Sliced Bread

The Winmau Wall Clamp is the world of darts' version of Sliced Bread. It is seriously that awesome. I can swap between dartboard in a snap:



Here you can see it with the Unicorn Surround applied over the board. The device is so streamlined that the surround goes on without so much as a whimper.



Here is a close up of the Clamp/Surround combo.

Raymond van Barneveld Triple B Darts

Going on the recommendation of Wazza180 I decided to purchase a set of Raymond van Barneveld Triple B darts. I placed an order with http://www.9dartshop.com and they were at my door step exactly one week from the date of purchase.

When I opened up my package I was pleasantly surprised to find just more than my darts inside. 9dartshop also included two sets of flights and a Unicorn Checkout card. Certainly not expensive items but it is the little things like this that brings customers back. Nice touch. :)



The Triple B darts come with long nylon shafts, 1 set of flights and a plastic slim case. The barrel isn't as agressive as I would like but there is a nice feel to them. The length is about 1.8 inches long.



For the first few throws I decided to keep the long shafts on. Add a set of standard Ruthless RX4 flights and I was off to the board. The Triple B flew great with the long shafts. Landed in the board at a perfect angle. The only problem I ran into was the jabbing of myself in the cheek. The shafts are just too long for my throw and when I would hit my cheek the dart would slip changing my finger placement on the barrel.

Here is an upclose picture of the Triple B barrel.

15th Lifetime Ton-80

With yesterday's hit not only did I get my 15th ton-80 under my belt, I also tied my ton-80 number for last year at 6. So one more and I will have accomplished my first new years resolution for this year (to hit more ton-80's this year than last).


My favorite aspect of this particular maximum though is the fact that it came on the back of my newly discovered Unicorn Big Brass Beauties, as I am calling them. Not only did I squeeze them all in the treble but if you'll notice, there is plenty of room left over for more. In fact nearly half the treble is unobstructed. I could hit a symetrical ton-80 into the other half! (Well, okay maybe I couldn't but Steve "Magic" Coote or Paul Williams could.) I have been told by so many people that they wish their darts were skinnier or that they were looking for some skinnier darts so that they could fit in the triple 20 better. In fact it is a commonly held belief that skinnier darts have the effect of improving your average over the course of game for this reason.

I cannot help but to balk at that a little.

Afterall, the Late Great Jim Pike probably never threw a tungsten dart in his life yet he is credited with darts feats the current msters could only dream of. If it is so hard to fit modern brass darts into a treble how could he have become the legend that he is? Have you seen the darts that were commonly used in that era? There are huge by comparison yet modern brass darts still have the stigma of being too big. Listen to this story:

When I was in league in Seattle during my last season there some of our teammates did not show up for the match. One because he was mad at another teammate, one because he was lacking in the commitment department, and one because of I cannot remember. So our captain runs accross the street to a different bar to try and find a sub (we were in the Knarr). He comes back with a guy who normally plays A League, but was not on a team that season (which is the only reason he could sub). He has no darts with him so we offer to loan him some for the evening. I had my Rhino's with me, but I was using my Widows. I offer him the Rhinos (brass darts with a tungsten tip) and he looks at me like I am crazy, and says:

"No way I am not throwing those, they are way too fat."

There was no way in heck I was going to give up my Widows to this guy so someone else lent him darts, and he proceeded to throw rubbish all night, whereas I had a good evening. I cannot remember if we won or not. But I do remember that while he could not hit the red side of a barn, he did allow us to not have to forfeit, for which I am certainly grateful. However this is how I wish it had played out in hindsight, afterall my game was on, and his was off:

"No way I am not throwing those, they are way too fat." (him)
"Okay, no worries. Throw these Widows and I'll throw the Brass. Lets play a quick game to warm up." (me)

I am certain I'd have beat him. I think that the thickness of a dart may have some minor effect on hitting your triples but not that much. I'd say that nailing a Maximum is 99% ability, and maybe 1% real estate. If that. Anyway, after the match that night I hit my first ever White Horse in a game against a teammate. I was definitly on.

For those who love Accudart...

During my never ending search to find a set of Accudart Pro-Line Masters I stumbled across an Accudart lot on eBay. I’ve always been interested in anything related to Accudart. The price was right so I placed a bid on the auction. A few days later I received an e-mail saying I won the bid. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.


As you can see this was a pretty nice find. I received

• 2 - Series 301 Tungsten-Brass Darts
  
• 2 - Series 650 Brass Darts
• 1 - Series 501 Nickel-Silver Darts
• 1 - Series 501 Brass Darts
  
• 1 - Tun 80 Tungsten Alloy Darts
• 1 - The Variant Tungsten Adjustable Weight Darts
• 4 - Spare feather flights

Here is a picture of the Accudart Variant. Perhaps an idea way ahead of its time. A fun set to toss. Ideal for the tinkerer in all of us. There are 36 different ways that you can configure the weight of these darts. From 12.5 grams all the way up to 28 grams.



Here is a picture of the Accudart Tun 80. The weight is 24 grams and they are fuzz under 2 inches long. These darts fly nicely using the long shafts provided with standard flights.


More pictures of the entire Accudart package can be found on my gallery.

Earning a Trip to League Night

Tonight is my first team practice in anticipation of the next league season and I am quite excited about it. Playing darts at home is fun enough when I occationally do it but there is nothing like pounding your teammates (and getting pounded lol). So in prep I decided to take a look at what darts I would bring with me tonight. I have lots to choose from and I figured I would end up going with something forward weighted, something maybe mostly smooth like the GT's perhaps. I might even have broken out the old 16 grammer converts I was so fond of last season. Regardless, the underlying assumption was that the darts would be tungsten.


The above Hat Trick +1 was scored last night in casual tossing and it struck me how nicely these big old at brass beauties from unicorn threw. They feel really good in the hand especially compared to some of the skinnier tungsten darts I have been tossing lately. So I played with them all night last night and Gosh Darn!! (excuse the language) I was hitting everything I aimed at! Tons of 60's (that's easily my favorite dart pun), I was nailing the doubles first or second dart etc.

