewis (sold to delfam on SEWA)
23g unicorn hustlers (sent to Bilbo as a Thank you for the 21 gram Unknowns)
17g chrome plated brass (ebayed)
21g harrows assassins (sold to finderne of SEWA)
18g halex brass (ebayed)
16g Unicorn dum dums (gifted to my good buddy Glen Huff)
10g rubber ringers (ebayed)
22g harrows dimplex (sent off to Vasco Roque in Portugal)
Accudart Variants (gifted to my friend Byron (but he doesn't know it yet))
24g mega thrusts (sold to same said friend for a fair price)
22g fixed point megathrusts (sold to D. Griffin in NS for a fair price)
22g spectacular 1989's (ebayed for a small amount)
24g stt-900's (ebayed)
15g reddragon featherlights (sold to Ron Whittle for a fair price)
17g reddragon featherlights (sold to Jester (of SEWA) for a fair price)
24g piranhas (sold on eBay)
26g accudart fastbacks (gifted to mcvickj)
25g accudart 301's (gifted to mcvickj)
24g dagnabits (sold to mcvickj)
24g new world darts (to be gifted to my good buddy Glen this summer (2011))
25g NT's (pickup customs) (sold)
19g harrows tigers (traded to a teammate)
16g black gt3s (sold to RodmanRodman)
20 gram Co Stompe's (sold to RodmanRodman)
7g Unicorn Extralights (gifted to my good buddy Glen)
23g warriors (traded to littleman124)
22g orion vector smart darts (ebayed for a pittance)
24g bombs (sold on eBay)
25g target sports (sold on eBay)
21g Unknowns (these are lost!)

Uber Tonnage

2008-09-12T21:51:00.004-05:00

This is my third Ton-80 in as many days, abd it iss my 38th lifetime. This came off my Dynadags which is a dart I do not show case nearly enough.

This is how they are currently configured:

I think this just might be the besst possible configuration for them although I admit that I am thinking about sending them back to Jeff Pickup to have them drilled out for Bottelsen GT stems. I am over the Dynastar thing I was into years ago when I had these made. I want a non-moving dart!

37 on 25's

2008-09-12T21:43:00.004-05:00

These darts are really special and they have a very weird rattle-thunk when they hit the board that is way unlike any other dart I have ever thrown. They are old Accudart Penetrator's that have removable graphite points. The rattle comes from the fact that the graphite points are held in with collars as if they were hammerhead style moving points, but there is not back and forth movement. They spin certinly, but no jackhammer type movement. The thunk is different because the graphite points are pretty thick all the way down to the beveled point. You can see a better pic here.

The darts in this pic aree configured with medium length scalloped nylon stems and standard dimplex flights. I have been moving more and more to this kind of setup.

Thirty-Six

2008-09-12T21:28:00.003-05:00

So here is my 36th maximum:

It isn't really special but it is one of those that come off rarely thrown darts. These are my mystery Bottelsen's which I am sure are relatively vintage since you never see them on ebay and no one ever seems to know what they are. I have sent emails to that company before but they do not respond very often to emails and certainly not to this one.

Lately I have been "playing" with my dart collection. not playing in the sense of throwing games but rather in just messing around with the darts. I have been re-organizing them in order of weight starting from 40 grams on down, and obviously these cam up quickly in that process since they are 26's. This was probably my first or second toss with them in months. Now they are back in the cabinet displayed with the rest of the 26's and I'll likely not throw them again for months.

35th Lifetime Ton-80

2008-09-03T19:50:00.003-05:00

I am not sure when I will finally stop being excited about hitting a max. Hopefully never even though any pros who happen to read this will likely think it laughable that I take pictures of each one.

Perhaps when I finally hit one in competiton will I let up already and just keep track of the number... nah... gotta have something to blog about right?

Again this is the Medium Snow White stem and Slim dimplex flight combo I have been partial to.

Maximum 34

2008-09-03T19:46:00.005-05:00

Another off the backs of the Nobu's which occurred during a five minute "lunchtime" session today:

The configuration seen on these Nobu's is something I have adopted for several sets of darts lately and seems to be edging it's way to being my CPC. The set up is medium Snow White stems and slim bluish dimplex flights.

Non-trivial Tonage

2008-09-03T19:13:00.003-05:00

Oddly, and partly infuriatingly, I have hit four ton-80's in the last two days. Two yesterday and two today. This one occurred quite happily yesterday during a fairly long practice session. The session itself consisted of "Choosing Darts", which is a habit I have gotten into in the last several years when I am not sure what darts I want to throw. I line six or seven sets up on my work bench and takes turns throwing games of DD 301 until I am fully practiced.

