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 ;)

PPP: Practical Practice Prioritization

You know, when it comes to exercise and weight control and general health matters an activity regmine is very important. But the reality is that most people simply have jam packed lives and cannot dedicate as much time as would be ideal for their bodies to the pursuit of superb fitness. And while a well rounded routine is the best goal, sometimes we simply do not havee that much time and we are either forced to choose to scale the exercise back or skip it altogether. Most people will use the excuse that they do not have time to excercise "properly" so they simply don't do anything. But if they had a sense of exercise priority they would hop on the excersise bike for ten minutes instead of do nothing at all. After all, if you only have 15 minutes to work out the no braainer is cardio. The heart is your most important muscle and you should give it priority. Those biceps can wait!

So why not apply the same thinking to darts practice? I have thought about what areas of my game are weak and I haave put together a prioritized list of whaat I should be working on. This list maay differ for different people mof course, but for me, for now, this is a terrific PPP:

1. 60's: The top priority in my practice routine, these days, is the triple 20. I say this because I cannot hit it with any consistency, and I do not have the confidence to hit it like I have confidence to hit mdoubles and bulls. When I am going for a double, I just KNOW I will hit it. At least with one of three darts anyway, and when I shoot for bulls I reasonably expect to get at least one in there per round. This is the sort of confidence I am seeking with the triple 20. So, before any other practice I am aiming at the 60, or the 'sweet spot' as I call it. My goal is to get 20 of them in there before I move on. The idea behind this being so important has partly to do with the fact that there have been so many league games lately where I have hit consistently low numbers and I am allowing my opponent to get to the doubles sooner than I. I have been playing this game long enough that I should be sinking my score quickly by now and I would expect my average to be significantly higher than it was when I first started. Unfortunately sometimes it is not. Also, I truly believe this to be the key to getting to the 'next level'. My goal for right now is to be able to hit at least one triple 20 per two rounds. That's right: one out of every six darts. This is no where near professional level play but you know what? I think it is a reasonable goal, and achieving this will allow me to win most games in league. It is doable. And the way I am going to achieve this is through sheer determination, and practice. The more 60's I hit, the greater my confidence will be. Soon, according to plan, I will have the same confidence level for 60's as I do for doubles or bulls. The pic below is one of the better rounds from a recent practice session.


2. Doubles: So once you've slugged away at the triple 20 for a while and have added 20 instances of success to your sweet spot confidence fund, you can, as I do, move on to the doubles. Double practice is important. On this every dart player is in agreement. But how important it is depends on a lot of factors. What good are lots of tons if you cannot double out, and what good is being able to hit your doubles if you can never drop your score low enough to have a chance at it? The arguments are good in both directions and for me doubles practice takes a back seat to 60's practice for two reasons. First, I am better at them and have much more confidence in hitting them. Secondly, and most importantly, I do not see improving my doubles to be the key to accessing that next higher level of play. My weakness at the moment is not being able to hit the sweet spot realiably. Thus I only practice doubles if I have enough time, these days. And when I practice doubles, I do so in this order:

• 16, 8, 4, 2, 1
• 20, 10, 5
• 12, 6, 3
• 18, 9
• 14, 7
• 19, 17, 15, 13, 11

This is in the order that I consider them to be important. The pic below shows a recent round that I had just started. I was doing well in the beginning. I hit the 16 first dart, the 8 with the second dart and the third dart went to the 4 but missed (otherwise I'd have snapped a photo of the doubles trick).


3. Bulls: And then, once the doubles have been nailed and I have time for more I shoot 20 bulls. The double bull counts for two hits, and the one caveat to this section of the practice is that I keep practiceing bulls until I have hit at least one double bull. So even if I hit 43 single bulls I cannot stop until I have hit that little red dot in the middle. Bulls are important in both 01 games and cricket. In the 01 games there is a rare occation to go for a bull during the game as a part of your strategy (50 left and one dart in hand), you also always want to win your cork if possible. So it is good to have solid confidence when aiming for the bulls. In the pic below I hit one out of three. That is more or less typical for me. When I am going strong I can usually reliably hit one or two per round. When I'm off, though, boy am I off!

