Spinning Out of Control

Before I start comparing my spinners, let me say this: the Dynastar spinning flight system is far and away the best system I have seen. Nothing else compares. Having made such a broad sweeping statement, let me also say this: dynastar is a such a free spinning system that sometimes I think they spin too much. You can hold the dart in front of your face and give it a slight blow and the flight becomes a spinning blur. So if you like a free spinning flight this is the system you are looking for. You can get them in nylon or aluminum.


The next best spinner in terms of how freely it spins is the Spinster shaft. I do not personally own the entire shaft but I own a very unique set of darts that use the Spinster tops only for stems. One season I threw in Seattle a teammate showed up one night with spinster shafts on his darts. I remember being very impressed with how well they spun under the slightest breath. They are good looking and well made. They only come in aluminum, however.


Other spinners I have that have a good spin to them but are unfortunately less attractive are the spinners that came with my Harrows Piranhas. They are a good short length, though. I believe they are called Top Spin. I would say that the spinners that came with my Great Whites also fall into the catagory of good spin but bad esthetic. Equally mediochre are the medium all aluminum all black spinners, and while these are plenty sleek the spin is a little tight. My worst spinners are those that are nylon or plastic with attempts at spinning tops. This is not to say that all nylon spinners are bad but mine surely are. They stay on the dart but do not spin freely in the least. If you want the benefits of nylon in your stems but want the spinning action get the nylon Dynastars and ignore the rest.


Free spinning can be bad. I have talked to guys that want the dart to be more or less stable and non-moving until such time as there is a flight collision and they want the flight of the first dart to spin out of the way. They don't want it spinning in the air, in other words. To me this is not an issue which is why I like the Dynastars. In fact, I like the Dynastars so much I actually modified a set to fit my GTs:


Dynastars have other qualities that should not be overlooked. For example, Dynastars cannot be robin hooded. The flights are a molded plastic so there are no mylar layers to separate. Also the stem part of the system doesn't have anything for an incoming dart to catch on and thus robin hoods are not an issue there either. Also, perhaps thanks to their method of having such a freely spinning flight, the Dynastar flights pop off quite well so between the spinning action, the easy popcorning, and the molded plastic, the flights last a long time.

Of course now is when I remind you that I don't use spinners of any sort anymore unless on a whim. I use ordinary short or in-between static nylon stems these days and do not feel the need for spinnners. But if you are into spinners, have a blast.

My Favorite Stem

My favorite stem is vary hard to find.



I do not treat aluminum vs. nylon as some sort of holy war. I use stems made from both materials and I like them both and recognize the pros and cons of both. For example, on my 16 gram Radarts that I used all last season I will only use short aluminum shafts. The in-between nylon shafts will work on them length wise but they have a dramatically different feel and thus do not work over all. Thus there are some darts in my collection that will only take an aluminum shaft. The reverse is not true. While on many of my darts I actually prefer to use an in-between or short nylon stem I can use an in-between or short aluminum shaft just as happily. I have many many many different types of shafts and stems of all lengths and materials. Perhaps some day I'll compare the pros and cons of the whole range but today I am just getting to a particular point and that is:

My Favorite Stem is Hard To Find!

Take a look at the stems in the photo below. The three stems are all similar in some regard. All plain black, which is an advantage because it detracts from any flashiness in the darts. Flashiness is bad but that is a discussion for another post.


The top shaft is a standard in-between length aluminum shaft. Plain as can be this is actually my prefered aluminum shaft when I use them. It has one main pro and one main con. The pro is that its shape provides a nice feel to the dart when thrown and is more attractive aesthetically. The main con is that you have to use rubber o-rings to keep them from unscrewing on their own. It doesn't bother me all that much to have to use o-rings, but some darts are machined more intelligently than others. On the poorer darts, when you tighten a shaft that is o-ring equiped it will smash the o-ring outward so that either it slips out of the dart altogether, or just creates a little bulge sticking out from the joint between the barrel and the shaft. The better machined darts provide a slight groove or inward angle so that when the shaft is tightened it squeezes the o-ring in towards the threading.

The bottom shaft is your standard medium length nylon shaft. The main pro is that it will stay tight on its own, the main con is that it is a dumpy looking shaft. The mediums are too long for my taste, and for the barrels I typically use. I will soon be trying some 44 mm length barrels at the suggestion of Taechon and the mediums may work better on those but that remains to be seen. I use springs sometimes. But not because they keep the flight on tighter. I actually prefer that the flights pop off easily and thus the springs will interfere with that. Another benefit of using the springs is that when you robin hood the stem (as opposed to robin hooding the flight) the spring will prevent the stem from breaking, thus preserving the stem for you. So, when I am running low on the stems (which has been true for the last eight months) I will use the springs to keep from having to buy more stems too soon.

