Ian Rushton - A Year in Bad Boys - 2009.

No I am not going through the whole year repeating things and events but I thought I might try and record a few reactions to a year’s darts in the hut.

I will try not to dwell on things that we all know, for example that Steve seldom turns up and that Papas rebounds have only drawn blood once so far but we are all terrified by the noise they make as they bounce off the board whilst we are walking away. Similarly the regular, but temporary, loss of Jelly Arm as he leaves the building to receive the talking to that he gives himself, and the occasional Redbond cry of ‘YeeeeeessssS’ as he hits a treble and explains to us all how he was going for it. How we all miss the machine gun like clatter of Casablanca’s darts hitting the floor as he vents his frustration with his own play. And we all know the severe stare of our host if one is judged to be straying into the area of behaviour classified as barracking. I certainly know the feeling one gets when ones attire for the evening draws a critique from Peter, and collects labels such as Val Doonican and Captain Birdseye.

One shouldn’t be hurt by the injustice of the label Moth Man for removing a moth from this life when it was in an area of the hut which could easily have caused a distraction to other occupants. After all the venue has an insectocutor running virtually all the time which destroys anything which is careless enough to stray into it. I often wonder what might be the outcome if one of Papas darts ventured in that direction.

Of course these are things that Peter includes in his regular weekly reports so I will not cover them here.

I feel that I should not spend time and words reflecting on my own performance at darts, after all Peter produces very good statistics week by week. This means that anyone who is interested would know that my %age of wins in 2007 was 57.4 and after playing virtually every week throughout 2008 I delivered 49.83%! Here I am after another full year of darts which has resulted in a much deserved improvement to 50.16%. I would of course resist any temptation I might feel to blame the many people that have partnered me in 2009. Anyway, as I said, one shouldn’t just go through a year’s darts looking at ones own results.

So, that is quite a lot of material being ruled inadmissible for this purpose and means that I need to look elsewhere for the content of this missive.

So perhaps I need a more general look at the years play? Things have certainly moved on. We regularly play 7 or 8 games in a 2 hour session and occasionally even 9, and therefore it is a worthwhile outing. It is always good to catch up with whatever is happening in our various lives, but there is seldom a need for any deeply serious conversation. Regardless of who partners who, the perceived abilities of the various individuals, it is seldom possible to predict the result of the evenings play, or for that matter a single game. The outcome is never really certain until it is over. They are all very competitive games, exciting on very many occasions, so that you can feel the tension in the hut and enjoy the highly charged atmosphere.

A Shang Hai is always worthy of note, some trebles can justify praise, double trebles usually come in for analysis, treble trebles are obviously very memorable but sadly I can’t remember one, even just a good close grouping of darts, especially if in a number under 10, and thrown by your opponents are praised extensively. Sometimes some unusual tactics will cause some debate and discussion. Of course, operating in the somewhat confined space of the hut a team cannot have a private discussion on tactics so inevitably the opposition join in and can even influence the outcome!

As a result one can face with confidence the fact that if you say to Papa ‘Some 18s would be good’ and he throws his darts at 17, you know that all is in fact well with the world.

When I get home and am asked the inevitable question ‘What did you talk about?’ I am able to say ‘Nothing’. In my view this is incontrovertible evidence of time well spent.

Roll on next season.

Ian.