Editor's Note: I took a break from this post and shot a round of bulls and I averaged a little more than one per turn and I had a few hat tricks in there. A HT +1 for that matter. If I can get past the 60's practice then I usually blow through the doubles and bulls vert quickly.


4. Other Triples: It would be nice to someday have the same confidence with the triples ring as I have with the doubles ring so I make a point to throw aa round of triples when time allows for it. I do not do the same order as doubles, obviously. I start with the 19 and work my way down. That way if I only have time for the cricket triples at least I hit the most important ones but if there is time I work my way all the way down to thr triple 1. I have aimed at the triple 1 before in real games. In fact I have aaimed at most triples in real matches at one point or another. 19 through 15 are cricket numbers, 14 through 11 are used if you have 64 through 61 remaining and have two darts in hand, 10 is used for 62 remaining with 3 darts, triple 7 if you have 53 remaining with 2 darts, triple 3 if you have 25 remaining and 2 darts, aand triple 1 if you have 5 remaining. I am not sure about the others at the moment, but I am sure there are uses. Regardless, theere should be no portion of the triples ring that represents difficulty because that is like a chink in your armor.


Can anyone think of uses for these triples: 9, 8, 6, 5, 4, 2?? Any disagreement with the use of the others?

Doubles Trick Finish

Here is a doubles trick I pulled off which also happened to be the three remaining doubles I need to finish a doubles practice session. Normally 15, 13 and 11 are the last three, but I happened to hit my 15 earlier in the session leaving these.

The darts themselves are my old 28 gram GT's. They are wearing Pickup Points, as well as short black GT shafts and Black Widow pear flights. I don't know why I dug these out again, but it has servered to remind me how much I like Bottelsen darts, how much I like tapered barrels and how much I like these darts in particular. Perhaps I'll use them in league coming up. It has also rejuvinated my interest in perfecting the GT Dynamod. More to come on that.

The Trouble with Triples

I almost quit last night. The league games were postponed in favor of an impromptu Luck to benefit a long time league member who had a stroke and I was certainly glad to pitch in for that cause. In fact I had decided from the get go that if I won the luck I'd kick in my winnings toward the guys relief fund as well. But I never came close. I won a total of zero games and was out very very quickly. My partner did not help but I do not want that to sound like I am blaming him because that is not the case. We were just both having an off night. I hit nothing worthwhile, except a bunch of bulls that got us back into the cricket game. It came down to 'Next Bull Wins'.

They won.



Anyway, that is not what this post is about. Rather I wanted to comment on the trouble I have with triples. And not just any triples either. The sweet spot. I stopped taking pictures of 120+ shots a long time ago because when I am in form and having a decent practice round I tend to hit them readily. I'll get a ccouple of 60s and a miss somewhere. The miss isn't always the last dart either, or I'd suspect myself of choking. The missing dart I would say is any of the three with equal frequency. I'd raather it were always the last dart!!!

What's that? I wish it were a case of choking? You see, at least then I'd know what the problem is and be able to work toward a resolution. Choking is covered in ample sports psychology texts and I am certain that I'd be able to overcome it. But when any random dart flies off course what can you attribute it to? The idea that some darts are too fat to fit in the triples is a load of crap. Have you ever seen the darts Jim Pike used to use? Besides, look at the pic below. Those are some Unicorn Brass Beauties I got for Xmas from my lovely wife, and are easily the thickest, or near thickest darts I own and as anyone case see there is plenty of space in there for more! Also, that theory doesn't hold water when it is the first dart that misses.



My current working theory on this issue is that I am just not consistent. I know I am capable of the accuracy, two out of three darts in the sweet spot seems to confirm this. And I know I am capable of the prize because I have done it before. There are so many variables, and worse - nested variables - when you step up to the oche. How you hold the dart, how you stand how you follow through I will not name them all. So to overcome that random dart miss one must reduce the variables. Not as easy as it sounds for sure. The only solution is a more intelligent practice session on a more regular basis. I'll think on this for a couple of days.

Incidentally, The Trouble wwith Tribbles is easily my favorite Star Trek: TOS and my favorite DS9 episode.