The middle shaft shares the pros from both of the other two shafts and is MY FAVORITE SHAFT. It is a shapely beautiful stem that looks good on any dart, AND it is nylon so it doesn't require an 0-ring to keep it on tight. This stem has other benefits. It is flexible in the middle and will easily bend out of the way of incoming darts. Also, you can still use springs on these stems to keep the flight from coming off if you like (and the springs are extremely effective). The only downside that I am aware of (other than their apparent scarcity) is that they will snap more easily than other stems making them more disposible than others. But if I could find them in good supply this would not bother me in the slightest. Above is a pic of them with a spring in place.

So, does anyone know where I can find them in a variety of colors and lengths? I have seen similar ones on Unicorn's website but only in white, and to be honest they weren't as nice looking (too angular and not curvy enough). Thanks in advance!

How To Order Pickups:

Howdy Ynz. I'd like to draw your attention to the new sidebar on the right side of this blog page: =====>

This is a section of quicklinks related to Jeff Pickup and some of the work he has done. People very often ask me how they can get the darts they see in the blog and if Jeff can do this, or Jeff can do that. The answer is always yes, of course.

If you like the darts you see and want to buy some please let Jeff know what you are looking for, what changes you'd prefer on the darts (he doesn't make it till you order it - and all sets are somewhat unique). Just make sure he knows you saw his stuff on my blog. Thanks!

Making Good

The winter break between league seasons is a good time to make good. Make good on promises, that is. And I have a couple that I need to enforce. I promised myself I would take a break from darts and as you can see from the pic to the right this is exactly what I am doing. In fact, I am enforcing that promise by removing my dartboard from the wall for a while.

But there is another reason to remove the dartboard from my backboard other than to remove the temptation to pick up a dart and throw it. Indeed, I have hinted to someone special to me that I would like a new dartboard for christmas. So if this comes to pass then I will have a good excuse to put a board back up. Otherwise, I have a different timeline in mind. You see, there is another non-dart related promise I have been thinking about.

I have been working with linux for a few years now and I have decided it is high time to get some sort of certification to prove I am proficient and wise in the ways of linux. Doing so will (should) improve my standing at work as well as provide a bit of satisfaction. SO if that Unicorn Eclipse doesn't find its way down my chimney this year, the board will stay down long enough to study up for an exam or two.

Whimper.. Whimper.. Gone

Well last night was the last league match for the season and while me and my team had a great deal of fun we lost again in a spectacular way. We lost 15-4 to the only team we'd beaten this year. I started the night strong but finished with a whimper hitting very little of note in the last few games I played in. There were a few highlights to mention, one of which was quite a good come back in DIDO 301.

I played one doubles cricket match, which we won mostly because my partner couldn't miss the triples. But I contributed with several bulls in that game so I am happy about it. The best of the night for me came in my singles 'best of three' match which I won 2-0. We started with 501 which I won in a non-spectacular manner. I hit my out before he did. Then we played DIDO 301. He got on first round and I couldn't hit my double all of a sudden. It looked like I was going to be skunked. After everytime he reduced his score I would miss my double in by a wider and wider margin! But, when he had only 98 left, I got on with a double 8, and finished the game 16 darts later. I am proud to say that not once in that game did I ever give up. Somehow I just knew I'd have my chance at an out shot. Anyway, my opponent was visibly crushed and disgusted. Which is too bad, I know the feeling for sure.

I stuck with my 16 gram Radarts last night, as I have used them for almost ever match played this season. I don't think I will use them next February though so I am going to start practicing with a different set immediately (okay not immediately - I need a break from this wicked and cruel game). In fact, I think I am going to take down the dartboard for a while if for no other reason than to remove the temptation to throw.

Tonight's Feel Good Out

Well when is 5 a good score? The answer is that it is a good score when you aim for a triple, and hit it, and then aim for a double, and hit it, and not need to throw your third dart at all. That will make 5 a good score any day of the week. This is what happened to me in practice and it left me feeling pretty good. The odd thing is this. If I had performed this same feat just one wedge to the left, it would be a 100 out and thus note worthy. Doing the same thing in the ones doesn't get the glory even though it is no less difficult.

The Reduction Begins

There is a Canadian who goes by the online moniker of Dax. He is always giving me terrific advice on how to become a good dart player, how to improve and especially about the mental aspect of the game. His most consistent advice to me (and this has come from other people as well) is to stick with a single set of darts. That is very hard to do as I really like all of my darts. It is like giving someone a huge satellite Tv package and telling them never to turn the channel. How can I never throw the Widows again? Or the Rhinos or the Warriors or the... You get the idea. Realistically, I have become so enamored to the 16 Gram Radarts that they are all I really throw much these days anyway. So it will not be so hard to not throw the others. I can always break them out between seasons for fun, or during parties when there are a lot of people throwing. So I have actually gone through the trouble of packing up the darts I don't use that much, boxing them, and sticking them in the attic. I only have three sets of darts near my board now, and stick to those only. Here they are:



Also. I am going to reduce these to only two sets soon. The top two have something in common and the bottom two have some thing in common. The top two darts are both GT3's by Bottelsen and I like the feel of them as well as the fact that they wear similar clothes. Since this photo was taken I have tried a few different points on the 16 gram GT3's (middle set) but now they are wearing hammerhead points just like the 27 gram set (top). Oops, in the picture the top set is wearing the Pickup Points. Now they are both wearing HH points.