So if the quality of a dart were measured in cubic yardage, these massive brass beauties would take the first prize. They are easily the largest non-wooden dart I own and yet they throw so surprisingly well. I guess it is important to note I did not hit any maximums with them last night but this was not due to the barrels being too big to all fit in the treble, it was an aiming issue, a PEBHAD issue, really. I did hit lots of tons and lots of 120+ scores so I think these darts are the winners. They have earned a place in my arsenal for tonight and they will enjoy the glory of crushing my dart enemies. Well, my dart teammates, really.

FAST FORWARD:: Well, last night's team practice came and went and I really enjoyed getting out and tossing again. I took the brass darts like I said I would and as I expected I only dropped two legs out of the entire three hours I was playing. Once cause I couldn't hit the double four to save my life (although when I started at it I had a 150+ point lead) and once against some guy that was in there shooting with his wife. I played him a best of three and did well. I lost the first cricket game to him, but then cam back in a 501 game and hit several tons, and won by a landslide. Infact, not only did he have about 250 points remaining, but I hit my out quickly. I took out a 39 s19, s10, d5. Then we decided to tie break with another game of cricket and I won with lots of good darts. The best highlight of the night though, was hitting a hat trick to win a cricket game against one of my teammates. That always feels good.

Sweeps Treats

The second Paul Williams Darts Sweepstakes has come to a close and once again this time around I have won some very awesome prizes from the sponsors. The first is a Unicorn dart surround, and for those of you American darters who are not sure what that is, the Brits have an alternative method to the backboard which is the most common wall protecting device used in America (well... maybe the cabinet is the most common). See this pic:


The surround, or at least the idea behind it is significantly different than the backboard. I like my backboard quite a bit I think I did a good job on it, and I like the idea of mounting my dartboard directly to it. I think it also protect a huge area of wall, and since it has a thin commercial grade carpet on it, no holes show when I hit it. I don't know if that will be true with the surround. I am told they last for years but if the rubber that is used is self healing is another matter entirely. The idea behind the surround is that you attach your dartboard directly to the wall, and then place the tight fitting surround around the board. I think when we move back to Seattle I will try the Unicorn Surround instead of the backboard but for now I will stick with my current method. This is nothing against the brits or the surround of course, it is just I have the backboard up already.

Nonetheless, thanks a million to Unicorn for the awesome donation to the Sweeps prizes!!

The second Item I got was a Tee-Shirt from Gazza at GSDarts.com. GSDarts is the sponsor of Paul Williams and is a terrific place to buy your darts supplies for several reasons. The first and foremost of which is that his shipping rates to the United States are absolutely terrific. He doesn't try to make a profit on the shipping and the shipping rates and speed of delivery is better than many of the big online darts suppliers in the united states.


As you can see from the above pic I got a tee shirt (scroll down to the bottom) from him but also I got a Winmau Dartboard Wall Clamp! (again, scroll down most of the page) I am very excited about it and I hope to install it today in fact. The tee-shirt was a large, which was a nice surprise. Usually give away tee shirts are extra large (or larger) because they don't wanna have to have multiple sizes. Once I submitted a pretty good tip to a computer related site (I'd just gotten my first MCSE or something and was excited about it) and they sent me this tee shirt which was huger than huge. Seriously. But on the upside, I used that shirt to wash my car for years. The 3inabed tee-shirt actually fits me.

Thanks a million Gazza!!

The sweeps themselves are quite a lot of fun. The fact that prizes come along with it is just icing on the cake. The fact is I have gotten a tremendous amount of joy from it and the sweeps have really opened my eyes to the wider world of darts. I now know who the big names are in the sport and I have an interest in watching the player in action, in Blackpool or anywhere else. I still like baseball better as a spectator sport, but then they don't show that much darts on TV in the US. But baseball.. I can watch my choice of ten or more games everyday.

Nonetheless, I find myself following the Unicorn sponsored players and the british darts tournaments and I have Unicorn and GSDarts to thank for that, at least in part. So for them to donate these prizes to the Paul Williams Sweeps is quite a boon to the sport as a whole.

27 gram GT3's - TRADED!!

These are nice darts. Great feel nice throw and one day, if I ever start to prefer heavier darts again, I will throw them more often and practice with them. They are 27 gram moving point GT3's by Bottelsen, with the black coating. The coating hasn't worn off as much as they have on my GTs, but with use I am sure it will. Exact same size and shape as the GT's but with three sets of angled grooves in the barrel for texture, and likely that is where that extra gram went. I bought these darts for $30 from a bar owner in Seattle. A long time ago he offered to sell me them for $30 and I declined, then a year later he tried again but for $50. I reminded him of the $30 offer and bought them. I am glad I did.

He must haave bought these before Bottelsen started threading the back end of the barrels. When I bought them they were completely smooth (inside) and would only take a puch-in type stem. So I borrowed them to aa friend who broke off a tap inside one trying to thread them for me. I figured they were a lost cause at that point so forgot about them. Then one day I decided to see if Jeff Pickup could make a duplicate to replace the one that had a tap stuck in it. He did me one better. He bore out the tap and then threaded them for me!

Here is the break down of them as pictured:

Points: Standard Hammerhead MPs
Barrels: 27 gram GT3's with Black Coating
Stems: Black Medium GT Screw-in
Flights: Black Poly Pears

Darts Policy: OOoOO

OOoOO stands for: Odd Out on Odd Only.

Most people I know and with or against whom I play league matches will take a shot at any double for the out regardless of the wedge they are shooting at and regardless of the number of darts they have left. They figure, you have a chance to win, so take it. I agree with them in part that if you CAN win in that round you SHOULD, but not in a reckless manner, and not in such a way that you are left with an odd number, holding a single dart. See below for details.


The above pic tells a story, and outlines what I consider to be a good darts throwing policy. Funny that this policy should be acronymizable into a string of O's. O's play an important role in our language and literary history, as well as in software.

In the realm of software for instance there is a really awesome and full featured office suite (doc writer, spreadsheets, etc) called OpenOffice.org which is often shortened to OO.o. This program is completely free and allows you to not have to shell out hundreds of your pretol dollars for expensive software. It is far better to be able to drive around your ridiculously large SUV and have enough money to feed it.