Reign of the Hat Trick +1

Hat Trick +1 is the term I have come up with to mean a four count in the bulls, in which all of the darts are in the bull somewhere. So two double bulls and then a miss outside the bull doesn't count since it is not a hat trick. Oddly I have had several of these lately but not much else to comment on, performance wise.


The only meaningful HT+1 that I have hit was last Tuesday in league, and while it came in a cricket game that my partner and I eventually lost, it bolstered my confidence for a while. But only a while. I got clobbered by a sandbagger shortly after. And I mean seriouly clobbered. It was almost the darts version of a mugging.

Bear in mind, though, that when I get to choose I always choose to play against the other teams strongest player even when I know in advance that I am out classed. There is no glory in defeating a weaker opponent and there is no honor in avoiding the toughest possible challenge. I am a bit like Lt. Cmd. Worf in this respect. And last Tuesday I died honorably in glorious battle. Happily I was able to choose my opponent.

It was a Singles Chicago match. He won the initial cork and chose to open with cricket. He beat me soundly that game and was 80 points ahead by the second round. I nearly came back in the end by pounding the bulls and ended up with over 100 points but still lost. He was very strong on the triples and I was missing them.

I chose DIDO 301 as the next game. I got in by the second round but I never had a chance. He opened with 48 points, and then hit a ton-40 in the second round, and then took out 113 in the third round. I was very impressed and he exhibited excellent sportsmanship in terms of attitude, etc, but he was still sandbagging the B League. (I say that with a half crooked smile.)

I digress. The subject line of this post claims that there is a reign of HT+1's. I say that because I hit several in the last few days, and several yesterday. Here is another pic of a Hat Trick +1:

My Par-Darts Board

Howdy ynz. Take a look at this board. This heralds the beginning of a new dart obsession for me and that is the collection of interesting boards. If anyone has any interesting boards you'd like to sell, think of me first! Recent good finds for me include a Casino 301, a Snooker board, a Quadro and a couple of Blade MX's. I will post on them as they arrive. Now I will also need to figure out a way to make them easily interchangable! Also, please note the new nav system to the right. I have a section dedicated to my dart collection and to my board collection.


This is a very nice board that looks like it is in virtally brand new condition. Right now it is at the house of a friend in Seattle and I am looking forward to playing on it. It looks like it would be at the very least an excellent practice board, but I bet the whole game is going to be every bit as fun as a regular darts game. This is my first non-clockface board other than the baseball board below. It is certainly my first bristle non-standard board. At some point I am going to figure out how to replace those wires stapled onto the board with embedded blade-like separaters.

Click here for the rules for Par-Darts.

The Bowtie

I would like to thank an anonymous commenter from a few posts back for offering this idea. I have tried it and it is a terrific addition, or change rather, to the shanghai practice game I use. Here is a pic first, then I will describe:


First, follow the link above to read anon's comment because it is a good description of the Bowtie. But notice in my pic above I am not going for the doubles. I happened to be doing a round of triples at the time and was taking a break from it with a little shanghai (I will do that sometimes if I am missing the trips badly). Well, normally in shanghai, if your first dart hits the bull then you cannot make a shanghai so you just do a round of bulls practice. In the bowtie situation you go for opposite segments. In the pic above you can see I hit the bull first dart, and then the second dart was aimed at the trip 6. I missed low into the trip 10. So the third dart went for the trip 14 and I hit it. Thus forming a bow tie.

Here you can see the only actual shanghai I achieved in that practice round. These are not the normal darts I use though:

Juergen's Trick Shot

Juergen, a frequent contributer to this blog, sent me this photo of a trick shot he pulled off on Saturday. In addition to hitting his 24th and 25th Ton-80's for the year, that is ;)



I am certain Juergen would be happy to note that there is currently a Ton-80 contest going on over at paulwilliamsdarts.co.uk, based on the honor system. So far I have failed to hit a ton-80 after the inception of the contest but I am hoping to get my name on the board soon. Maybe I just need to come up with a set of PT Purists like everyone else is doing.

Harkening Back to Simpler Times

Lately I have found myself reverting back to behaviors and preferences from a couple years ago. There are two things in particular I am thinking of, the first is that I seem to be migrating back to spinning shafts and the second is that I seem to be preferring to carry almost nothing with me to dart night in the pubs.