The bottom two sets are both 16 gram. I have been gravitating to lower weights lately and the 27 gram GT3's are likely to me the next to be pruned from my throw set. But for some reason the 16g Radarts (bottom) have a dramatically differnt feel to them and throw much better than the GT3's of the same weight. This may also be a factor in the decision. I may even demote both GT3's and call up some other dart from the collection to serve as the second set. Remains to be seen. League ends on Tuesday so I may even take a closer look at the LCT (Less Commonly Thrown) darts to see if there are any overlooked gems in there given my reduction in weight preference recently.

Dart Swap

Some of the folks over at Sewa Darts came up with the idea of a dart swap. A good way to trade those iffy purchases for something you'd rather have. All of the darts below are darts that I like, but either 1. have some element to them that I'd prefer to change, or 2. are darts that I have more than one set of. So here are the first offerings with a description as well as the reason they are for trade. Also, I am willing to trade them as pictured, barrel only, or with just about any other combination of stem and flight.


Top to Bottom descriptions for the photo immediately above:

1. 28 gram fixed point smooth blask widows. Slightly worn. I'd prefer to trade these for either lighter black widows or black eagles. The only reason I am willing to trade these is because 28 grams is too heavy for my taste. If no one wants them I will likely have Jeff Pickup "illusion taper" them.

2. 25 gram fixed point black "edge grip" Great Whites from Bottelsen. Hardly used. I'd prefer to trade these for other bottelsens, possibly Hammerheads. I like the grip on these darts pretty well but something about them doesn't fir my throw. Perhaps they are too fat (9/32" barrel) or slightly too heavy.

3. 24 gram Powerpoint Dimplex. As is. I'd prefer to trade for other powerpoints but I guess I am open to almost anything. I like the grip on these darts but I wish they were thinner and longer.



1. 20 gram fixed point Halex Tungstens. These are in very good condition and the only reason I got them in the first place is so I could have a backup set for the darts my girlfriend got me one Christmas. The trouble with them is that they are 20 grams whereas my originals are 22. Thus they are not really backups.

2. 20 gram fixed point Halex Nickel-Silvers. These are probably the first set of steel tips I ever bought. I like them okay but I don't use them much anymore so I am willing to trade them.

3. 18 gram fixed point Halex Brass. As brass darts go these are gems. I have three sets of them though so losing one set is no big deal to me.



1. 27 gram fixed point Harrows Axis. When I first got these darts I liked them quite a bit and threw with them fairly often but I have migrated to the lighter weights and so do not use them much anymore. The grip is very unique. They are very slightly front loaded but I consider them middle weighted darts.

2. 19 gram moving point "Hawkeyes". These may be Halex darts but I am not sure. I cannot remember where I got them and their case is long gone. As pictured they are wearing hammer head points and dyna-star stems. Be warned though, if you want the hammerhead points you can but one is bent a little and I have never bothered to straighten it out. I bought them that way from a store in Elizabeth, PA, and didn't notice at the time.

3. 17 gram fixed point who knows what they are darts. These darts are terrific. I have two sets otherwise they would not be up for trade. I have no idea what material they are made of. They are mostly smooth darts but they have very slight rings in the barrel, just enough to give them an "almost texture." The threading in the back for the stem is 1/4" and I have bought 1/4" aluminum stems for them.

Almost Okay

Last night's match was a nother defeat for my team but good times were had by all. At least this week my team didn't have to completely carry me like they did last week! In fact I did almost okay last night.

My first match was a doubles cricket which we won. My partner was hitting her trips and I hit three bulls in the last two rounds for the win. In fact that was a close one! In our opponents last round they hit a solid hat trick to bring themselves within 10 points of us, but I hit that last needed bull with my last dart. The next match was a doubles DIDO 401. I had the same partner and we won again. I doubled in on the 8 in the first round and took an 8 out for the win.

My singles match was very well played by both me and my opponent but he got the best of me. He was far and away their best darter so I am happy I gave him a run for his money. He won the first game, cricket, because I couldn't hit my bulls at all. Otherwise that game would have been mine. Next game was DIDO 301 which went well for me. I hit a 92 in on my first round and finished the game in 19 darts, 4 of which were misses at the double out, and one of which was wasted in the single bull for the very first dart of the game. The tie breaker was a SIDO 501. It was tight, but he hit his double before I hit mine, although I had at least ten darts at the out before I lost. All I could do that game was whittle it down to bones.