Another interesting significance rendered by the letter O is the possible discovery of the real author of the Shakespeare plays. There is a scholar out of the University of Washington that has used linguistic analysis to discover that the real author of the bards plays is none other than the little know Edward de Vere. Don't ask me the role that O plays in this discovery. Rather just trust me on it.

And even more interesting is that the letter 'O' is homyniminous to the utterance that escapes the lungs of us who are slow to understand, "oh". And this brings us full circle to the idea that you shouldn't shoot your second dart at an odd numbered wedge for the out because, when I am looking at an 18 out (double 9) and I am standing there at the line with a single dart in each hand, I think: "Oh." And I step back for a second and reconsider my options. If I miss into the fat single I am left with an odd number (9), a lonely single dart to do it with, and that is just impossible. Better to spend that second dart setting up a better out. Look at the picture above again and I will tell you how it came to pass. I was looking at a 32 out with three darts in hand. I shot the first at the double 16 and missed into the double 7. Ouch. This left me with 18 and two darts. If I were to have shot the second dart at the double 9 and missed into the single I would not have been able to go out that round, so what I decided to do was to shoot my second dart at the blade between the single 6 and the single 10, knowing that either result would leave me with a decent out. I hit the single 10, and so with my last dart I was able to take out the 8 by hitting the double 4. Long winded but easy to follow I hope.

So what does odd out on odd only mean? Well, if I am looking at an out that requires hitting the double of an odd numbered wedge, I will only shoot at it if I am holding an odd number of darts (1 or 3), and not an even number of darts (2). If I have 18 left with three darts, sure, take the shot. If you miss inside then you have two darts to take out 9. If you miss outside then you have to move on to a different out strategy. And like wise, if you are holding a single dart in your hand and you can win by hitting any double on the board, then shoot with confidence. You should always always take the shot regardless of the wedge. So this is the essence of my policy I call OOoOO (pronounced "Oooh.").

And guess what? As you can see from the above pic, I hit my out so it paid off. As fate would have it, just a few hours later I was again looking at 32 out, and missed into the double 7. What are the chances? I again hit the single ten, and again hit my double 4 out to finish. Here is the second occurance:

Your friend….the Bullseye!

The bull can be a powerful ally or a ruthless enemy. Being able to hit the bullseye on command is very important. Each match is started off with a diddle. The player closest to the DB wins and gets to decide on the start of the match.

Shooting at the bull early in a Cricket match can be a huge confidence builder. If I have the darts at the start of a match and hit the T20 with the first dart I might consider going after the bull. If I was able to hit DB, SB with the remaining two darts I am now in control of the two largest scoring sections per dart on the board.

Inexperienced players leave the bull as the last option in a Cricket match and loose because they fall behind in the points and can’t recover. I’ve lost count at the number of games I lost because my opponent was a better bull shooter than myself. This was one of the things I knew I had to work on to improve my game.

The practice game I’ve been using is 100@BULL. You throw 100 darts at the bullseye and keep track of the number of times you hit the SB, DB and MISS. My personal best is slowly increasing. Right now it is at 54. With the amount of practice I’ve been putting in my confidence has grown about hitting the bull when I need too. I use VBA’s Excel program to keep track of the darts. You can find a link to the file in the Downloads section on http://www.sewa-darts.com.

Pictured is a 6 BULL I hit during a practice game of 100@BULL. Throughout the course of the day I played this practice game 6 times. This was during my 5^th game. The darts pictured are a set of w-grip’s from Atlanta Darts. Configured with short nylon shafts with rings and white Ruthless RX4 flights.

Not For Lack of Space

Last night during 60s practice I hit this nice shot. It was two darts in the 60's with one dart in hand, but the two that were already in there were very nicely aligned. Not only were the first two darts stacked vertically on the far left of the treble, right just inside the wire, but they were also leaning out just a little bit, so their flights were not obstructing the treble at all! What a great set up for a Ton-80!! How could I miss, the treble was wide open!?!


I missed. The shot turned out to be a ton-40. Still a good score but I would have dearly loved for that to be my fifteenth ton-80. In fact the third dart hit the twenty bed just under the treble so I removed it for this shot to be taken. Its flight was completely obscuring the triple and I felt the blog would be better served with it out of there. It seems I have been hitting better over all scores lately ever since I decided the first practice priority (see this post) should be the Sweet Spot. So I don't even bother with doubles now until I have hit my 20 60s for the day. If I have time for doubles then great otherwise no worries I'll get em sometime. In fact I started in on the Paul Williams Challenge yesterday and found that I was hitting my doubles within the first three darts, so despite the shift in focus, my doubles do not seem to be suffering.

There is a concept in sports called 'Training to Specificity'. This basically means that the best way to train for a sport (any sport) is to play that sport. If you wanna become a better mountian climber you have to climb mountains. Pumping iron in the gym may be good for you and increase your strength and metabolism, but it is not good training for climbing mountains. If we were to apply this concept to darts then it would stand to reason that the best way to train for darts is to play actual games of darts against actual opponents. If this is true then I am doomed of course and all my practice routines and priorities are right out the window. But I can easily see how it would be. I think it is also important to train to the various levels of pressure in darts as well. For example, playing against your buddy whom you've beaten a gazillion times is not the same as playing against that one sandbagger in league who is known to be almost unbeatable. So you have to find a way to train for that. Playing against a superior, unknown opponent would be a good way to do it, but how? Travel the bars seeking out games? Most of the bar players out there barely know the rules. I think the best way to get better at darts when you are new is to play in leagues because then you have a wealth of people who care about their dart game to play against. And then once you have risin to the top 10% in B League, move on to A League. (This is what I plan to do. If my former teammates do not wanna have a B team again this year I am going to try to find my way onto an A League team.)

So what if an A League player wants to train for tournaments? My best guess is that the best way to train for that higher level of pressure, which is generated in part by a higher level of play as well as in part by a higher level of spectation, is to attend as many LotD's as possible, and hopefully as many tournaments as possible. Of course this is all speculation. I am still a lowly B Leaguer thinking forward. Somday perhaps through you may see me on TV! Haha until then cheers and hasta verte christo mio.