When I first started playing, I found the Dynastar shaft and flights on some website, probably edarts, and I ordered some. I stuck them on the darts I had and by gosh I thought they were the cat's meow. Eventually of course I started prefering a completely solid, non-moving dart, so I started using the non-spinning nylons and aluminums. I broke the dynastars back out and I am using them again:


Also, other than the small Unicorn Jiffy dart sharpener I put in my pocket, what you see above is all I ever take with me these days to league when I shoot.

Paper-wound Baseball Board

This would be the first board I ever bought and I bought it before I had any clue whatsoever what to look for in a board. As it turns out paper wound dart boards are lower quality, and they are not a good option for the serious darter. Perhaps if you are looking to get a new person into darts, with not much money, you can pick one of these up on ebay for a dollar, but other than introducing steel tip darts to your friends, I would not recommend paper wound boards.

The fun thing is, though the game itself. This is the only non-clock board I have and the idea is intriguing even if I am not sure what the rules are. I have devised make shift rules while playing this with my wife but the rules were clumsy at best. One of these days I am going to track down the official rules for this game.

I found them!

BASEBALL DART GAME (STANDARD GAME)

1. The player throwing is the pitcher attempting to retire the opposing side without allowing runs. This can best be achieved by carefully pitching at the corners of the plate. Put the pitch over the center of the plate and it's a home run.
2. Two players or teams can participate. Each team member takes a turn pitching his team's half of an inning.
3. Each inning is divided into two halves: one for each team. Three outs constitute one-half of an inning. First pitcher is allowed as many pitches as is necessary to get three outs. All runs scored against him are credited to the other team. When he has made three outs the other player pitches his half of the inning.
4. Usual rules of baseball apply. Three "strikes" for an "out". A "foul ball" counts as a "strike" but not as a third strike. Any pitch that misses the "plate" (target zone) is ruled a "ball". Four balls to a batter constitute a "walk" and the batter is awarded first base.
5. Runs are scored by players rounding the basses and crossing home plate. Runs must be forced over to score.
6. At the conclusion of the regulation number of innings, the team with the most runs is the winner.

FP Mega Thrusts

For as long as I have been playing darts I have been aware of Bottelsen and the awesome darts the produce and sell. However, this whole time I never paused to consider that perhaps they have not always produced their current line and may have once offered fixed point versions of some of their more popular darts that now are only offered as MP systems. Well, one day while I was kicking about ebay I saw an odd dart that appeared to be a Mega Thrust, but was FP!!


I have been using these darts in League for the last couple of weeks and I have been loving them. I would rather that they were a couple grams heavier, though and it is making me seriouly consider getting the 24 gram version of the modern Mega Thrust. I have a new idea for an awesome conversion point that will make the dart fixed point to the naked eye. Not sure if I will or not, though. Gotta wait and see how these current 22 grammers pan out.

Doubling your Double Double Out with a Doubles Trick

Here is a fun trick you can only do half by accident and half on purpose. I say that because I did it by accident, but then thought it was neat. Well, not exactly by accident. I hit everything I aimed at afterall.

I had 72 left and 3 darts in hand. I decided to go 40, 32. So I aim for the double 20, hit it. then the double 16. Nailed it. One dart left. What to do.. what to do? I chucked it at the double ten for an attempted doubles trick.

Nailed it.



See, when you take out any number hitting two different doubles (on purpose or otherwise) you are accomplishing a "Double Double" out. When you hit three doubles all on purpose this is a "Doubles Trick". When you happen to be able to do both in one trip to the oche then you are..

Doubling your double double out with a doubles trick.

Shanghai: The Practice Quickie

We all have our favorite practice routines. Usually they are quite long and involved. Maybe you warm up with a round of doubles, then throw four or five games of 501 against DartPro, and then finish off with a round of triples and say, I don't know, 25 bulls? Sound familiar? I can't shake a stick at the number of times I have read descriptions of peoples practice routines on the forums and they are always complicated. And usually then indicate it will last them a good two or three hours. That's not always the best way to go about it. Sometimes three darts is all you have time for, or sometimes just ten or so minutes.