These are the darts I used last night. They are 24 gram Piranhas by Harrows. FP with in-between leangth nylon shafts and black poly pear flights. They are a good dart. I have been leaning lighter lately though.

Pickup Points

Here are some GT3's with Pickup points rather than the HH points I bought to go with them. I did not put the Pickup points in there on purpose necessarily, I just decided to take off the Fixed Point conversions for a while in favor of moving points and these were closest to my hand. Er.. wait.. perhaps the HH Spinpactors are locktighted into some other darts. Not sure. Nonetheless, someone asked me about them recently so I thought I'd show what they look like in GTs.

A Pickup Original

While I was doing business with Jeff Pickup and describing to him what I wanted in my Dagnabits, he was kind enough to send me a sample dart of what he usually does. It is an original design with him and has some very nice features. He only sent me one however, and so I do not have a full set of them. From time to time I pick it up (perhaps I should say: from time to time I 'Pickup' the dart - haha) and give it a few throws. It feels great. It is about 19 grams and has a nice grip to it. Here it is:


I have in the past several months come to appreciate a lighter dart. In fact I have a set of 16 gram darts that I use almost every week at league and every time I pickup this lone dart I keep thinking boy, it sure would be nice to have a couple more like it. Anyway.. a poster over at Sewadarts had asked me about it so I wanted to blog it for his benefit. I took another pic of it by a metric ruler too, so he could see it is NOT, unfortunately for him, exactly 44 mm long. but rather a healthy 51 or 52.

Robbed At Dart Point

This was very nearly another Deadeye and should have been. The first two darts nailed the double bull and the third dart was in there. It was heading for the very center right between the first two but then deflected into the single bull. Agonizingly close to my second Deadeye. A five count is still pretty nice, though!

A Real Poke in the Eye

So the cosmic forces have aligned to poke me in the eye. I have not thrown a dart since our loss on Tuesday. I picked them up today, just now, and threw the hat trick pictured to the right. No darts in two days and what a way to start. Juergen is right. There must be a flaw in my mental game. But perhaps it is just that I throw on my practice board at home so often, and I have hit so many great shots, that my confidence on this board in particular is rock solid. Whereas when I get to the bar, with different lighting, different board quality (wires and staples there vs. blades at home), different air (smokey-chokey there vs. clean at home), etc., it is different enough that home practice counts for not very much. What makes this all the more cruel is that on Tuesday, the second match I was in was cricket. And we had them under our thumb right down to the very end and then I couldn't hit the bull. They in turn punded the bull and killed us. It was a bloddy mess. Since when can I not hit the bulls? That is one of my strongest targets normally. And before the match on Tuesday I hit my first Deadeye, hit several hat tricks in warm up too.

This mystery remains to be solved.

I Don't Understand

How can I have incredible practice rounds all day and then hit absolutely nothing at all during league? I had the worst night of darts I have ever had (at least within memory). With the exception of a couple mid-fifties outs, I hit squat for the entire duration of the match. My team lost 16-3. Ouch. That is our most crushing defeat to date. And although my people were joking at the bar afterwards, I can't help but feel they were discouraged. None of them had any interest in throwing more darts!

Of the 3 points we did win, one point came in a doubles 501 game that my partner and I won. I hit a 58 out in that game for the win. The other two points were from a singles Chicago match that I won (I won the cricket game we opened with, and then hit a 50 out (s18, s8, d12) for a quick 2-0 win in that match). Other than these two wins we lost everything else. And the worst part is that I was on fire all day during practice, and then on fire during the hour warm up before league play started. On fire to the point that my teammates were commenting on it. I could not miss the bulls, nor my doubles. And then like magic the league play starts and my fire is doused with 1's and 5's.

Anyway. Enough dwelling. I look forward to the next match. We have a bye next week and then we play against Nicos the week after. They are formidable opponents to say the least and they trounced us when we first encountered them. Nonetheless, I am certain we will beat them this time!

Here is a completely random pic from a long time ago. It has nothing to do with last night's defeat or this post.

First Ever Deadeye

This shot made me happier than just about any shot I have ever made. Even more so than my first Ton-80. I had only ever seen this done once. My good friend and teammate in Seattle pulled one off in practice before a consolation tournament a few years back.

Seventh Lifetime Ton-80

It has been since July 15 since I have last hit a "max". So this was just the shot I needed to bring myself out of a rut in dart playing. But in all fairness I haven't been in a slump necessarily, just a rut. I have been doing decently in league but not spectacular. I have hit several Ton-40's and Hat Tricks, several other low tons, etc. but not consistently. So I have been shooting above average, just not at the level I desire.