The One That Got Away

This one is for kdog.

Sunday night and I am just hanging with the dog and grooving on this here Johnny Cash.

John Henry said to his captain, A man ain't nothin' but a man.
But if you'll bring that steam drill round, I'll beat it fair and honest.
I'll die with my hammer in my hand but I'll be laughing
'Cuz you can't replace a steel driven man.

Flipping through some old pics I saw on that reminded me of kdog's last comment. This pic is how I think of his balancing act shot that 'got away'. I have had this shot for a long time. I do not remember when I had this happen but I stashed it away in a folder somewhere and just figured I'd blog it eventually. I have a lot of shots like that. The longer I wait though the less topical they become and the less I remember the circumstances or why I took the shot in the first place.


The pic above for example. I don't shoot with the GT's as much as I used to. They go in and out of fashion and these days I mostly shoot with my 16 grammers but I have had out my 12 gram darts in the last few days. Another clue that really dates that photo is the Sprialine flights. I used to be really hot on the Spiraline flights but not so much anymore. Perhaps I will get back into them someday but for now I am stuck on my Dynastar system. I sent some Spiralines to my buddy Barn in Seattle and he ended up wanting more of them (at the time - not sure about now) and just a few weeks ago I sent some to mcvickj. I am anxious to see his opinion of them.

Also take a look at the board. That is my old bandit. I hang an Eclipse now. Take a look at the bullseye in this secong pic. You can really seee the wear in it. The Eclipse is quite pristine compared to it.



This is a nice picture though. A good tight grouping in which one dart slips off the others and is caught by the flight. Just hanging there not wanting to fall to the floor. As if it were afraid of the certain death the distant floor represents.

John Henry told the captain, Tell the kind folks don't worry.
That ain't nothin' but my hammer suckin' wind! (It keeps me breathing.)
A steel driver's muscle I intend.

A Well Balanced Dart

Tossing 60s practice I hit one of these "Balancing Acts" which for me are far more rare than even a robin hood. You can aim for a previously thrown dart, afterall, but you cannot aim for a balancing act.


These are my 24 gram Mega-Thrusts from Bottelsen, with standard hammerhead points and a Dynastar back end. I am still waiting for my low profile conversion points so I can make these fixed point without them being ugly. I am infinitely patient. I guess.

20 gram GT2's

I have traded these darts away to Wazza in exchange for some customs he had made for his soft tip days. Although these are no longer a part of my collection, I wanna leave the picture up.

Care Package

I received a care package this morning from my friend Beni Petris all the way from the Swiss Mountains! The care package contained two awesome things: A Euro Board and a record with some dart related songs on it:


The Euro board is quite special for several reasons. First, it is a bristle board of the highest quality. This is special because normally when you see promotional boards or anniversay boards from banks and non-dart companies, etc. they are of the cheaper paper-wound variety so that they can print both sides. This one is bristle. The second reason it is special is because it is a twelve bed board numbered one through twelve. This is unheard of. The only other twelve bed boards I know of are the Ipswitch and London 5's boards and they are numbered 5, 10, 15, and 20, times three. Thirdly, I am pretty sure this is a limited edition board, which makes it pretty rare. A good find. Thanks Beni!

The record is the most awesome thing I have ever seen. I put it on as soon as I opened it this morning. The small record, 45 RPM, has two songs (one on each side). The Side A song is the very peppy and up beat BDO Theme Song "180" which inspires an involuntary jig when listened to.

"One hundred and eighty, one hundred and eighty,
Everyone tries for the maximum score..."

Side B has a more lilting and slower tempoed Bobby George Theme Song, which starts:

"One hundred and eight,
That is what my life is all about..."

Both are fun songs. I hope to find their digital versions someday. Both items will be blogged in much more detail when I have more time!

The guy who sent these to me is the very same guy who got me interested in collecting dart boards in the first place. I discovered the wonderful variety of dartboards the first time when I say his page dedicated to his boards. I happen to know that he has many more boards than he is showing on his page because I have seen his ebay moniker pop many times in auctions. So everyone please visit his awesome collection and then write him (find his contact link) and tell him to post all his boards!

Thanks Beni for the awesome package and I hope all is well for you in the Alps!
Zeeple

New Boards Coming In

I have not posted in quite a while. This is for many reasons the first and formost of which is the awesome weather, and not the least of which is the tireless adventurousness of my dog, Sequoia.

There is also the fact that my darts interest has been ebbing low lately. :(

However some exciting news. I have had a number of really interesting boards come in lately that I have not blogged yet and hope to blog soon. Here are some of the boards I have received, and have in my possession waiting for a blog entry:

1. Winmau Casino 301
2. Snooker by Marks & Young
3. Harrows Quadro
4. Blade MX by Unicorn
5. Unicorn Eclipse Pro

And I am also waiting for a Blue 12-Bed Euro Board which my friend Beni Petris sent me from Switzerland.

One reason I am holding off on blogging these boards is because I want to be able to mount them and take good pictures of them. And I will soon be getting some sort of fancy Wall Clamp from either Unicorn or Winmau courtesy of the sweeps over at www.paulwilliamsdarts.co.uk. Thus I won't bother until I have that also in my posession (also to blog about).

More to come!

14th Lifetime Ton-80

The jinx of 13 maximums is over, if there ever was such a jinx. You see I hit my 14th lifetime ton-80 today while throwing a set of darts that Mcvickj sent to me. The darts are quite nice although they have the unusal property of being a little difficult to configure well.


The darts weigh in at a cool 23.6 grams each according to my handy dandy electronic gram scale and they are quite short. This gave me the impression when I first picked them up that they were a little heavier than they actually are. I was guessing they'd weigh in at about 26 but I was wrong on that. None the less I attempted to configure them as well as I could at mcvickj's request and I think I have found the correct solution. I dressed them with in-between length nylon curvy stems and smooth poly pears. I tried a lot of different combinations but this worked the best for me, and the ton-80 above seals the deal.


Mcvickj and I have engaged in a dart swap. I sent him my Dagnabits for him to try and he sent me some purists and these guys. I am working on the purists now... incidentally, here was my first pic with mcvickj's darts:


Don't worry mcvickj... the stem is in good shape. The stem ring protected it!!