Since two of my recent maximums have come on these darts with this configuration, I am going to stick with them ;)

32nd Max

2008-09-02T06:32:00.001-05:00

This was a one off. I picked 'em up and this happened on the second toss:

23 gram GT-Plus

2008-07-30T21:54:00.003-05:00

I recently gained these darts in a very favorable trade with a guy on Sewa. They are 23 gram GT+ darts that are not made anymore and as far as I know have not been made for decades. These are the first of their kind that I have ever seen, although I have known about these as well as the equally rare GTZ's for a few years now. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there are even more rare Bottelsen darts out there waiting to be discovered. It first occurred to me to think about Bottelsen's historical offerings when I discovered the set of fixed point Mega-Thrust darts on eBay a few years ago. I wish they would put all of their old catalogs online like Unicorn does. Then I could peruse them looking for even rarer darts ;)

To get these, I traded away my 28 gram Black Widows which I bought probably five or more years ago during league. I haven't thrown them regularly for a long time so it didn't bother me to let them go so much, even though they _are_ attached to the memory of an AWESOME night. I was using them the night that we swept the Molly McGuires team 12-0 in the semi-finals of B League in Fall 2003. I could not miss that night, and the widows were flying very true. Nonetheless, my taste in darts has been leaning towards lighter darts in the last several years so the widows have seen more shelf time than not lately. I did get them out and threw a few practice rounds with them before I shipped them off to JME (of Sewa). The practice rounds were unremarkable which made me feel better about packing them up and shipping them off.

It's funny how people shy away from fat darts because they think it is harder to get them all in a single triple wedge. This may be true in theory, but it has infinitely more to do with consistency in aiming. The below shot is from a Foam Axe practice round I did tonight.

31

2008-07-30T20:47:00.003-05:00

My thirty first maximum actually came several weeks ago while I was warming up for a shoot at Coopers. I do not recall the specifics of the evening and I am sure I did not do well in the shoot otherwise I probably would have blogged something about it.

The above pic was not the max I hit several weeks ago, but I was using the same darts with the exact same configuration. 17 gram Featherlights, medium snow white stems, and slim polys. The above pic isn't even a true ton-80. Instead it was the culmination of a Foam Axe practice round that I was shooting tonight after work.

Square Dart from Jeff Pickup

2008-07-23T21:13:00.004-05:00

Zeeple's Latest

2008-07-23T21:00:00.005-05:00

These are a Pickup custom that he recently sent to me:

True Evolution

2008-06-25T20:28:00.006-05:00

Now that I have had a couple weeks to play with the new darts from Evolution, I can say that they are a truly wonderful and very well thought out design. In fact be sure to check out their other barrel designs, here, here and here! Here are some of the things I really like about these darts:

The barrel is well thought out, and well, just Grippy! The very forward portion of the gaarrel has three evenly spaced longitudinal ridges that cause my fore funger to "lock" into place. This seems to prevent the dart from rolling in my fingers and gives me a much stronger confidence in my grip. Also, the wide and evenly spaace grooves behind the head of the dart are about as non-slip as it gets.

Another very interesting feature of these darts is that they are made out of actual steel, not tungsten!! Once you get over the initial sensation of holding a dart that _looks_ like it should be much heavier then it actuaally is you start to realize that this is a very strong advantage indeed. You get the advantage of throwing a light dart (precision and control) without the usual disadvantage that goes along with them (too skinny and small to hold onto).

I am glad I discovered this company. They are doing something truly evolutionary with darts.

17 gram Evolutions

2008-06-17T23:19:00.004-05:00

Here are my new darts from a company in Germany called Evolution:

They are one of the most interesting darts I have ever seen. They are coated steel and they are all one piece. There is no separate stem. Makes me wonder what'll happen when they hood.

156 Out

2008-06-05T20:53:00.002-05:00

Today I set a new high for myself. In similar circumstances to my former high out, I went triple 20, triple 20, double 18 to take out an 18 darter. Not only does that tie my highest average game (83.5 points per round) but I got a new high out out of it to boot. The game was against my team captain and it occurred on our board at work.

My previous high out was 130, which occurred on 2-11-08 against the same guy on the same board. I went S20, T20, DB. I am very lucky to be able to play throughout the week against him. He is an extremely dangerous player and a good friend and he causes me to raise my game to a higher level.

I was throwing newly dressed darts that I have not touched in years. More on that in a later post!

Dart Matter Wins First Place!

2008-05-16T13:32:00.002-05:00

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.

Max in Team Practice

2008-05-14T20:58:00.003-05:00

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!

Thin Stylish Dart by Jeff Pickup

2008-05-12T21:27:00.006-05:00

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!

New High In

2008-05-11T23:49:00.003-05:00

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!

Short Thin Barrels

2008-05-05T00:39:00.004-05:00

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.