My accuracy with the darts pictured above surprised me a little. I have been in the mindset lately that 24 grams is pretty much the perfect weight for a dart. Depending on the dart of course. Front loaded darts have a wider range of acceptable weights. For example I have been throwing my 27 gram GT3's lately with pretty good accuracy and not suffering due to the extra grammage. So when I picked up the 16 gram darts (in the picture) and started hitting things I was surprised. I put a slightly smaller flight on them (pears) and found they flew pretty much straight and with a good flat trajectory. I did notice that I throw these darts harder. I think this is in response to their lighter weight, and according to a book I am reading (How to Master the Sport of Darts) throwing harder is a more accurate style than lobbing high-arced trajectories. Time will tell.

Hot and Cold, Hot and Cold

The bad news is we lost our match last night 13-6. The good news is that we did better this week than two weeks ago and my teammates were pumped even at the end when the match was over. Despite back to back stompings my team is happy and looking forward to the next match! No morale boosting necessary for my troops. Talking to them each after the night they all felt that they were throwing well and that each game they had a fair chance to win. And I am certain they did! In one singles match my teammate took out 88 by going 20, 18, double Bull. I was terrifically impressed. I advised him on the round as such: first dart goes to the trip 20. (He missed into the single.) 68 remained with two darts. Second dart goes to the trip 18. (He missed into the single.) 50 remained with one dart and he nailed the double bull. In the end he missed his intended mark with the first two darts and still took out the 88 for the win.

I personally did both quite well and quite poorly. In cricket especially. In my first cricket doubles game in my last round I hit 15, bull, double bull to win. That was exciting. But in my only singles cricket match I allowed myself to be demolished. It was not a lack of strategy either, it was a lack of accuracy. I hit squat that game. But in the next doubles cricket game I hit 5 bulls in the last couple of rounds to come back from behind and win it for us. Fun times.

In the '01 games I did manage to take out 4 once for a win. Other than that I had a poor night. No tons, nor many trip 20s at all. Perhaps next week... By the way the pic has nothing to do with last nights match. I just thought it made a nice visual.

First Double Bull Out

I had a terrific night last night. Our team had a bye so we gathered at the home pub for some much needed practice and chemistry building and I had a terrific night. The others did well too, and I feel we are gaining momentum in the categories of team chemistry and confidence. Next week we play a team that by all reports (okay only one person told us this) should be in the Super division but have decided to play B League this season. So I hope that our momentum stays and does not crumble. So what made my night so good? These things:

1. An exciting finish in a singles 501 game.
2. Two 135's scored.
3. Multiple Tons (did not keep track).
4. Dominated Cricket all night.

So here is how that exciting finish went down: I had 85 left with three darts in hand and decided to go bull with the first dart. This would leave me either 35 (less likely) or 60 (more likely) with two darts and I'd be happy with that. Well I missed. I hit the single 15 and had 70 left with two darts. Then I decided to try something I'd been thinking about. I decided to go triple 20, double 5 with the last two darts so that if I were to miss into the single 20, I'd still have an out with my last dart. I missed into the single 20. I had one dart left and 50 points to go. I squared up and shot with confidence and voila. Double Bull for game.

The sweetness of that win lasted all night.

Pickup Your Game

For those who have asked who made my new darts and where they can also get some like them, and for those who have PM'd me or posted comments on the last entry about the darts pictured there, I am posting the contact information of the gentleman who made mine. And here it is:

Jeff Pickup
145 Rembrandt Pl
London, ON N6C 5G9
(519) 686-6659
jpickup
rogers.com

The last two lines are his email address, just stick an @ between them. I did it this way to spare him any spam that might be generated otherwise.

He made mine to exact specifications. I described them as I wanted them, detailing barrel length, weight, texture, nose shape, taper points, everything. He delivered precisely what I asked for and I am very please with the darts.

He has a unique MP system. His moving points are excellent and I use them on both my sets of GTs now. You can see a cross section of one that he'd cut in half for demonstration purposes. He uses an o-ring to slow and stabalize the movement of the point. His collars are also very low profile, similar to the GT collars.

He also has a unique stem system. And it may be the most clever stem system I have ever seen on a dart. He use a section of a Q-tip stem as a spacer to hold in the rod and top of a titanium shaft. Good stuff. Perhaps he'll log in and leave a comment.

Please let him know you heard of him through Zeeple at The Dart Indoors. Cheers folks and good darting!

Darts For Sale

These are not my darts, but they are for sale. They were designed and lathed by the same guy who made my new set of darts. They are quite nice looking, in my humble opinion, and have the kind of strong taper found darts like the GT which are moving point darts (only). The darts pictured are 22.5 grams in weight and are fixed point, but I think he'd be willing to do the same dart in moving point if that is your preference. In fact his moving points are also quite special. They are his own design.