Unlucky 13

I hit my 13th lifetime Ton-80 today while playing a match against Rob Stark in the Paul Williams Darts Non-Webcam online dart league. Sounds like a mouthful but it is really just a group of dart players using instant messaging and www.ezchalk.com to play against each other in a semi organized way. Hahaha.


Seriously the online league is a lot of fun. I am finishing dead last but that's okay the league seems to have attracted some real dart talent. Rob Stark is one of the guys I can occasionally beat and we trade off whooping each other on a fairly frequent basis. Todays match was my turn as I beat him 4 legs to 1. Two of the legs could have gone either way as we both kept missing the out shots.

The game in which I hit the above Ton-80 was my best by far out of the gate but I barely squeaked out the win. I was stoked to open with 121 but the 180 that followed really made my day. I could have lost the match 0 to 5 and still be happy as a lark. A maximum will do that to me. Actually that game was very interesting, after the first two rounds I went downhill not hitting too much of anything but I almost took out 102! I missed the first dart into the single one, and with 101 remaining and two darts to spend on it, I decided to go triple 17, double bull. I hit the trip 17 but missed the double bull by the skinniest of wires. With 25 left it took me so many darts to finish I lost count. I finally landed a dart in the nuthouse to win but by then my average was down to 41.58!!

From the pic you can tell i was using the 16 gram Radarts that I tout so highly. They are wearing the Dynastar System. This seems to be a very good combination for me.

5 Count Conference Call

I haven't posted for a while so I thought I'd throw up a quick pic of this 5 count in the bulls I hit while on a conference call. I was stoked not only because it is difficult to do but because I was throwing an old set of nickel silver darts that I have not used since the very earliest days of my darting hobby. These are the 20 gram Halex darts I first bought when we were switching from soft to steel:


Also, one of the reasons I am digging through all of my old darts is because I am digging on my nylon dynastar stems and flights and I wanted to see how they do with my other sets. In the past couple of weeks I have worn them on almost all of my sets and some perform better than others. Throughout all of the experimentaion, though, I seems to be always gravitating back to my 16g Radarts. Those are some special darts and I wish I could find another set!

24 gram Bumble Bees

My beautiful wife, whose opinion is invaluable to me, has determined that this is the best possible configuration for these darts. As always, her taste is flawless. And indeed when we still lived in Seattle and we would occasionally go to the bars she would use these darts exactly like this. I have also thrown them so configured and they are surprisingly easy to throw well. My normal opinion of micro shafts is that they belong on really long darts or no where at all, but here they work. These darts I bought from Mueller a few years ago and when I bought them they were called 20/20's. These days you see them around the net as "Chunky Stubbies". I think of them as my Bumble Bees. I do not throw these very often and that is partly because I used to think that they are so hard to configure well. They need either a really long stem or a short aluminum stem, and require a standard sized flight. Since then however, I have learned how to throw a small flighted dart. I think I'll give these another run.

Points: Fixed
Barrels: 24 gram 20/20's
Stems: Micro Aluminum
Flights: Smooth Mini Polys

Rediscovery

I am very glad I decided to back blog my various collections. This way I can simply go to the Month that holds the collection I am looking for and peruse. Usually I keep all my darts in their cases in a box in the attic or somewhere else due to the occasional bout of minimalism that comes over me. So when I am feeling restless with a particular set of darts I can take a quick look at my collection without having to break them all out. I know what I have by scrolling down the page. I did this the other day and saw my KC's by Laserdarts and decided to break them out and see how they did with the nylon dynastar stems I have been using lately.

Wow am I glad I did. I have been burning up the board with them. A week or so ago I did a best of three match against mcvickj on ezchalk and I won in two. And that is saying something because he is quite a good shot! In practice with them I hit several 120+ shots a couple ton-40's and even a Faux Max. The hat trick shot below is what made me think of the idea of "rediscovering" darts.


It seems that one of the benefits of owning a lot of sets of darts is the opportunity to see starkly how your throw has changed. And I believe that sometimes our throw changes without our realizing it. It is similar to owning a puppy and thinking that she seems to have stopped growing but your neighbor says: "Everytime I see her she is so much bigger!" Because we live with our throw every day we do not notice the microscopic changes that settle in. But pickup a set of darts you used to throw with and it is more obvious that something is different. The KC's for example were fun when I first got them but I eventually set them aside because I thought they just were not throwing well for me. Now I think my throw has improved to the point where I can use them with reasonable success.

Changing stem or flight preference is another great way to rediscover old darts. I have fallen back into the spinning flight frame of mind and I have been using my dynastars lately. I have changed my stem and flight preference many time in the past and it seems that when I do I always break out the darts again thinking, "I wonder how these would do on GT's..." etc etc. In the weeks the have passed since I started this post I have now moved on to my old favs the 16 gram Radarts with dynastar stem and flight.

I like them quite well. ;)

The Dynamod Generation 2

My first attempt at the dynamod lasted for a couple of years or maybe more before I was forced to find a a new system. The fatal flaw with the first system was that I was using the rubber gasket from the GT push-in shaft system and the rubber dried up and got weak. And moving the dynamods from dart to dart and back again (I have several weights of GT darts) further weakened it. I guess it was inevitable that the system would eventually break down. The next generation of dynamod is much more solid and much more movable from dart to dart.

While dart surfing one day I came across the spinning flight system over at www.a-zdarts.com and noticed something I'd never seen before. The Pro-Line Dynastar stems. They are these tiny little stems with very small threading designed for the Dynastar (or Pro Line) dart line. I bought a set of them hoping it would be the same thread size as what is used for the GT stems. Alas, it was not. The pro-line stem was much smaller threaded than the GT stems and did not fit the GT at all. I shrugged it off as a failed experiment and set it down for a while.

