r/Darts Weekly Challenge #16 (My Shots)

I've already posted a bit of analysis for this challenge in another post.  Here is my attempt at it.  First, this week's challenge is as follows:

Easy Challenge: Checkout 20 only using Green Segments.
Medium Challenge: Checkout 55 only using Green Segments.
Hard Challenge:  Checkout 105 only using Green Segments.

It is worth noting that because I am throwing on a Bandit board, I do not have the 25 as an option as my 25 is red colored, and not green.

I spent a lot of time missing the D5 with my second dart after hitting it with my first so after a while I started to mix it up a bit.  I ended up hitting the easy challenge with D1, D9:

The medium was slightly more difficult for me but I did eventually hit is with T11, D11:

I want to callout the darts I was using for the medium challenge.  They are a nice, big, fat, nickel-silver offering from Bottelsen's venerable Hammerhead line.  I suspect they are a late-80's or early-90's dart but Bottelsen has not seen fit to offer up their old catalogs for general consumption.  These are some of my favorite darts.  The clicking sound they make is unique, even among the other Hammerhead darts I have, and the points feel more "solid", as if they were engineered to fit their collet better than other similar points.  What's more, they fit my grip well, and fly well too.  I am going to find a nice Fit Stem & Flight combo for them and use them in competition more once the governor sees fit to allow that again.

The hard challenge, to date, remains elusive.  My closest attempt so far is this heart breaker in which I just barely miss the D15 with my third dart:

Of course I'll keep taking cracks at it and update should I hit it :)

r/Darts Weekly Challenge #16 (Analysis)

I have been blogging less this year to be sure.  After all, the pandemic has kept me out of the bars and out of league which is the primary source of my blogging material as I discuss, for the benefit of my distant-future self, the details of my performance in the sport I loved so much "when I was young".

I want to provide my 90-year-old self a good read, in other words.

Someday my hands will be too shaky to hold a dart, and my eyes too dim to see the board, even with specs, thus I recount my days as a darter with as much detail as I can muster.  And with as much truth.

But I have been blogging a bit more than is obvious because all of the post I do about the r/Darts weekly challenges get "back blogged" to 2003, so I can group them, and so my blog doesn't seem too repetitive and uninteresting to whatever dart-playing netizen might be passing through.

This week's challenge was one of my own creation.  I am blogging about it today due to its theme, even though I have not hit any of them yet.  After all, today is 4-20, and while I do not personally partake, cancer has riddled my family with holes and thus I appreciate it's medicinal qualities.  plus I have had more than one friend with MS who have kept themselves on this side of functional by virtue of the happy greenery.  Here goes:

This week's challenge is as follows:

Easy Challenge: Checkout 20 only using Green Segments.
Medium Challenge: Checkout 55 only using Green Segments.
Hard Challenge:  Checkout 105 only using Green Segments.

Extra points are awarded for anyone using green darts, or whose darts are wearing marijuana themed flights.

Sadly, I have no green darts, nor do I have any marijuana themed flights, though I know plenty exist.  Here is how I approached the challenge in general:  The green segments are all triples and doubles.  There are no single segments that are green colored, and they are as follows:

OPTIONS
Wedge	Triple	Double	Single
Bull	--	--	25
19	57	38	--
17	51	34	--
16	48	32	--
15	45	30	--
11	33	22	--
9	27	18	--
6	18	12	--
5	15	10	--
4	12	8	--
1	3	2	--

So, if you want to checkout 20 using only green segments, then your last dart must be in either the D1, D4, D5, D6, or D9, and your other two darts my total to the remaining value, like:

20 CHECKOUT
3rd Dart (must be a double)	Remaining Value	1st Dart	2nd Dart
D9	2	D1	--
D6	8	D4	--
D5	10	D5	--
D5	10	D4	D1
D4	12	D6 or T4	--
D4	12	D5	D1
D1	18	D9 or T6	--
D1	18	D5	D4
D1	18	T5	T1

So your easies route for the Easy Challenge might be D5, D5, since you are aiming at the same double twice, but conceivably, any two doubles will get you there.  Your most challenging rout would be T5, T1, D1.  Your call :)

It gets more complex with higher out targets, but not unreasonably so since you only have three darts to work with.  Here is the break down for 55:

55 CHECKOUT
3rd Dart (must be a double)	Remaining Value	1st Dart	2nd Dart
D19	17	T5	D1
D17	21	T6 or D9	T1
D16	23	T5	D4
D15	25	D11	T1
D15	25	T5	D5
D11	33	T11	--
D11	33	D15	T1
D11	33	T6 or D9	T5
D9	37	D17	T3
D5	45	T11	T4 or D6
D9	37	T9	D5
D9	37	D11	T5
D6	43	T11	D5
D5	45	T15	--
D15	25	25	--
D11	33	25	D4
D9	37	25	T4 or D6
D6	43	25	T6 or D9
D5	45	D15	T5
D5	45	T9	T6 or D9
D4	47	T15	D1
D4	47	D16	T5
D4	47	25	D11
D1	53	T17	D1
D1	53	T15	D4
D1	53	D19	T5

Note that your easiest route to the Medium challenge is one triple and one double. To me, the easies seems to be T11, D11 since that keeps you in the same wedge.

And for 105:

105 CHECKOUT
3rd Dart (must be a double)	Remaining Value	1st Dart	2nd Dart
D19	67	T19	D5
D19	67	T15	D11
D19	67	D17	T11
D17	71	D19	T11
D16	73	T17	D11
D15	75	T19	T6 or D9
D15	75	T16	T9
D15	75	T15	D15
D11	83	T17	D16
D16	73	25	T16
D11	83	T15	D19
D9	87	T19	D15
D6	93	T16	T15
D5	95	T19	D19

With the Hard Challenge, you must use all three darts (there simply are no two-dart combinations that total 105) and at a minimum it requires hitting one triple and two doubles, but you can go the harder route of two triples and one double if that seems more fun to you.  I think I will go for T15, D15, D15 since that way I get to keep all my darts in the same wedge :)

So there you have it.

The Blackout

I am not the only darter in the world who has lamented over and over that the dartboard manufactures out there are too zealous with their branding, and take up way too much non-scoring area with distracting logos, etc.  It is downright shameful.  I have seen the suggestion on many different forums over the years to "black out" the offending logos with paint or marker or something, and that is just what I have done.

Mostly.

As it turns out, with a standard black Sharpie pen I was able to improve my dartboard about 1000%.  No more distracting and useless logos to pull your eyes away from those doubles.  I have left the 'T' and the 'B' from the phrase 'The Bandit' because I use those in my practice routines.  Typically I'll have a pink map pin beneath the B if I am aiming at the bulls with the first dart and the T if I am aiming at the trebles with the first dart.  See the routine I am talking about, here.

Also noteworthy is that the blackness of the Sharpie and the blackness of the non-scoring area of the dartboard are nigh a match.  If you stand up close to the board and examine the area around the T and B you can see a slightly darker shade of black, but you have to be looking for it.  Between the blacking out of the logos and the dismissal of the number ring I have an excellent, undistracting board to practice on :)

I just can't believe it took me 17 years to do this.

My Lightest Ton-80 Yet

During a session of Modified Rotational Doubles tonight I hit this little beauty, my 56th maximum:

These are the 11 gram brass UFO onesies wearing Reflex conversion points.