Saturday, January 23, 2010

Trading Away the EL's

I am very happily trading trading away my 21 gram Eddie Lawrence signature darts (bought off someone over at SEWA) seen here:


To a gentleman named Johan in Sweden. I will be sending him exactly what is shown above. The darts themselves, which are in pretty good condition and short nylon stems and the two sets of unused pear shaped flights. The darts came to me in the case shown, even though that is clearly a Unicorn case and not a Puma case. So that's what I am sending to Sweden. I look forward to what he sends me in return...

I wonder what it will be!

- Posted from my iPhone

Thursday, January 21, 2010

What's the Best Out for 90?

I do not know the best out. In this particular game I went 20, 20, 50, and while that might seem like madness, there is a method to it! The reason this was interesting enough to me to take a picture (read: interesting enough to make me think about the blog) is because not 5 minutes prior to this hit, I was in a discussion with Warren Mundt regarding the best out for 90!


It was last night, and my teammate John and I were going through a Chicago Round prior to the semi-finals (we were about to play against Warren's team). We were on cricket and I hit a five count in 18's. While my brain was spinning Warren called out from the other board where he was warming up: "90. I remember that because a 90 out is triple 18, double 18." I responded with something like: "True, that is a common out, but I have to say, I don't like it." Then the 90 Out discussion ensued.

What it boils down to is that there are two camps. Those who follow the advice of just about every out chart ever printed: T18 - D18; and those few of us that think like me: T20 - S10 - D10. And the reason I think this is a better out strategy for 90 is essentially because if you miss into the single 20, 70 is still a good two dart out. To spell it out bit, with 70 and 2 darts you should go T20, D5, because if your first dart misses into the S20 then you still have the double bull with your last dart. You are maximizing your backup plan. So I think another good way to think about this is like this:

Which is the better two dart out? 70 or 72? I asked that same question to Warren and he agreed with me that 70 is a better two dart out because there is nothing you can aim at on the board where if you miss into the single you still have a one dart out. With 70 you do. With both out strategies for 90 you are aiming at a triple. If you miss your triple, you are better off with 70 than 72. Anyway, we had this small discussion while John and I were playing cricket, and then next up in the Chicago Round was one of the 01 games and I ended up with 90. Testing my theory I aimed at the triple 20 and missed. 70 left with 2 darts: I aimed at the triple 20 again and missed again! As you can see from the picture the last dart validated me just fine and dandy.

- Posted from my iPhone

Friday, January 08, 2010

18 darter

This ties my previous best games. As I recall from the game I hit my 60 out with 3 darts, and not two as I previously misremembered. Another reason this game was special for me is because I am certain this is the first time I have ever hit back to back ton-40's. Now if I can only do that with maximums ;)

This game occurred at work. I was playing a three way 501 with Jake and Nathan. I am fortunate in that I am afforded the opportunity to take a break once a day to throw a couple of games with my colleagues. It makes for a nice break in the day and allows me to refocus a little better when I get back to my desk.


This ties my previous Lowest Game of 18 darts, which occurred against my friend and former captain at work sometime in April 2008, and then again in June.

- Posted from my iPhone

So Far So Good

The title is because I snapped the pic early during the match on Thursday and I had a thought to actually blog from the match itself since I finally have a phone I can do that from. But my turn came up suddenly so I just had time to save the post instead of upload it. The picture itself is of a neat doubles trick that I pulled off in warm up against my first 301 opponent of the evening, a good shot in his own right, Derwin.


I like to go on in DIDO games with the double 11 since I have more vertical play in my misses than horizontal. Frequently I'll end up going on with the double 14 or double 8, which suits me just fine. In this particular warm up, all three warm up shots found their mark and it made me happy.

On the whole it was a good match. My teammates on the Dart Knights, John, Jeff, Andy and myself took on the Sofa kings in their home bar, the Kort Haus. An excellent establishment with a friendly bartender and lots of good munchies. I didn't really look at the standings all night although I am fairly certain we won the match. I did look at the glory points near then end and I believe I ended up with 661, which would be 4 tons, a ton-40 and a 121. The fact that I didn't look at the score sheet throughout the night should tell you something: I am starting to get a little burned out on darts. This is a sentiment that is also being expressed (and felt) by other teammates as well. We are all off our game somewhat, we have less enthusiasm than we did last season, and we keep talking about doing something else on Thursday nights but staying a group which I like the idea of. They are all a good bunch of guys.

In terms of personal performance, the night started iffy for me. After the doubles trick (pictured above) in the warm up, I promptly lost to Derwin despite getting on in the first round (on a double 11). To be fair he is a good shot and I had a few shots at an out but I didn't connect. He earned the win. My second 301 game was a win, although I do not remember the details. I then had the hands down funnest game of cricket I have played in recent memory. Up against Angie B., who is as deadly on the oche as she is friendly off it, I fell behind quickly. She had me on the ropes the entire game. In then end though, I couldn't miss the bulls and I couldn't hit the 15's, while she couldn't miss the triple 15 and did not fair so well on the bulls. It ended up being a tight point war and we both collected just over 300 points before I finally took it out. I think I won that game by virtue of luck.

I do not recall the specifics of the doubles matches, although I have the general feeling that my 01 games were better than my cricket games. I opened the team game with a ton and we won that too. I think we won the match, but however it went I am certain it was not a landslide in any direction.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Goodbye 2009





As my final act of darting for 2009 I hit a couple of nice outs. This one was a 125: bull, T20, D20, to finish off a quick game on the work board.