But look:



I found a way to do it. I ordered a sample of surgical micro-tubing for a different project I'd been working on and I decided to see what would happen if I used a small length of that tubing as a buffer between dart and stem. So I screwed the pro-line stem into the capilary tubing first, cut the tubing off at the end of the stem with a razor, and then screwed that into the back of the GT dart and voila! Perfect fit. It is snug too. I can try pushing the stem left and right and there is virtually no give so it is as if the threading were in the perfectly. In fact it is so snug that I needed to use some plyers to finish screwing the stem in the rest of the way. In the picture you can see the stem, the 2ba adaptor for the stem, as well as the stem in the dart itself. I am very happy with this arrangement, and I have been throwing the Gen-2 Dynamod on my 20 gram GT2's for a couple of weeks now very happily and I have seen no signs of weakness in the new system. However, I have commisioned the creation of yet another generation of dynamod!! More on that later.

The Dynamod Generation 1

For those of us who really like the GT line of darts and who also really like the Dynastar stem and flight system we are constantly caught betwixt two opposing worlds. The GT takes only it's own proprietary shaft system and the dynastar stems come in either 2ba thread or this other very tiny thread meant only for the "Pro-Line" line of soft tip darts.

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
--Rudyard Kipling

However, there is good news: I am working steadily at forcing Earth and Sky before the Judgement Seat with at least two different modifications, and maybe a third, for the dynastar system, which I am dubbing the Dynamod. The GT line of darts is just absolutely terrific. I cannot sing it's praises highly enough. The taper is so salient and supple that any person is compelled to pick it up and throw it at something. The progressive forward weightedness of the dart barrel is very forgiving and will correct many subtle flaws in form and execution. Thus it is the perfect barrel style for me.

I feel similarly about the dynastar system. I like the free spinningness of it, as the slightest whisper of a breeze will send it into a blurring frenzy as it spins on the little wire stem effortlessly. The molded flights are always square, and the whole system resists robin hooding better than any other stem and flight system out there. So it just seems natural to somehow strive to combine the two systems into one dart.

My first effort at this unholy union can be seen below. It all started one night when I was tossing darts and I was using a dynastar stem in a regular, 2ba threaded dart. The stem was nylon with the nylon part very short and the wire stem longer. I did something and I cannot remember what but the result was that the little wire stem came clean out of the nylon base!! I was surprised to see that the stem came out so easily, but nonetheless there it was.

This was back in the days when GT darts only had the push in style stems that had the little rubber housings that held the metal stem that pushed into the back of the dart (oddly hard to describe...). It occured to me to wonder if perhaps the wire stem that has come loose from the nylon base of the dynastar stem might not fit into the rubber gasket portion of the GT stem. Alas it did not. However, it spawned the following idea:


What I did was I wrapped some scotch tape around one end of the dyna-wire to make it thick enough to fit in the gasket snugly, then I bought some of the heat-shrink tubing from a hobby store. I cut the heat-shrink tubing to fit and used my heat gun to form it onto the entire assembly. The result was a slightly unattraactive dynamod for my GT's. When I first put this ssytem together I had not yet started blogging and I did not have a digital camera, whatsmore I only had my 28 gram GT's. I do not have a picture but the dynamod is easily transferable to any GT dart. The darts in the pic above are 20 gram GT2's. This was my dynamod for several years. Until the rubber gasket from one of them broke off inside one of my darts!! Time for a new plan. More to come.

12th Lifetime Ton-80

Last night I was in an excellent beer bar for a Belgian beer fest and they had a dart board. So my friends and I got up to toss a couple. It was only a soft tip board, but we had fun despite that short coming. I'd forgotten how big the targets are on a soft tip board!! I happened to have my "just in case" darts with me which can be configured for either steel or soft, and for once in a long long time, I was required to load the plastic tips instead of the steels to get some darts in. Here is the set we used, and which I ton-80'd with:


They weigh in at 17 grams in this configuration. As seen they are wearing dynastar stems and flights and have the lightest, brass, insert in them to make them light ennough for soft tip. When I have them built for steel tip I have the tungsten inserts in them which adds about four mor grams per dart. We started out playing "Cricket/200" and to be honest I have no idea what the heck the 200 means, as I tried to get 200 points to win but that didn't work. I ended up having to close everything and then I won. After years of steel tip the soft tip world has become a mystery to me. At anyrate the guys I was playing with were not very good but they enjoyed it well enough. I talked them into playing SIDO 701, and in this game I got several tons, a ton 40 and this is when the ton-80 occurred. I do not have a picture unfortunately. I asked the guys if they had a picture phone and they said no. :( I finished that game with a two dart out. I had 73 left, stepped up to the oche and hit trip-19 double-16 as casual as you please, still holding one of my darts. It was fun.

But I wish they'd had a steel tip board.

Fairway Darts

I found this board on ebay and managed to win it uncontested for ten dollars. Probably the best deal I have ever seen for a dartboard. The board itself is a sisal board and as we all know, unique and rare sisal boards are nice to find. Paper wound unusual boards are a dime a dozen as are many of the American made wooden dartboards. But since a sisal dartboard is so much more difficult to make than a wooden board (the process and materials I mean), and so much more expensive than a paper wound board, there are fewer of them.

Fairway darts is the third golf related board I have purchased for my collection. It isn't as well known as the Par-Darts board (I had never seen it before) and not as complete or pretty as the Club House Golf board but it is still a nice high quality board. I have scoured the internet looking for mention of this board and I have not seen a single reference anywhere. Not a mention in any google page or dartboard collection page. This is good from a collector's perspective because that makes it rare, but it is bad because I have no idea who made it, and no idea what the rules for the game are.

So here is a call for help: anyone with any information on this board, the maker, the era, or the rules, please let me know. Thanks!

What's Your Point?

The point puller I ordered from Mueller just arrived last week and I have had some opportunity to use it although only one one set of darts. I am waiting for some conversion plugs to arrive from Jeff Pickup, which is the real reason I got this puller. The puller was half price which I was quite happy about but I suspect the doubled the price before halving it because it was still pretty expensive!

The puller came with two different size allen wrenches. One is for tightening the small block doen on the point to be pulled from (or pushed into) the dart. That one you use constantly. The other allen wrench is much smaller and is for replacing the part that screws into the shaft hole of the dart. The replacement is if you are putting new points on 1/4" threaded darts, of which I have only a few. The whole mechanism came in a cheap plastic dart case.