Slow Year for Ton-80's

2008-04-30T21:50:00.004-05:00

I have been hitting very few maximums this year but that is okay. All I really want from the year is to hit a Ton-80 in league. Tomorrow is the last league match of the regular season, and we'll definitely be in the first round of the play offs, so that is a minimum of two more league matches in which I can hit my prize for the Spring season. And while I am hoping for a max tomorrow night, I definitely nailed one today at work. It came in a 20 dart game of 501 against my workmate. This makes 29 lifetime.

28 and Counting

2008-03-15T20:45:00.002-05:00

This one came the next morning after numbers 26 and 27. I was grooving on the Mags again and wanted to get in a full session of EMD. I was richly rewarded in high tons, including this one:

27th Maximum

2008-03-15T20:39:00.004-05:00

As previously mentioned, this one came within about 20 minutes of the 26th Max and it was even during the same round of EMD. Near the end of course.

More Maximums in Practice

2008-03-15T20:30:00.003-05:00

Numbers 26, 27 and 28 came in rapid succession and all while doing my new favorite practice routine, which is "Extended Modified Doubles", which perhaps I will blog on later. It is a very good practice routine that allows you to get in quality practice regardless if you have 10 minutes or two hours to mess around in.

The darts that I was using are my 23 gram Magnums by Harrows, dressed in short twin grip stems and slim ruthless flights.

Dart Matter Debut

2008-02-29T11:52:00.001-05:00

Last night was the first match of the new league season and Dart
Matter won handily 21-4. The competition was tough to be sure but all
four of us were in top form, raking in no fewer than 940 all star
points for the team and two 9 counts!

My own game was sharp most of the time. My first singles match was a
DD 301 which I won with a quick in and good darts. Then I played two
singles cricket games. This is where my smile broadens at the
memories of the night. The first game was againt the oipposing
captain, easily their best player. I played the sharpest game I have
ever played. I opened with a fiver - 4 20's and a 19. In the next
several rounds I hit a 7 count and hit the triple during on every
number. In my penultimate round I had one dart left after hitting a
triple 15 and used it to soak up a double bull. Next round I got my
last bull for the win.

My next singles cricket game, while a victory, was not as sharp. But
that is the game in which I hit the nine count. Triple 18, trip 17,
and trip 16. The only other cricket niner I've ever hit in an actual
game came in that very same bar several years ago. We'd just gotten
having our asses handed to us in a league match and we stayed around
to goof off after the match. I wanted to try my teammates new darts
and hit a cricket niner against him with them.

Of the four losses last night I was involved in two of them. They came
in doubles 501 matches. One was a disheartening case of being 300
point ahead and not being able to hit the double. All in all a good
night.

--
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Practice Routine: Foam Axe

2008-02-20T09:09:00.002-05:00

The Foam Axe is so named because its pronunciation is identical to 'faux max' give or take a micro pause. It is a very short routine except on the worst of practice days because all you have to do is get all three darts into the triple 20 and they do not need to be all in the same round. In fact by definition they are not! Because then that would be a genuine maximum. I will very often use the foam axe as a warm up routine for regular practice.

Here is how it works: you throw your darts at the triple 20 until one hits. Then you leave it in there! You retrieve the two errant darts and return to the oche. Now your task is to hit the triple 20 with one dart already in there. Believe it or not having your first dart stick in the triple is in fact a cause for a small psychological charge but with repeated practice can be overcome. Once you get your second dart in there, now you leave it and return to the oche with the single errant dart. The task now is to get that last dart in the triple 20 with the other two already in there. Keep throwing and retrieving it until you do. Make sure each shot is a studied determined 'spot' shot. Take a breath. Make a routine out of throwing that last dart for the max, this way you have a behavioral guideline for when this occurs in a match. When this condition does occur in a live game the last thing you want to happen is to be thinking "oh my gosh I hope I don't miss!". Instead you want to have hit the max a hundred times before in Foam Axe situations. The stress of having two darts in the triple 20 is tremendous and for the novice player usually results in a choke (a wide miss) but this is a situation that can and should be desensitized.

A Bear of a Maximum

2008-02-17T15:02:00.005-05:00

This is my 25th Maximum. It came during round of Modified Doubles quite near the end of the session, and in fact I only had the double 13 left. If I had not missed that double so many times I would have had to wait a while more for my 25th max. I am very happy with this maximum as it is the first I have hit with my Nobu's.

This is my Current Preferred Configuration for the Nobu's. Short Twin Grip stems and slim poly (non-dimplex) flights. Right now the flights are Black Bear flights but I change flights frequently and that does not affect my CPC (as long as they are still slim poly).

