Tuesday, June 06, 2006

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.

14 comments:

Zeeple said...

Thanks Dax, I appreciate your comment and your observation!! It is funny how a camera will highlight the wear in a board. Under normal light and looking straight at the board it is hard to tell any difference between the 20 wedge and the 12. I guess it is the combination of the flash glaring off the ends of the fibers sticking out as the angle of the shot that allows the wear to be seen so obviously in photos. Of course, if I go up and stare at the board I can see the difference. I will rotate it now!

jsobo119 said...

Congrats! I am hoping my elbow heals up and I can hit my 2nd 180... and 3rd 9 count...

Zeeple said...

hi jsobo, i been watching your blog for updates. I hope your elbow is fully recovered soon!!

ny81him said...

Zeeple, me again.

Tried looking at the Ezchalk site last night. Loged in. No players!

Any suggestions?

What is the story with the online league? I am sure I would be able to take your last place spot and help bump you up one spot.

Zeeple said...

Hi there ny81him. Thanks for the comment. First I wanna say right off the bat that ezchalk is the most terrific free online dart service there is. You can go there and use it to play games against youyr friends anytime you want. The catch is, of course, that it is one of those deals where you have to arrange to meet your online dart buddy there. Perhaps some day, when ezchalk is more well know and when online dart play is more common there will be people waiting for an opponent at ezchalk. But in the meantime it is the kind of service where you make plans to meet there in advance. Right now you can only play the 01 games but I have contributed some perl code to the site for keeping track of a cricket game. Hopefully the guy who runs the site will get that portion done soon. I will post a separate blog about the online leagues but for now they are not running at the paul williams site.

ny81him said...

Thanks for the info on the site.

I will try and set some stuff up with some buddies. Sometimes its easier to get people to play a real game though.

What is the Paul Williams site?

What league do you play in?

Hope all is well.

Zeeple said...

You should take advantage of the ezchalk site as best you can while it is available. It is not often that you have a free service thaat awesome.

The paul williams site is one of the two darts forums that I hang out in the most. Mostly brits there and you really get the brit perspective sometimes there. Great people. Easily my fav forum. Here it is:

www.paulwilliamsdarts.co.uk

As faar as what league I play in, I play in the paul williams online non-webcam league but it is between seasons right now. I alsso play in the Pittsburgh Steel Tip league, also between seasons.

ny81him said...

I was checking out the pghdarts website... What is Single Chicago/Double Chicago? How is it played?

Zeeple said...

Ah... The question of the century: what is Chicago in the world of darts? Well, I don't know if people from Chicago will second this or not. I have only ever heard of this style of match in Pittsburgh and I am not sure if it exists anywhere else, even in Chicago!

'Chicago' is a Best-of-Three match in which the following games are played: Standard Cricket, SIDO 501, and DIDO 301. In no particular order.

There is a tremendous amount of misunderstanding as to the rules that govern a Chicago match within the Pittsburgh Steel league itself, but suffice it to say that the winner of the first diddle gets to choose which game is played first, and then the loser of the first game gets to choose which of the remaining two games is played next. And then, if a third game is required, the remaining game is played. The key is that if 501 is chosen as the first game, the second game has to either be 301 or Cricket. You cannot play the same game twice in a Chicago match.

Here is the funny thing: Everyone in the Pittsburgh Steel Tip league thinks they know the diddle rules but everyone has a completely different understanding of them. It's amazing the disconnect that exists over it. I am going to document it this year.

ny81him said...

Thanks for the explanation...

So gathering from what you are saying. If a person or team take the first two games, what ever they may be, then the third game is not played???

Does the choice add that much to the league play?? Why not just make all three mandatory and reward points for each instead of just 2 points even if three games are played??

I like knowing the different formats different cities and leagues play. Being a NYDO player I have only learned that way of thinking. But now I have been at a few tournaments. Including one run by the ADA my eyes are open to the fact that there might be better options for formats.

With all that said, I think the NYDO does a great job in many respects, but as with everything there is room for improvement/advancement.

Zeeple said...

That is correct, if the first two games in a chicago match are won by the same team/person then the last is not played. I think the choice being awarded by the diddle is really interesting. If you are a crcket person playing against an 01 person then it is a huge advantage to get that diddle. And visa versa. At first I though the whole Chicago Match thing kida sucked but I am starting to see the value in it. It makes for an interesting match at any rate. The overall format of the league I think is not that great, but the format they use in Seattle is pretty awesome. I think it is best format I have ever played.

ny81him said...

Got ya.

As for the Seattle format. How does that work, if you do not mind? I could not find it on the web.

Zeeple said...

Here's the website:

http://www.seattledarts.com/index.html

You can read all about it there. The guy that does that site is a friend of mine and he is a professional Flash developer so the site is completely nice.

ny81him said...

Looks interesting.

I have never really played 301. And 1001 is only played in the playoffs as a tie breaker.

Do they report well your individual stats?

Do you also collect boards that have sponsors on them like budwiser and such? Just wondering.

Living in NYC does not allow me to collect boards and such, not enough room.