Size Matters

A lot of people have asked me about the stems they see on the blog. Especially regarding the new screw in type shafts from Bottelsen they designed for their GT line. I thought I'd snap a quick pic to illustrate the difference between 1/4", 2BA, and the GT shafts. Take a look at the barrels. From left to right they are a 17 gram no name dart, a 22 gram Halex Tungsten dart and finally, a 27 gram GT3. The leftmost dart is from a one of two sets of darts that came free with a dart board I bought once at the sporting good store. I knew nothing about dartboards then and bought the cheapest, whcih was a paper-wound job. Terrible board, but oddlly, I like the darts (bottom dart in pic). This is one of two darts I own that have an opening for a 1/4" threaded stem, and the only dart that requires the 1/4" stem. The other set I refer to has an opening on one side for 1/4" and 2BA on the other, so you could either use 1/4" points or stems and 2BA of the other. The middle dart is the most common. Almost every dart on the market is like the middle barrels in these pics and requires the 2BA stem, also pictured below it. The last barrel, form the GT3 has a very tiny opening requiring the tiny stem you see near it. I do not know what thread size it is. The next set of darts I design and have made for me will take this type shaft. It allows for a much more salient taper.

Back to Back Hat Tricks

I hit hat tricks often enough now that I am no longer tempted to take a picture of every single one. In fact not many shots excite me any more. But tonight I hit two Hat Tricks back to back. The first picture is actually from a practice session last night, and tonight I didn't whip out the camera until I hit that second Trick. So my back to back Tricks toght were both with the Red/Blue/Yellow flight combo, where as the clear flight was a previous CPC. I am not sure if these photos are oriented correctly. I think the one from yester day may need to be flipped around one way or another but I cannot remember.

Round of Nine

While tossing around with my mystery darts yesterday after work I hit a clean Round of Nine. It was not in a game, nor was it really in any kind of structured practice game, I was just aiming at triples for practice. Triple 18, triple 17, triple 16. I have hit a True round of nine before but it is rare for me. I'd say it might even be more difficult than a Ton-80 since you have to change your aim after each dart. I later played a few rounds of DartPro against an online friend from Bulgaria and did pretty well in those games too. Such evenings tend to give me a lot of confidence. Why do shots like this never happen in league matches? Last Tuesday night I had one good game of cricket but other than that I couldn't hit anything at all. At least I'm rebolstered for next match!

Perennial Posts

Has it been a year already? I guess it has. One year ago today I posted my first blog post to try to find some darts for a set in which I was missing a dart. The Mystery Darts. How appropriate for my one year anniversary post to concern those very darts. They are still mystery darts and I have not found anymore like them but I did find a guy who would make me a duplicate third dart so I could have a complete set:


Notice that there are some differences. The new dart is shinier which I would expect, but also the striations that run the length of the dart missing. He said that this was created by running the dart through a particular kind of machine which he did not have and asked if I'd like the other darts to be made smoother so they were all identical. I opted to keep the longitudinal pattern on the others because I have not given up hope for finding some more of them. The same guy in Canada who made my new set also made this one. Here is a close up of the barrels together:


Well, I hope you few who follow my ramblings have enjoyed the blog for the last year. Cheers!

CPC: Current Preferred Configuration

Hi all, time for a CPC update. As it happens I have been limiting my barrel usage to the new set (the Dagnabits) and I have put away all of the other sets. So all that is left to mess with is the stems and the flights. I have thus far tried short nylon stems and "in-between" nylon stems, both of which are acceptible but nothing else. The medium nylons are too long for a barrel that is a full 2 inches long such as mine. The flights that work with this barrel and stem combo are many and varied. I have tried the Spiraline flights which I like quite a bit, the standard dimplex, and smooth dimplex. I have also, much to my delight, found that the mini dimplx flights work nicely, leaving the darts pretty much perpendicular to the board with no left or right slant. My CPC is as is pictured to the right. Black smooth pear shaped flights with black short stems.

The Quest for the Holy Grail

Perhaps the greatest aspiration for your average darter is not to master those difficult shots like the Ton-80 or a Deadeye, but rather the assembly of the perfect dart. This is the true Holy Grail of darting in the modern world of nearly infinite options. So the trick now is to break this problem down to its constituent parts and assemble the dart from front to back. Here are the components in order of appearance: point, barrel [weight, shape, texture, material], stem, flight, extras.