What about when you are waiting for your wife to finish her hair, or waiting for your eggs to boil, or waiting for anything? What about when you are just in the mood to goof off? What do you do?

This is what I do:


It is a practice routine I call Shanghai. In the pic above you can see a (rare) successful round. The first dart was aimed at the bull, and I missed into the single 11. Then I went for the trip and the double of that wedge, and what a surprise, I hit them! Usually I do not. The idea of the game is to have a carefree and fun practice session that takes exactly long as you want it to. You practice bulls triples and doubles, in random segments. Here are the rules:

First dart: When you first start the game there are two options. Open trying to shanghai the 20s or open with a toss at the bull to see which wedge you go after first. I usually chuck on at the bull but not always.

If you hit the bull continue trying for the trick. If not the wedge you miss into first is the target for the next round. Say I chuck at the bull and hit the 3 segment. Next round I aim for the triple three. if I miss into the single (or god forbid the double) then I am still on track for a shanghai. I simply try for the trip again. If I hit it I go for the double for the shanghai. If I miss then I go back to the bull to see where I aim next.

Situation: I have three darts in hand and I am targeting the 5 wedge. First dart misses into the single 12! Did I die already? No. I am on track to shanghai the 12s now. So I go for the trip 12 and hopefully the double if I hit the trip. Otherwise back to bull for next target!

Situation: I am targeting the 13 wedge. First darts slope sinto the treble 4! Bonus. Now I have two chance at the double 4, I just need to make sure that if I miss I miss inside (turns out I missed into single and nailed the double with the third dart for Shanghai-4!).

Sometimes when you play this you are hot on bulls, and it ends up just being bulls practice. but thats okay. Hitting lots and lots of bulls builds confidence and is an excellent way to calibrate between dart sets. When you are in a bull slump it is good to put that miss to good use. There are loads of variations available with this game. So have fun!!

The Good, the Bad, and the Fugly

Last night was my first league match of the season. And as is almost always the case with my league nights there were good points and bad points.

GOOD point number one came in the very first round of the night. I won the cork for me and my partner for a 501 game and I then proceeded to open the game with 120 points, shanghaing the 20's. I was quite happy with it. I do not know for sure what my all time high in is but that is aamong them. The rest of that game was BAD. I hit low numbers and missed many many doubles.

GOOD point number two was quite a gem. In the next game, doubles DIDO 401, I won the cork for us with a double bull, and then proceeded to double in on the double bull as well, on the first dart! What a way to start the game. The next two darts were nothing special, I think a 5 and a 20, but DB-in is hard to do (for me). I later took out 8 to win the game.

My next three games were all singles games making up a Chicago match. As usual, they put me against their strongest player for these games (I wouldn't have it any other way) and I struggled to say the least. GOOD point number three came during the first of those games when I was able to pound the bulls to come back from a huge point deficit and win the cricket game! And he opened the game with two triple 20's, so the deficit started early. Needless to say I was stoked and he was pissed.

The next two games were 501 and 301 respectively, and they weren't just ugly, they were FUGLY. He hit high scores and I answered with low scores and I never had a chance. I doubled in on the first round for the 301 game, but that was the only non-fugly part of those two games.

The last GOOD point came when me and my doubles partner beat that same guy (and his partner) twice in a row during the doubles Chicago match. Once again, the first game was cricket and my strong point was bulls. Gotta love it.

These are the darts I used last night:

A Big Thank You to 3inabed.com

Just as I sent out a thank you to Delboy, I would like to extend a huge thank you to Gazza at 3inabed.com for the prize contributions to the Darts Sweepstakes over at www.paulwilliamsdarts.co.uk. It was a terrific contribution and I am very grateful to his generosity. The sweeps that Nick Williams runs is a nice contribution to the ODC and it is the prizes offered by Gazza and Unicorn and Delboy and others that adds to the excitement, and we are all better off for it. So Thank you Gazza!

The prize I got from 3inabed.com is pretty cool. It is a set of 26 gram Nodor darts that are really nice looking and have a good feel when thrown. They came in a nice case with three sets of shafts and two sets of flights.


