Darts – No quarter given or expected!

For my money it was another brilliant night of darts at the bad boys club. We weren’t mob handed; just four players but we still had a great time.

The crew consisted of Peter, Steve, John and Casablanca Mike. I had already made a mental note that this combination should produce pretty even odds on any selection making good opposition, was I right?

The flipometers did their work first time around teaming Pete and Steve ‘v’ John and CM. We wasted no time getting in to the action...

John and CM took the first. Steve and I retaliated winning the second. Then for my team it went a bit pear shaped as Stanley and Honda Mike (I thought I better use that nickname again tonight as it’s the last time I will be able to, officially!) took the third and fourth games.

I have to say Steve and I were getting a little despondent; it looked like we were going down the tubes. We grabbed a lifeline and bagged the fifth but what good did it do us? Not a lot as Stan the man and Mike the bike took the sixth game. With the odds definitely going against us we launched in to the seventh and took is and wonder of wonders we followed it up with the eighth!

The quick witted amongst you (that is all of us surely?) will have worked out it was a draw and depending on if you are a glass half full or empty person no one lost or won! Final score line JCM 1346 / PS 2578.

The games worked out pretty equally I reckon both sides had a game where they romped it and the rest were close and some very close! It was great competition and every time any player went off the boil the opposition were ready to take advantage and usually did!

Notable events:
A lot of trebles scored and quite a few ‘five of a kind’ by both teams.
I think I probably managed the highest scoring turn by bagging 8 scoring 18’s what a lovely pick up that was!

Bull Wars: Pete 4, CM 2, Steve 1.

Chart Changes:

Amazing.... Only one change! Steve rises from ninth to eighth place meaning Dave drops to ninth. This is unheard of, Dave in ninth place? Pull your finger out Redbond, Malc is right behind you!
The rest is unchanged. Papa is still a smidgen above Ian, CM and I are still level pegging and John and Mike-D are sharing the same percentage. Steve and Doddy are now in contention, so for everybody it is....

Game On!

Peter x

Darts – Bad Boys, a joy to play; win or lose?

Another brilliant evening in the hut! Six spear chuckers all determined to win and giving it their all, you really can’t ask for more than that. The competition was very intense.

After a very prompt arrival the crew had a quick practice, notably no one went for double elevens, must have been because the Rushton was not in the house!

The flipometers were used several times before the final teams were decided: Casablanca Mike, Doddy and Mike Davies ‘V’ Peter, Dave and Papa. Did any of you notice that the first team comprised of three Mikes?

Mike Davies noticed (being one of the three Mikes) and immediately asked me if I could check the club statistics to see if three Mikes had ever played together before?

Rather than check I told him to fuck off and look on the blog for himself! This isn’t boule Jelly Arm the tools are there, do your own research! Sometimes I think I am too polite and accommodating to members!

The evening was supercharged with all matches being well contested, some more than others but a good showing all around. The first match started at full pelt, not the usual ramp up. It was hard fought from the start with players doubling, trebling and shag-hi-ing all over the place.

CMDMD took the next three games and although some could have gone either way it was looking bad for PDPAPA. I told Dave it would be a game of two halves but sadly the second half was too short!

The final score line was CMDMD 1234 / 56 PDPAPA. CMDMD definitely deserved to win as they certainly played better through the evening, but it was very close, a draw was only ever a dart away!

Notable Events:

Although not on duty, Teddy rang at about 10.30 for a heads up on how the %’s were shaping up, now that is what I call dedication!

Doddy played some stunning darts, doing an Old Mac Donald on trebles amongst other things. He definitely gets MOTM on two counts. Playing above his usual standard and playing bloody good darts full stop!

Mike-D had a Bull +Semi.

Doddy had a double semi

Pete, Doddy and hell, I think nearly everybody had a Shang-Hi during the evening they were happening all over the place!

The same can’t be said for bulls.....

Bull Wars: Dave was King! No doubt about it. Dave 5, CM 1, MD 1, Pete 1, Papa 1

Chart Changes: Amazingly only one change!
Doddy climbs the ladder from eighth to seventh position while Dave obligingly slides down the snake from seventh to eighth. However there is more interest here....

Papa is still in first place! But less than 0.25% ahead of Ian. Peter and CM are equal third place at 53.06%. John and Mike-D are equal fifth place at 50.00% and Steve and Malc are equal ninth place at 14.29%!

So, all things being equal... I can say it is definitely GAME ON!

Peter x

Darts – Mickey Mouse, what a stunning game it is!

Darts is a funny old game. While I don’t mind (now and then) watching professionals on TV roaring through legs of 501, I have to say that I really couldn’t be arsed to play it myself.