My first project was to put a set of one inch hypo points on my fixed point megathrusts. When I bought the darts they came with these very long English style points which I wanted to replace from the get-go but never had the means to do it. As you can see from the photo below that point puller was equal to the task but there were two problems. The first is that the point was not straight in the dart. I think this is because the hypo points taper immediately with no initial cylindrical part of the shank. This was easy enough to correct by hand. The second problem was that after a haalf a dozen rounds or so I got back to the oche and discovered one of the darts didn't have a point!! The point stayed in the board. Upon investigation I discovered that the hole had become looser and the points could go in and out by hand. Not good.


So I then decided to see how easy they would be to remove by hand and too my horror I was able to pull all the points out by hand with little difficulty. As well as push them all the way back in by hand. So what I am thinking is that perhaps this particular set of darts I am working with had loose holes and I couldn't really expect the points to stay in with friction and a tight fit alone. So what I did was to coat the points at then end where they enter the dart with lock tight and stick them back in the dart. This seems to have worked as I have thrown a few games with these darts and the points have not come out. It remains to be seen if this device will be useful for anything other than pulling points out of darts. Could be that the points have to be glued in and that forceful pushing is not required.

What you see below is everything that came with the puller except the case which was just a standard dart case without the little crappy plastic molds in it. All in all I am glad I bought it, but I have not used it much yet. Once I have all the pieces I am waiting for I will be sticking carding needles that I got from Dartnut in the the conversion plugd from Jeff Pickup, and then I will have some nice GT mods to blog on.

Wooden Ton-40

I hit this Ton-40 while playing around with the darts that came with the Club house Golf set.



I will probably stash the cabinet away until I can repair some minor UPS damage, and the board will only get minimal use until I can find a second one to keep in good condition (it is the collector in me) but three of the darts will stay of of the box so I can toss them around from time to time. It is amazing how quickly you can adjust to a new dart. These woodies are thick and light. They are easily the thickest dart I have yet they weigh in at a mere 13 grams. They are quite fun to throw though. Perhaps I'll nail a ton-80 with them soon? I was consistent enough with them that I am half considering using them in league. The only down fall to that is that if I really bomb my team will think I was not taking the match seriously, and if I destroy everyone they will think I was just being a pompous doof.

It would be fun to bring them though.

11th Lifetime Ton-80

Here is the second Ton-80 I have hit this year and I am quite excited about it.

I am excited for a couple reasons. First, these are the lightest darts I have ever Maxed with (15 grams) and second because they seem to be flying consistently well for me. This Ton-80 came on the back of a Ton-40, an 85 and a Ton-25. Lots of triple 20's in there to make me think these are viable darts.

The darts:

Points: Fixed
Barrels: 15 gram Featherlights by Red Dragon
Stems: Short Nylon Dynastar
Flights: Black Pear Dynastar

Hole in One

Now that I actually have my Par-Darts board in my possession I have taken to putting it up from time to time and tossing a round of golf. Or rather, since it is 9 hole board, a half a round of golf. I am not the master golfer you may have though I was. Indeed, mini-golf in high school and this dartboard is the closest I have ever come to the real thing, but I am satisfied with both and feel no need to hit the driving range.

What you are seeing below is a hole in one on the eight hole. How is this possible? Well, I have decided I do not like the official rules that go along with this game so I have made up my own that I use when I use this board for practice.


The above shot happened like this. It was a fresh round and I was holding three darts. I had just completed the 7 hole the round before and I was just now about to attempt the 8 hole. Normally I would have taken a shot at the red dot on the 8 hole to attempt a hole in one, but I forgot, and so the first dart went to the first fairway. I hit it. The second dart need to go into the second (light gree) fairway that surrounds the putting green, but I missed into the water. Acording to my rules if you hit water you are obliged to start the hole over. So, now remembering that I allow a single dart to be throw for a hole in one (only when you are about to start a hole), and having only one dart left in my hand, I went for it, and nailed it. The regular rules call for a very short lived and probably uneventful game. My rules call for something a little different. Here are some bullet points to my rules:

• Each hole must be completed in order before moving on to the next
• When you are starting a hole, you may throw one dart to attempt the Hole in One, if you miss, you must finish the hole the old fashioned way, one fairway at a time.
• Failing a hole in one, you must first hit the initial darker green fairway, then the lighter green fairway, and then the green fairway that surrounds the water and sand traps protecting the putting green.
• You must then aim for the putting green. If you hit the red hole you are donne and may move on. If you hit the putting green then you may attempt a put by going for the large red bullseye in the center of the board.
• If you ever hit a sand trap you must go back one fairway. If you ever hit a water trap you must start the hole completely over (and thus are entitled to another Hole in One shot).
• The outer red bullseye ring in the center of the board is only used by novices, and is not used when I practice at home.

So that's it. I hope someday I can play against other people online with this board but in the meantime I'll just break it out from time to time for my own enjoyment.

A Goodly Night of Darting

I had a terrific league night last night. Not only did my team win, but I won all my games except one of them and I hit some good numbers in the process. Lots of triple 20's but oddly never more than one in a turn. So while I don't necessarily have any 120+ numbers to report I at least had many good rounds of 60+ to give myself shots at the out.

The highlight of last night would have to be the hat trick I threw in my one losing game of cricket and the fact that I was hot on bulls and was able to hit lots of them in the cricket games.

I won my singles chicago game in two games, winning first DIDO 301 and then cricket. I won the cork to start the match and chose 301 (as I always do since I m confident with doubles) I got in on my second round and then whittled my way down to a sloppy 39 out. I decided to go S7, D16, but with the firsst dart I missed into the S19, leaving 20. Then I missed the D10 into the S6, leaving 14. But then hit the D7 with the last dart to save the out. Then, the opponent chose cricket for the second game. I opened with 4 20's and after that I hit at least three marks per round until the 17's, but I am certain I averaged at least 3 marks per round for the whole game. When it came down to bulls I hit them quickly, in two rounds and then I got a nice compliment from my opponent. I hit the winning bull witth my first dart, and he said:

"I figured. You usually hit it first dart."