I have been aware of 3inabed.com for quite sometime now, but I never really explored the site thoroughly until I learned I'd be getting a set of darts that was offered by Gazza in the sweeps. The site is prtty extensive and there is much to see and do there. There is a nice selection of darts for sale, featuring mainly the Nodor line, all of which are good looking darts and which seem to be priced quite resonably. In addition to the darts he sells accessories, shirts and his PC game.

The PC game was one of the prizes offered in the sweeps, but since I am on a Mac it isn't much use to me (at least not until Darwine provides and exe environment). And the site features a world league which you can participate in if you happen to have this PC game. But it doesn't seem to be web based, per se, like www.ezchalk.com.

The site has other interesting tid bits as well, such as a page of links (hey! why isn't The Dart Indoors in there!), a section for discussion and news, and "flutter" which seesm to be something to do with gambling.

Anyway, 3inabed.com has contributed selflessly to the online dart community by offering prizes for the sweeps and it would be great if anyone reading this would take some time and poke around his site, and consider buy stuff from him next time you need supplies. You can find his site here:

www.3inabed.com

A Big Thank You to Delboysdarts

I would like to extend a huge thank you to delboysdarts for the prize contributions to the Darts Sweepstakes over at www.paulwilliamsdarts.co.uk. It was a terrific contribution and I am very grateful to his generosity. The sweeps that Nick Williams runs is a nice contribution to the ODC and it is the prizes offered by delboysdarts and gazza and Unicorn and others that adds to its unique character, and we are all the richer for it. So Thank you Delboy.

The prizes I got from delboysdarts are terrific. I got a set of 26 gram Ruthless Ringed darts, as well as 9 sets of white standard flights. Also were two standard flights with a robot head on them. I don't know what happened to the third, but the pckage was damaged so it may have fallen out in the post.


I took a look around delboys website to see all the great changes he made earlier in the year. It looks like he has expanded his inventory quite a bit adding a lot of the most sought after Unicorn products, but still keeping all of his regular darts. He also has a dart that I have never seen anywhere else, and that is Kong's signature dart:


The coolest thing about his site, in my opinion, is his shipping policy. If you are already in the UK then you will note that he has free shipping for all orders, otherwise, as long as you are ordering at least 50 GBP worth of stuff he has free shipping worldwide!! That makes it easy. I know I can shop there, even from the USA, and not get killed on shipping. Besides, when I place an online order it is often more than 50 GBP worth. As of today, 50 GBP = 87.07 USD.

Also take note of his personalized flights. You can do text or graphics and I am thinking about putting together a personalized flights order for my dart team next time I make an order. Once we finally get out team shirts desiged I may have some flights made to match. That would be cool, esspecially if you can have pictures put on pear shaped flights.

Delboysdart.com contributed selflessly to the sweepstakes, making the entire online dart community all the richer for it. Next time you want to order darts or supplies, please consider repaying his generosity by ordering from him. His webssite can be found here:

www.delboysdarts.com

No. 10: 1st Ton-80 of 2006!

This is my tenth lifetime ton-80 and I am quite pleased with it:


Just tossing some light practice with no real focus or sense of urgency. Nothing intence just an occational toss at the board. I hit the first two right next to each other and I then did a really excellent job of not choking. I mentally took note of the situation without letting it affect my rhythm, stance grip or composure and that third dart slipped right in there as pretty as you please.

The darts:

Points: Fixed
Barrels: 24 gram Nodor STT-900
Stems: Short Aluminum
Flights: Unicorn Dimplex Pear

Darting the Good Dart

Well the newest addition to the family have been performing well. I have been hitting a lot of big numbers lately although I have not hit any Ton-80's with them. I have hit several 120+ scores though, several back to back, and a bunch of Ton-40s. This is a good sign and I hope I am not jinxing them with this post.



This shot was a particularly nice group which was just a millimeter or two short of my first Ton-80 of the year. I am hoping for more good scores in the days to come. Unfortunately a work trip is going to keep me away from my first league match of the year (well the first week was a bye). The first actual match against an opponent that is.

Gotta Love It

You gotta love it when the first throw of the day results in a hat trick. Odd that you can pick up your darts completely cold and throw a round as if you have been warming up for an hour.