Of course 501 is a game of pure skill, but I like to add some tactics to my game. When you play at our level (average!) you need the opportunity to capitalise on something other than pure dart throwing skill! Mickey Mouse (or as some call it ‘Tactics’) gives you all of that. You can be neck and neck in a game and the decision of where to go next can be the deciding factor of the game, to chase or not to chase? Hammer a scoring number or open another number that you know the opposition can murder you on? Go for a double target early or play the high scorers straight down the line?

For me, as far as darts goes Mickey Mouse is ‘The beautiful game!’

Anyway on to the games.....

Steve didn’t turn up and not a word to say why... But that didn’t stop Pete, Ian, Casablanca Mike and John heading for the hut and getting ready to rumble (or possibly grumble). After some waiting (for Steve) we started flipping and the sides came out as Ian and Pete ‘v’ Mike and John.

For a change I am going to start with the score line! PI 13458 / CMJ 267. AS you can see that was a 5 – 3 victory to Ian and Peter, but they were brilliant games and we never really seemed to know who was going to win then until a good way through, except game six which was a walkover by CMJ.

Actually it was quite a surprise that CMJ didn’t win the evening, at least three of the games they lost started with them having a 100+ lead sometimes nearer to 200. However Rushers and I were on fire for the first half of the evening and we managed to chew up those leads and take the games.

The opposition had a bit of a comeback towards the end, and regardless of who won and who should of won they were exciting games and we all had some purple patches. Ian and Peter's patches lasted longest... so I humbly awarded us both MOTM.

Notable Events:

Peter had a double bull finish, two sets of double trebles and some shanghai action.

Ian had trebles galore and some shanghai action.

CM and John both had some excellent treble action and also partook of some shanghais.

Bull Wars: Peter 3, Ian 1.

Chart Changes: Peter moves up one to third, CM moves up one to fourth which means john slides down to fifth place. Papa and Ian remain in first and second place respectively.

We have a full house next week, including Dave, Doddy, Papa and Mr Average...

So it is GAME ON!

Peter X

Darts - Papa, Papa, Papa!

Firstly I want like to say what a hardy lot the Bad boys are. As the rest of the UK apparently comes to a stop because of snow the bad boys Tuesday tournament carries on regardless (oh er, missus). So thanks gents for making the effort to pay homage in the hut regardless of the weather, much appreciated.

Tonight was the fifth fixture this year meaning that we are at the 10% spot, undoubtedly there are many twists and turns to be taken over the rest of the year but already there are some new trends appearing that suggest 2009 will bring some very different results to previous years.

Anyway on to the games! We had a very unusual ‘flipping’ with the first round only selecting one player. Those with (allegedly) better logic than mine managed to see a way of picking the teams out of the second flip while I was already contemplating the third.

The teams turned out to be John, Ian and Dave ‘v’ Pete, Papa and Casablanca Mike.

JID got straight out of the traps with a nice win on game one. PPACM weren’t having any of that and took the second game. Then a tragedy (as far as I am concerned) occurred, not only did JID take the third game but the sods whitewashed us in the process!

Teddy Rushton stood at the scoreboard and had the gall (while wielding the chalk) to ask me what the sign was for a whitewash! Fortunately my response caused more hilarity than the pain inflicted by his cruel jibe.

If you believe in karma then this was probably the undoing of rear gunner Rushton and his press ganged crew for the rest of the evening, from here on the washed up team cleaned up good and proper!

PPACM took the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh games, if Papa hadn’t got bored with winning and decided to go home then an eight win would have followed as surely as a sand dance on the boule piste in summer...

Which of course means the final score line was JID 13 / 2W4567 PPACM.

Notable Events:

I certainly can’t pick anybody out as MOTM. But in truth everybody had flashes of brilliance, but none of them lasted long enough to stand out head and shoulders above anyone else.

There were so many ‘flashes’ that I will admit that I cannot remember the majority of then so forgive me if your favourite isn’t mentioned...

Probably the best was Ian with 8 x 18 with 5 of them scoring, he also had a very useful Shang-Hi.

Papa piled in the 17’s as usual.
CM had several flurries but also did a lot of his workman like darts we all love, 3 singles in the right number at the right time, plenty of semis as well.

Dave had some great trebles work and again did some stunning triple single work when needed. Dave was also a regular semi bull man.

John was on triple and double duty.

Peter had a nice run on 19’s and a double semi finish, but not a bull to be seen, which brings me on to...

Bull Wars: John 1, Dave 1, Papa 1, CM 1.

Chart Changes:

It gives me immense pleasure to announce that Papa is in the number one spot, go Papa!

Ian also moves up one place to second position.

John vacates first place and takes up residency in third place.

Pete, CM and Dave stay where they are along with the rest of the bad boys.

It is great to see new movers and shakers at the top of the tree this season. If any of the old hands want to discuss ways of nobbling these upstarts I am all ears, hell the phone is ringing, ‘Hi Ian, oh... a conference call with Dave.. Sure’... As I was saying well done lads!

So, all to play for and much fun to be had, it is therefore.....

GAME ON!

Peter x