Practice Routine: Modified Doubles

2008-02-14T01:56:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I want to practice both doubles and sixties but have a hard time deciding best how to alternate among them. Or at least I used to have some trouble with this. These days I am almost always throwing the Flight School 'Accuracy" routine but when I want a break from that I throw a modified doubles practice that incorporates both sixties as well as the doubles. Here's how it works:

First dart of every round is aimed at the triple 20. If it hits then you stay on the same target regardless of the result of the second dart and try for a 120+ score. If the first dart misses, however, you abandon the sixties and the remaining two darts are aimed at the
doubles as if it were regular doubles practice. So you do the doubles in the standard zeeple order: 16, 8, 4, 2, 1, 20, 10... So let's say we just started the practice and the first dart missed the sixty. The second dart goes for the double 16. If it hits then great, you move onto double 8. If that second dart is a miss though you either go for the double 8 (if you missed inside or missed into the double 8 leaving 16), or you stay on the double 16 (if you miss anywhere else). Once a round is over though all that carries into the next round is where you left off with the doubles. So let's say that the second dart misses inside the double 16, the third dart then misses outside the double 8. The first dart of the next round again misses the sixty. What about the second dart? Do you go for the double 8 because you had 16 remaining last time, or the double 16 because you have not hit it yet? The correct answer is the double 16. It doesn't matter what remained last time.

So that is my modified doubles routine. I have been sticking with the Flight School routines mostly though.

130, Double Bull Out

2008-02-11T23:51:00.000-05:00

Today at work during a DIDO 301 game against my teammate I hit a real humdinger. Sitting at 130 I shot for the triple 20 and missed into the single. I then hit the triple 20 with my second dart, leaving 50:

Also of note is that I skunked my opponent. He never got on the board. I felt good about that game all day long!

Sunday Luck(y)

2008-02-11T21:29:00.001-05:00

Last night I headed up to my home pub for the weekly Luck of the Draw shoot. One awesome thing about this shoot is that the bar always matches the pot. So the more people who show up the better for the winners. Last night only five people came! A small number to be sure so instead of doing a blind doubles shoot we did a quick singles match in which we all played everyone twice. I won 7 of my 8 games taking home the $25 first prize. The only game I dropped I dropped due to some sloppy doubles and I gave my opponent too many chances to win. Which he did, of course! I can't feel too bad though because he is my teammate during league and I am happy when he wins. As far as my performance goes I only hit one ton all night but I made up for this with plenty of 80+ scores and of course I was spot on with doubles. Rarely missing them with more than one dart. So for this reason I feel pretty good about the evening.

Last night I thew my Nobu's primarily but had my Magnums in reserve for those few times the Nobu's felt funky. The Nobu's were configured with short Dynastar stems and they threw completely awesome with this configuration. A moving point and a spinning flight might be overkill even for the most die hard gimmick junky, especially for me who has professed for years that a solid dart that doesn't rattle shimmy or shake on the way to the sweet spot is a well behaved dart. They served me pretty well last night.

More Fun with Fleece

2008-02-09T13:43:00.000-05:00

The quest to create the most streamlined case possible never ends. Darts that come apart into many pieces are prime candidates for having small case designed around them, especially if the points separate from the barrel. The Voks Nobu is a just such a dart:

As you can see in the below pic the Nobu's come apart into four pieces. Five if I were to remove the o-ring from the stem but that would just be silly. The point of any El-C style dart is always going to be the longest piece that you will have to contend with but believe it or not the El-C point lends itself to disassembly far more than the traditional screw in point such as the Pickup Points. This is because to keep the screw in points from shaking loose you either have to o-ring them or loktite them, and loktiting is better for points.

Here you can see all of the pieces that need a home in the new soft case:

And in the below pic you can see my design ideas. The points were the biggest design challenge as they are the longs piece of any of them. What I did was to start arranging all the pieces into rectangles and squares until I eventually came to the patter you see below. Then it was just a matter of making all the compartments tight fits for their pieces. I am very happy with the long skinny compartments for the points. The slide in only with a bit of force and no amount of shaking will cause them to fall out. They have to be pulled out, which means I do not hav to worry about capping the compartments at all. The same is true of the stems. The barrels a bit looser in their compartments, as are the flights.

What you do not see in the pictures here are the small glove snaps I have sewed onto the case in various places to keep the flaps closed and the two halves snapped together.

Here you can see the soft case completely folded shut. It is small enough that it drops into the front pocket of my jeans easily and comfortably. Also in the below pic you can see the ends of the points just barely showing out of their compartments.

Length of Medium Twin

2008-02-04T21:24:00.000-05:00

I do not use the medium length twin grip stems, but for the record they are 50 mm without the threading, and when flighted are longer than a standard medium length nylon stem.

Faux Max

2008-02-03T22:17:00.001-05:00

Disappointed that no one showed up for the luck tonight at Coops, I came home and decided to throw 60's until I hit a max. It never came but after about forty minutes of dedicated 60's practice and after many tons and a few 120+'s, I hit a would be max but the third dart fell out of the triple. I am not sure how many seconds it was in there. Probably not more than five so I am downgrading this shot to a Faux Max. Oddly not a single ton-40 which is what I am used to hitting.