What are the options? Points can be fixed or moving, sharp or rounded dull, roughed or smooth, long, medium or short. Barrels, not to be outdone, have many more options. They can be tungsten, nickle-silver, brass, copper or rhenium (gimme a break already). Knurled, ringed, grooved, barbed, smooth, coated or bare. Front loaded, middle weighted, reverse tapered, fat pencil, skinny pencil, scalloped and may be anywhere from 8 to 45 grams. Stems are aluminum or nylon or plastic, short, medium, long, inbetween, extra-short or micro, spinning or static. Flights can be standard, kite, pear, heart, slim, cut-off, delta, combat or spinning. Smooth, dimplex, ribbed and with any design you can imagine. For extras you've got o-rings, stem rings, crowns, flight protectors and add-a-grams.

With all of these options there is a near infinity of possibilities. So how does your average bar room darter assemble a superior, if not perfect dart? And do not tell me there is no such thing as a perfect dart because one of the imperatives of the human condition is that there BE a Holy Grail.

The Silence is Broken

In the best possible way. Announcing some new darts. Some darts which will in fact herald quite a few new posts because when I got these, I also had a couple of sets repaired and they are begging to be blogged. So here they are:


And for that matter, I think these are the finest darts I have ever seen. I took them out tonight for the first team practice and I did pretty well with them for being new to me. I was hot on the doubles and I hit a hat trick, at least one ton and sprinkled several treble 20's throughout the night.

About the darts: These are darts of my own design which I hired a master lathesman to lathe for me. I had two sets made. One for me and one for my good dart pal in my old city. I call them, as a model name, Dagnabits. So the official catalogue line item description of these darts would be:

"24 Gram Fixed Point Dagnabits, Smooth Finish."

It is hard to tell from the photo unless you zoom in on it, that the barrels are actually tapered, but it is a very subtle taper. The barrels are a full two inches long, and the alloy is 90% tungsten. They were drilled a bit to make them exactly 24 grams.

Switching Flights

Funny how droughts come and go. I have not been able to hit the trip 20 recently to save my life.

When you have been playing for a few years it is difficult to know what to point your finger at as a cause for suddenly loose groupings and failing accuracy. On the one hand you have enough experience to know the theory behind the throw, and even a little unrefined skill. You will have had periods of superb darts and so you know you CAN hit the trip 20 consistently, even if you cannot always do it. But on the other hand, just a few years of play is not enough (for me anyway) to reach that level of Mastery that allows for the 'expectation' of hitting the trips you aim for. But merely you have the confidence that it is possible, and you are doing your best to push the possible towards probable.

In the last couple of weeks I have been 26ing myself into a bout of worry. I have tried many things to snap out of it, most importantly sticking with a single set of darts as best I can. I have modified my Random Practice Script to return only games and not darts, I have re-examined my form and grip and stance. I have tried looking for failings in my mental game and improving the confidence aspect. None of these things worked. Switching flights DID work, however!

I switched from the top dart to the bottom dart and suddenly started hitting more trip 20's. Consistently, too. A few Ton-40's but at least one every few rounds or more. Go figure.

Tricks for Kicks

I had a terrific practice day yesterday. Okay maybe it wasn't terrific but it had a few good points. I used my new program to generate a list of random practice games with random dart sets and I ended up with at least two sets of Bulls practice. I call that "20 Bulls" since all I do is throw at the bull till I hit 20 of them and then move on to the next practice game. I finished both of those practice games in style: with Hat Tricks. The first game was with the 25 gram Crossfires that you see in the first pic. The second was with the 25 gram Great Whites that you see in the second pic. Click on the photos for closeups. Note that both tricks are 4-counts.

One thing I have noticed so far about the perl script I am using is that, even though it is technically random, it seems to favor a handful of dart sets. I am thinking about re-writing it so that it will use a set and then remove it from the array until the array is empty and then start over. That way it will cycle through all of the darts randomly. However, within a few weeks I hope to actually have my new darts from Canada, as well as be on a league team, so I will likely just use the f switch all the time for practice. That way I am sure to always be using the new darts.

Mathing Your Oche

I decided on blue masking tape. Actually in the beginning I just decided to use tape again since the black electrical tape worked well at the old place, and comes up easy not leaving a mark on the floor. Any residue cleanable with something like 409. So when I wandered into the basement to find it I saw this stuff sitting on top a shelf, left over from painting. I thought, Hey. It's medium stickiness so should come up pretty easy, it is wider than the electrical tape, and is nicer looking.

Putting the oche down also gave me the chance to double check my math. The 7' 9.25" is supposed to be from the face of the dartboard, not from the wall, so adding this distance to the thickness of the board and backboard combo I get 7' 11.75". But then subtracting the thickness of the baseboard and cord a round I really end up with 7' 10.5", which as I'd measured before, really DOES correspond exactly to a line in the hardwood floor. Nice to have an official oche anyway.

