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!