Fun with Fleece

2008-02-03T13:57:00.000-05:00

Here is a new dart case I made from fleece. I made this case because I like very slim streamlined cases that can fit comfortably in your pocket. To make this case you just need a little bit of fleece a small scrap of muslin and some needle and thread and optionally a rare earth magnet if you want the case to have a closing mechanism. It helps to have a sewing machine, which I used, but it is not necessary. After all I have done plenty of quality stuff by hand.

Here is what it looks like closed:

And this is what it looks like open but I took this picture before I decided to add a muslin flight sheath:

The magnet idea came later, I was just going to have a folding fleece wallet style soft case but then it occured to me that I could leverage the steel tips themselves to keep the case closed. So I arrange it so that when folded the placement of the magnet is lined up with the points of the darts. The magnet I used is a neodymium magnet hat has quite a lot of pull.

Here you can see that the magnet is strong enough to hold that darts by their points ( and then some. In this picture they are hanging in front of my fireplace.

A close up of the stem side of the soft case: The wallet is long enough that I could keep medium length stems in there if I wanted to but I prefer short stems so I designed the soft case specifically for their length:

Here is a long shot of the entire case open before I sewed the magnet into it's round pocket:

I strted out by not dividing the stem side into three slots, but later added that for its aesthetic appeal. Of course, once I did that there was no longer anywhere to put the flights since it was no longer just a big open pocket. So my solution was to grab a little bit of muslin and sew a sheath for the flights and attach it in the middle of the open case. I thought about doing it in fleece but I did not want to add too much thickness to the soft case when it is folded closed. Below you can see that the muslin makes for a very thin sheath indeed:

I close up of the middle of the soft case:

Here you can see a close up of the barrel side of the case. I designed it specifically for my 23 gram Magnums but almost any dart will fit. I have been thinking about how to do a similar case with angled pockets for GT style darts.

24th Maximum

2008-01-29T22:25:00.000-05:00

So my 24th maximum came on the very second throw of some brandnew darts, the 24 gram Bullets in fact. It occurred early last December but I failed to blog it at the time. That would have made it my last Ton-80 of 2007. I still have not hit one in 2008 but my goal for this year is to hit one in competition. Even if it is friendly competition, it has to be during a game. I have done that in soft tip (that makes me sound like a soft tipper which I am not) but never in steel tip. It is also worth noting that I only hit 2 maximums in all of 2007. That's fewer than even in 2004 which is the first year I ever hit one.

2004 - 3 Ton-80's
2005 - 6
2006 - 13
2007 - 2

The darts in the picture were brand spanking new at the time and I was still learning how to throw them. The grippage is the opposite of what my grip requires and I recall that on that particular throw I two fingered the darts and "pulled" them to the board. Odd feel throw with pleasing, but unrepeatable, results.

While I am going to give my Nobu's priority handling in the months to come my guess is that my next max will come off the 21 gram Assassins. They have been floating in there pretty good for me lately.

19 gram Nobu's

2008-01-26T18:11:00.001-05:00

These are my 19 gram Nobuyuki darts from Voks. They are lighter than I am used to and they are significantly shorter in the barrel. I spent several hours trying different stem and flight combinations until I settled on th config in the picture. I am still learning how to throw them well but what attracted me to them in the first place: the rear and front barrel grippage, makes them a very good barrel for my grip style.

Practice - Pre-Flight School

2008-01-24T23:55:00.001-05:00

What do I want from practice? What is my goal? It is unequivocally to become a better dart player. I do not practice for the joy of the game (although I do enjoy it). Rather, my primary adjective of every practice session is to improve my accuracy and refine my mechanics. I do not race to see how quickly I can complete the doubles or hit a hundred bulls or whatever. Every throw is methodical, practiced, considered and there is a purpose behind it. I do not throw just for the sake of it. That is my practice mentality when I am practicing alone. When my buddies and I meet for team practice it is slightly different, but not by too much. I play to win, I think through strategy and I practice calculating out shots, but still every shot is focused. In theory.

It has not always been this way. I used to be a careless, even luckless, thrower and I got discouraged easily and wound up driving my confidence into the ground, but in the last four or five years my practice habits have slowly but steadily begun to change for the better. At this point I am of the attitude that I can compete aggressively at the A League level - all I need to do is perfect my mechanics and group my darts better! Imagine!! Those two little things are all that stand between me and my goal.

How do I practice? I mean, what specifically do I do? I have my routines of course. But I will divide this discussion into the two primary scenarios in which I practice. When I am with my buddies/teammates, and when I am alone.