That felt good. All my doubkes games went equally well. In my doubles chicago match the opponents won the cork and chose cricket. I opened with a commanding 4 20's and a single bull. I ended up carrying most of the game for our team and at one point we fell behind. They were pointing us on the we only had the bulls to point with and they had the 16's. They kept pounding the 16's to point us instead of going for the win by throwing at bull. Badd strategy on their part. I ended up just killing the bulls in that game and there was no point deficit too large for me tto overcome, I must have hit 10 bulls in just a few rounds. We won, and then they chose 301. In the 301 game my partner left me with 6. I missed low with the first dart. So now I had 6 remaining with 2 darts. In practice I always go S2 D2 in that situation because aa high miss would leave me with 3 if I were to stay on the D3. And I hit it. S2, D2. I felt vindicated in my strategy.


In my doubles SIDO 501 and DIDO 401, we won both of them. I hit the winning double myself in each game but they were not high outs. The second game I won on bones! The first was a low out as well, probaably D2 but I do not remember that well. In my doubles cricket game my partner couldn't hit anything and I was able to carry us well, but not well enough. Despite a haat trick and many other bulls we were just not able to overcome a two person team.

So that was it. A good night out for me. Even in my one loss I had something to be proud of. I hope next week goes as well!!

Badge of Honor

Thanks to the good folks over at SEWA (and by 'good folks' I mean Erik) I have received in the mail my very first dart patch. And all I had to do to earn it was enjoy the fruits of his labor. The patch is terrific. Now if I can only find that elusive '26' patch, the Sewa patch won't be so lonely on my shirt!

For those of you who have never heard of the internet (because that is about what it would take for you to not have heard of SEWA), the most active darts forum in the ODC (That stands for Online Dart Community) is here:

SEWA

It is the result of the blood sweat and tears of one gentleman who was saddened at the decline of the formor great dartplayer.net site and who decided to offer the equivalent internet sanctuary to wayward net connected dart players all over the world.

So stop by, sign up, and enjoy the company. I might also add that the subject is always darts and dart related and that you can rest assured that if you have a dart related question it will be answered there by many voices quite promptly.

Cheers Erik, and thanks again.

Back Blogging

I have created several back blogs within The Dart Indoors. What is a back blog? It is a blog post that is back dated to a date before the blog actually started. The inaugural post in this blog was posted on September 20, 2004. It was a post requesting help identifying and finding some darts that I had scavanged from an ashtray in a bar (discarded by their former owner). So any post you see on The Dart Indoors dated before that has been back blogged. But I only back blog for the purposes of gathering similar posts, or "utility" posts as I like to call them, into a central point for perusal. What makes this worthwhile is the way that blogspot will archive posts. When an Archive is created, all post from a single month are moved to one page, making it easy to say things like: "Click on this archive to see all of my...." etc. The following is a quick summary of my main Back Blogs:

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May, 2004: Dartboard Thumbnails.

This back blog was created for no other reason than to showcase my dartboard collection. I have created a single post with a series of small (but clickable) photos of each board and a link that will go to a different more detailed blog post discussing the various boards. If you notice, in the upper right section of the blog, there is a section called 'Enjoy this Linkage' with a link that says My Boards. Well, clicking this link will take you to the May, 2004 backblog. It used to take you to the June 2004 backblog but I decided that there was too much scrolling involved to see all my boards at a glance. So now, the June 2004 backblog (discussed below) is now only accessible by clicking on the names of the boards in the Thumbnails backblog or by clicking on the June 2004 Archive link.



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June, 2004: My Dartboards

More detailed descriptions of my boards.












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July, 2004: My Darts

This is a gathering of (what used to be) my darts collection.  These days I am thinking differently in terms of how to group them in the blog.  Still, the July 2004 archive will remain, as a reminder of all the fun and pretty darts I have had in my collection over the years.  Many got traded away for different sets.

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Club House Golf

What a great find. This is one of the more interesting bristle boards I have ever seen, and I bought it in brand new condition. Any holes in the board are made by me and the ultra-light apex style darts that came with the board. My buddy Barn and I staarted throwing a game on it but it was so hard to hit the fairways and holes that we had to quit for dinner. You can really see the biscuits in the board, and I would say not very many tons of pressure went into making the board itself as the darts, even the light ones, slide into the board with minimal effort. This makes me think the board would get chewed up quickly so I will not play on it too much.


The score boards are a sort of black plexiglass with white writing on them and seem to be set up for a very particular sort of golf game. There were no rules sent with the board so I am not real sure what the exact rules are but probably they are similar to real golf. The board also came with one of those white wax markers for keeping score on the black plexiglass. Pretty clever and nice looking set up.


The Board also came with six ultra-light Apex darts. They only weight XX grams. I think these were included so the board would last a bit longer. The sisal fibers are so loose that if you were to throw your average 26 gram MP dart the board would be destroyed in short order!!


One thing I really like about this board is the attention to detail and fine craftsmanship. There are some extras that they didn't really have to include in the building of it such as the sign on top the cabinet, the little golf flag, the green material behind the board, etc. Very nicely done! Here is a good view of the overall effect:

One For The Team

I was subbing for a friends team this week and had a good time doing it. We lost by one game, 11-10, but we put up a good fight against an extremely good team. Probably one of the best in this season's line up.

My performance was hot and cold. In my first singles 401 game I hit a Ton-25, and then later won the game by taking out the double 2. It was a close game and we both missed a couple shots at the out which is the only reason I won that one. It was the first game of the night and my opponent, once he got loose, really hit good numbers in his later games so I was quite please to get the first win against him.

My second singles match was a Cricket against their best player. A guy named Mason, who is truly a superior darter. He is consistent and strong at the oche and he is a good guy to boot. He won that game but not by much. He hit three triple 18s on me bu otherwise I think I would have had that game. I was on fire, and against most other players probably would have won. But in this case I was out classed for sure. I enjoyed that game even though I lost.

Mt darts were unnoteworthy for the rest of the evening until... I took out double 2 to WIN THE TEAM GAME! That's right. Something I have personally never done (according to memory anyway). That's right, I took out the money shot and was quite happy to do so. In my own league I would have been eight dollars richer since we all put a dollar behind the board for the team game. Alas, there is no such tradition here.

Here is a preview of an upcoming post:


Details to come ;)