Practice Script Improvements

I have added a few features to the perl script I posted a few posts back. Here they are:

1. An additional array for your favorite darts. So I know that most folks have a lessened affinity for switching between multiple dart sets between games, and most people in fact stick to a single set or two. Thus I have added an array in which you can list these few (or one) sets called @priority_sets and provided a way to call it with a switch. Simply include an 'f' anywhere on the command line after the name of the program. 'f' stands for 'favorite darts'. Example: $practice.pl f

2. Args act like switches. Instead of now having to have a number followed by a space followed by the 'f', you can specify the number of games and put your 'f' in any order and spaces do not matter. So these are all equivalent:

practice.pl 10 f
practice.pl 10f
practice.pl fav10
practice.pl f 10

3. Doubles array. I added an array to be picked from randomly that holds different ways of practicing your doubles. Clockwise, counter-clockwise, up, down, etc. This of course is only called when doubles is selected as the game to play.

Note on arrays: the arrays in this prog are written with one element on each line on purpose. This way you can comment out dart sets that have fallen from grace or which you wanna set aside for what ever reason. Notice in the pic to the righ I have commented out two of the fav sets so that when I use the 'f' switch I always end up throwing with the Bombs.

Alias for "quickie" and "practice" modes: Add this line to your profile (on a Mac: /etc/profile) so that you can just type 'quickie' at any prompt without having to worry about what the pwd is. As you can see form the pic below you can use the f switch with these as well:

alias quickie='/Users/robert/projects/random/practice.pl'
alias practice='/Users/robert/projects/random/practice.pl 10'

New Digs

So these are my new digs. Once again in the new house I have arrange the darting area in the same room as my office which works out nicely because it is long and narrow. I like the new setup a hell of a lot better than the old place though even though it is smaller. There is nothing new here, just a different environment, although I think I am going to by an oche if I can find one that doesn't have the name of a beer on it. Otherwise I'll just put black electrical tape on the floor again. I don't have an oche now but I still dart because I have measured it and the 7'9.25" corresponds to a line in the hardwood floor.



One of my favorite things about the new dart room is that I can attach the backboard to the wall with screws (which you can see if you zoom in on the picture). In the old place I had it hanging by a chain and so the board would wobble shift and move from time to time. Now the board is solid and I can just yank the darts out with little worry. I think I brought the number ring with me but I am not sure. I never use it anyway.



Another difference is that I never really had a place to keep all my dart crap before, whereas now I have a shelf. Zoom in and you can see the contents: my plastic jars of flights, the only dart trophy I ever earned in league, a wooden box with shafts and othe miscellaneous, a gram scale (I actually use that for backpacking more than darts) . My books will go in here too, when I find them.



One of the nice features of this setup is the glass-block window right by the board. Makes for terrific natural lighting during the day and the sill is the perfect length for my dart holder.



When there is no daylight to guide my arrows I rely on this fifties-looking psuedo tracklight. The room originally had one of those funky Japanese lantern type globes hanging from the ceiling but it gave off no light and got in the way of the dart line of sight. So I replaced it with lights I could aim at the dartboard. Works extremely well.


As always, click the image for a larger picture.

Perl Program

Those of you who have a Perl compiler, and like to randomize everything (like I do) might enjoy this little perl script I wrote last night during the Mariners game. It basically generates a practice routine for you that is different every time. It takes one argument, and that is the number of practice games you wanna play. You will obviously need to change the content of the arrays to suit your dart collection and your favorite practice games, but this little program will certainly "keep it fresh" for you.

The usage is as such: $ ./practice.pl 9

In this example '9' is the single argument indicating that you'd like a list of nine random practice games. The default argument is 1. So if you just type 'practice.pl' at the prompt with no argument at all it will give you a single practice game.

This is what the output looks like:



========================= begin practice.pl
#! /usr/bin/perl

$sets = $ARGV[0] || 1;

@dart_sets = (
'27g Razors',
'24g Merv Kings',
'16g Unicorns',
);

@practice_games = (
'Three 101\'s',
'SIDO 501',
'DIDO 301',
'Cricket',
'Doubles',
'Paul Williams Challenge',
'Chase',
'20 Bulls',
'20 Sixties',
);

for ($i=1; $i <= $sets; $i++) {

$index1 = rand @dart_sets;
$darts = $dart_sets[$index1];

$index2 = rand @practice_games;
$game = $practice_games[$index2];

print "$i. play $game with $darts\n";
}

========================= end practice.pl

A Nearly Perfect Robin Hood

I've hit enough robin hoods now that they have lost their novelty, and I almost didn't bother taking a picture of this one. But then I noticed that this particular robin hood appears to be perfectly straight and the point split the flight of the blocking dart so perfectly that you can actually see the point of the dart from both sides. The only improvement I could imagine for this robin hood would be if the wings of the flights lined up as well, so that they were on the same plane.

The number ring is up in this pic which is a departure from normalcy. When I do put it up though I usually hold it with three spare darts. In case you are wondering, I missed the double with the third dart too.


As always, click the image for a larger picture.