When at the pub and with my teammates we usually spend the first beer going around on doubles and the occasional bull or 60. But mostly it is doubles and this is less practice than it is warm up. Once ready we commence playing games. Lately we have been playing Chicago rounds, but historically we would alternate between 01 games and cricket, and usually finish off the evening with a dozen or so 101 games. This is a tremendously enjoyable way to practice. Especially when well Scotched, and happily beered.

However when I am alone I am always completely sober, always relaxed, and the only distraction I have is my dog jumping around trying to get my attention, or deciding to camp out immediately in front of the oche. I start by getting out six or eight sets of darts that catch my eye, an then lay them out on my work bench so that I can alternate among them freely. Sometimes I start with a set and never pick up another, while other times I cannot settle on a single set. Regardless, my first series of throws is a process that I call "Calibration". I throw at the triple 20, the double bull and the double 16, in that order, until I hit one of the targets. If I hit the target then that target has been calibrated and I leave it out of the rotation. I continue this until I have hit all three targets, which usually doesn't take very long at all. Sometimes no more than a couple rounds. Then, I start 60's practice. I take slow focused shots at the triple 20 until I have hit 20 of them. Lately I have changed this just a bit. I used to focus on the entire triple. Now I try to pick out a spec of irregularity in the triple and strain my eyes at it. During 60's practice I usually hit many low tons, and when I am "on" a ton-40 or two. I almost never hit the coveted ton-80. I have only hit 25 in my life time.

After 60's practice, I do a round of doubles, in this order: 16, 8, 4, 2, 1, 20, 10, 5, 12, 6, 3, 18, 9, 14, 7, 19, 17, 15, 13, 11. I concentrate on the doubles but if I miss inside I will go to the next number if it is half the starting value, which is why I do them in this order. Also because that is the order of choice when leaving an out. While I consider myself to be a pretty good shot at the doubles, this portion of the practice usually takes the longest time to finish. I can usually take out a double every couple of rounds but sometimes I take out two (rarely three) in one round.

After doubles I toss bulls until I have hit 20 of them. Double bull counts for two. The only exception to this rule is if I get through 20 bulls without hitting a double in which case I continue until I do. If there is still time after all of this I will shoot the cricket triples but often my time runs out before I get this far. When it comes to cricket triples I will stay one one number until I hit four-ish of them and then move down the board.

I do not have a set time or even a set amount of time for practice. I practice at home whenever I can sneak in a few rounds. Sometimes I have as much as an hour or two, some times it is five minutes while waiting for my wife to get ready to go somewhere or something like that. If I had to estimate an average session length, I'd have to say about 20 minutes since it seems I am always sneaking in a little bit of time here and there.

When I am practicing is is quiet and cold (at least in the winter) and my only distraction is my dog, who is fairly large and who has a playful personality and a thunderous bark. Sometimes she will jump around while I am throwing or even jump up on me and put her paws on my shoulders. I use this as concentration practice. I always practice ignoring her and focusing on the board. Sometimes she will catch sight of a squirrel or something outside and she will really let the poor animal have it. She'll produce the loudest string of barks and growls you have ever heard. I use this as concentration practice too. I don't let any of it get to me. This concentration practice came in handy last Sunday at the pub during a Luck of the Draw shoot. There was an important football game going on at the time and the place was packed. From time to time the entire bar would erupt in cheer, but I did not let it affect me. I maintained my focus and stayed on target. My partner and I ended up winning that night.

My thinking cap is always on. What some people refer to as the Mental game is what I refer to as the Thinking Game and what some people refer to as the Emotional Game is what I think of as the Mental Game.

Thinking Game = Knowing the best out shots and having a solid cricket strategy.

Mental Game = Having superior focus, and being able to completely block out movement, noise, and distraction while on the oche. This also includes being able to recognize, and undermine, attempts at gamesmanship from your opponents.

When I am practicing at home alone I have no need to think about outshots or cricket strategy but when I am practicing with the team and we are playing Chicago rounds I always am careful about not making a mental blunder. I have been thinking about outshots for several years and I believe I know what I would do in most cases without having to sit and review options while at the oche. As far as cricket goes I believe I know good strategy but this belief will be tested when I get to A League next month.

I do not have much opportunity to practice my Mental Game. I have gotten pretty good at ignoring noise related distractions but I do get butterflies when I am up against a good player. This is something I need to work on. Starting late March when I enter A League though, I will have ample opportunity to "steel" myself against trepidation and doubt.

25 gram NT's

2008-01-22T21:00:00.001-05:00

These beauties were custom made but not for me. They we commissioned by a guy in Canada who ended up deciding that he did not like them as well as he thought he would. The craftsmanship is remarkable, and the balance quite nice. So far in the 2 hours I have owned them I have hit several low tons and at least one ton-40. I am thrilled to have them. I call them NT's for the same reason I call my other similar set my "CT's". NT stands for Nickel Tungsten.

Update: these were sold to Gene (of SEWA) in May 2011. I hope he enjoys them!

Took First in Sunday Luck (and a double's trick to boot)

2008-01-22T10:43:00.000-05:00

Had a successful Luck on Sunday. I was paired up with an A League shark with an attitude to win and we took first place. The whole day was a good day from the afternoon practice before the shoot to the shoot itself.

Messing around earlier in the day I picked up my Assassins for a casual toss and ended up nailing a 171 (this was actually a spot-shooting exercise) so I kept up with them for an hour and hit a couple 140's in practice, then a couple more Ton-40's during the actual luck of the Draw. Feels nice to hit some worthy numbers with on lookers. I hit a few other Ton's but nothing to write home about.

The highlight of the shoot was taking out the winning double in a three way tie for first place. My partner left me with 24 and I missed into the single 12 and then took out the double 6 with the next dart. There were some very good shooters in the Luck so it felt like a well earned win.

Also, Before the shoot I took out a nice doubles trick. d16 d8 and d4 on the
first round that I decided to do some doubles. After that I missed the double 2 several rounds in a row and hung up the doubles before my confidence waned.

In the first game hit a ton and I took out 40 for the win. Second game I hit some nice tight groups but never for more than 60 points. Still this was encouraging as I have been concentrating on taking a breath and throwing slow concentrated shots. And spot shooting.

In the next set of two games I hit a 140 and took out a 16 with a single dart for one more win (I believe my partner and I pretty much split the wins between us evenly). In The fifth game I hit shit and we lost but the sixth game I hit another ton-40 and also took out a 4 with one dart winning it for us. The round before I had 84 left and missed into the single one and then decided to go 51, 32. I hit the 51 but wired the 32 inside leaving 16.

A nice evening.

171

2008-01-21T21:05:00.000-05:00

I hit this little gem while practicing my "spot shooting". I already had another set of darts grouped around (but not necessarily in) the triple 20 on Sunday afternoon before the Luck. I decided to pick a spec in the triple 19 and o my best. The first dart hit which pleased me greatly but then I couldn't find the spot I originally was aiming at, so I picked the spot where the point of the first dart hit the board and voila, another 57. I did the same thing with the third dart for a stylin' 171.

26 gram Bottelsens

2008-01-20T17:46:00.003-05:00

These darts came in a trade. I'd never seen them before even on eBay and I am very curious what the model name of them is. They are definitely Bottelsen hammerheads of some variety, perhaps even a signature dart for all I know but whose I could not guess. I traded away my 24 gram Dimplex Powerpoint darts for them, and when we were doing the trade, the guy who had them sent me two sets to choose between. The other set I could have chosen were Rick Ney signature hammerheads which I have wanted a set for a long time but I opted for these as they throw better for me, and they are like nothing I have ever seen.

24 gram Bottelsens

2008-01-20T17:42:00.001-05:00

These ebay beauties weigh in at 24 grams and they are Bottelsen Hammerheads for sure but what specific model name I do not know. They throw nice, and as is the case with all Bottelsen products, the craftsmanship is really top notch.

UPDATE: I traded these away for the Target Sport darts in July 2008.

22 gram Spectacular 1989's

2008-01-20T17:39:00.001-05:00

These brass darts came in a box from my father along with a bunch of other wooden and "bar" darts. I have no idea who made them but at the time they must have be special enough to engrave "Spectacular 1989" on the barrels.

21 gram Assassins

2008-01-20T17:11:00.001-05:00

These darts are nice little darts. I never knew what they were until a fellow dart geek immediately pegged them as 21 gram Assassins. Aside from being amazed that he could identify them so specifically within seconds, I was surprised because I never found the Assassin range to be that appealing. If these truly are those darts, though, they must be a much older version because these grooves are more widely spaced than the current version. I have not Ton-80'd with these, but I have hit a nine count in the 19 bed with them.

24 gram Bullets

2008-01-20T17:01:00.003-05:00

These darts were made to order for me by Jeff Pickup in Canada. They are a Copper Tungsten simulacrum of some old Unicorn darts called 'Bullets'. The stems are 3ba which are not made anymore and this makes them hard to find. I have ton-80's with these darts. In fact the second round I ever threw with them was a maximum.

Hangdart

2008-01-11T23:18:00.000-05:00

This little trick-shot:

came unexpectedly during a weekend practice session over at my buddy and teammate's house. We spent the afternoon alternating between practice Chicago rounds in preparation for the finals match (which we ultimately won) and fashioning inserts for impromptu dart cases. He has an old scalpel case that he likes and made a nice insert from foam that he bought in a garage sale and I have a pencil box that I am particularly fond of.

We Won!

2008-01-10T21:13:00.000-05:00

We won the finals match last night, so we are are now the B League champions! Next season I am moving up to A League though. Time for me to reacquaint myself with the bottom of the rankings again :( This is how the match went:

I opened the evening against their captain who is ranked second in the league. Finals is different. There was no stage there but it felt a little bit like we were on one since there was a crowd of people who had gathered to watch. My game was solid enough to keep pace with him but I didn't throw any big scores. We got to our outs at about the same time but I took out mine first, a 16 with single 8 double 4.

Ars Gainne Mill up 1-0

My second game was a singles cricket against one of their mid ranked players. I opened with trip 20, a miss at the 19 bed and then a single 20. It turned into a point war early. He went for the 18s but didn't open them so I opened the 19s next round and then we both laid into our honeypots. I was a good 60 points up on him by the time we got those two beds closed. The rest of the game went by in an undramatic fashion but my last round, going for bulls I blocked the bull with my second dart. But I snuck one in around it anyway ;)

Ars Gainne Mill now up 7-1

My third game was doubles 501 and my partner was our highest ranked player. We were up against their captain, a true ringer, and another guy we had not seen all season, their second best player. We managed to stay apace and then my partner left me a 12 out which I took out with a miss into the single 6, and then I hit the double three.

Ars Gainne Mill now up 8-3

Fourth and fifth games were also doubles 501 and I was partnered with our fearless leader for both games. We won them both but the second game was stretched taught with lots of tension. The opponents could feel it too. At one point one of the opposing team accused Capitan (who was several feet to the right of the oche) of stepping backwards during his throw. A small tiff ensued and then civility was quickly re-established when my captain offered to scratch the entire leg and do it over. I thought that was a very magnanimous thing to do, even if it was clearly an unjustified complaint. I don't think it would have mattered to our opponent had it not been a finals match, or if it had not been the game that clinched the title for us.

Ars Gainne Mill wins, 12-3

It was a very satisfying evening to say the least

Finals Bound

2008-01-06T12:19:00.000-05:00

So my dart team is headed for the finals next week and we are playing against a good (duh) team that is likely to put up really good fight. To get there we had to get past another really good team in the semifinals round.

The semifinals was a fun night. We smashed our opponents 11-3 which is a huge surprise considering that they are a strong team with at least two very strong players. Their captain as well as another guy who was B League's top player a few seasons ago. I guess part of it was that they were just off form but I think also there was a little bit of us being "on" too.

We played the team game first and I happened to take out the money shot, which was 20, with a miss and a hit (d10). Then in the singles 401 (Seattle seems to be the only place in the world which plays 401. Not sure why. Perhaps they figured since it was B League we couldn't handle the arduous extra 100 points?) I took on their captain and managed to hit my 36 out before he could hit his. By all rights I should have lost that game. My opponent have several turns at a single dart out and he could not hit it which was quite unusual for him. Then in Cricket I took on the former top player and beat him handily with 85 points to spare. I was a point ho that game but that is just the way you have to play cricket at higher levels of play. Point early, point often. I was surprised to do so well against him. I was hitting my triples pretty well but he normally beats me.

We never made it to the doubles cricket games. The semifinal match was decided during the doubles 501 games, and my partner and I had the honor of being in the deciding match. My partner took out the ten for us. All in all it was a fun night and I am happy to be moving onto the finals round against yet another tough opponent (duh).

26 Gram Fixed Point CT's

2007-12-16T12:50:00.001-05:00

I call these CT's. They are not MP darts and they were made especially for me and are thus a unique one of a kind set.

The points are a little short for my taste so I may end up replacing the points (but to be fair I did ask for short points).

As you can see they are similar in shape and appearance to my 28 gram GT's.

These three darts are all made from 75% Copper Tungsten. The middle one I have had for about a year. The other two are brand new. The material darkens as it ages.

Thinning Out the Herd

2007-10-20T23:18:00.000-05:00

I would be very happy if I could get my collection down to about 36 to 48 sets of darts. really this should not be too difficult considering that I have several sets of darts that I simply do not like and several other sets that I like well enough but feel no special attachment to, and which I never throw. The set below belongs to the later group. They are really good darts with an excellent grip but I never really throw them anymore. When I used to use them more I would dress them in hammerhead points and slim flights and they perform very nicely. the depressions in the barrel for the fingers are amazingly well thought out. The other night my buddy Byron came over and I used these guys and hit several low tons. I was happy. I'd also forgotten how well I like those spiraline flights!

In the above photo you can see the points that I currently have on them. They are ordinary plain (but oddly sharp) conversion points and their sole function is to help the dart stick in a bristle board. Not very aesthetically pleasing but that is not really a requirement (okay I don't really believe that). The flights are amazing although I freely admit that these days I use mostly plain slim flights. They have a lot of drag but that is compensated by how true they fly.

I think I'll throw some hammerhead points on them this week and reminisce a little bit before they gat bought up on ebay. If they get bought that is. This is my first bay offering and they is no garantee that they will be bought.