I have been liking the new darts quite a bit. They fly with quite a bit of authority to the targets I intend (haha sometimes) and I like their body style. Front loaded but kinda short, narrowing to a pretty small waist. The stems I have are the only length that came with the darts but they make for a well configured dart.

Odd Find

I was wandering around the mall this afternoon killing time. Didn't expect to see any dart stuff at all, since the area I am in is really really bad for brick and mortar type dart places. I wandered into the cutlery store and started looking at all the knives and daggers and Klingon looking ninja crap. I was enjoying their selection and moving slowly down the counter and then all of a sudden I see a bucket on the counter with discounted dart stuff. Stems and flights and tools, etc. A closer examination revealed some dart sets behind the counter, mostly soft tip. I started chatting with the guy. He started showing me some of the sets and I asked if there were any steel tip darts there. He said no, but all I needed to do was put one of these conversion tip sets on the darts and then they become steel tip. This is what I said:

"Cool. Whats the heaviest set you got?"

He proceeded to show me a set of Piranha soft tips which were marked 20 grams. Then he said this: "But once you put the conversion tips on them they become 24 grams." Conversion points do not weight 4 grams each. There is no way. Even if they were solid tungsten tips they would not. So I said this:

"Cool."

I wasn't going to buy them anyway and I didn't feel like being one of those pedantic pricks who feels the need to correct people all the time. Thats when I noticed these behind the counter:



I immediately recognized them as a set of steel tip darts that takes the special small threaded stems that are usually listed as "kung fu" or "villain" stems. Such as can be seen HERE and HERE. I couldn't resist. I had to have a set. I have never had this kind before. Besides, I was already elated that I found a place that sells dart stuff. Plus he made it hard to resist. He threw in a set of flights to replace the crappy warped ones the darts came with, and I told him I didn't like the case so he let me swap it out for a wooden one. On top of all that he knocked off ten bucks. These be them:


The dart case they were in didn't say anything about their weight but when I got home and weighed the barrels they were 24 gram (my preferred weight!!) and I believe they were called 'Scoundrels' made by either DMI or Dart World. Not sure. If anyone knows what they are please tell me! Thanks!!

The Consequences of Underdarting

Hi all,

Thanks for the comments you have been leaving and the fact that you have been checking my blog with a great deal more dedication than I have been posting to it. My silence has been long but it has not been golden. I have been busying myself with many things over the last month but unfortunately little of it had to do with darts. I have been dedicating myself to work and the pursuit of a Linux certification (which had led to the creation of a new blog - with only one post so far!!):


There are also other distractions which are not relevant to mention here (but most of them are good things...). Let's just say one of them led me to the discovery that Tungsten is used in other industries than darts ;)

Darting has been hot and cold for me in January 2006. I have been continuing to work on my July-2004 project, and I have joined the Steel Tip league again although I lost my captainship through an uncanny and unfortunate process of fission, then fusion. Our first week in league was a bye week so we had a team practice. I won all the games I played, but had to leave early. I was only playing against my teammates though, and we are all B Leaguers so winning the games I did play was no big feat. I don't think I had any good darts to report other than maybe a hat trick and some six mark rounds in cricket.

As evidence of my degradation, I offer this photo, which shows three darts all aimed at the triple 20!! Where has my accuracy gone? (I know, I know: "what accuracy?"):

The Coveted 9 Count.. er.. Points

Here is a quick pic of a score I have been hoping for for a long time, but never actually achieved. I aimed at the trip 20 and missed into the trip 1 each time! Yeah! 9 points.

Why I like Pears

I threw a dart at the board the other day and then could not find it. At first I thought it bounced out and so I looked around on the ground for a split second before I glanced up and saw it. It was the most perpendicular dart I'd seen in a while. It virtually disappeared on the board. (So of course I snapped a pic.)



This is why I like my Black Poly Pears. The shape of the flight seems to fit with my dart preferences and throwing style for really good perpendicular lands in the board. Having your dart land this way helps a lot. You see less of the dart so it is less of a distraction, and you block your targets less so you have to 'go downstairs' less for a good shot. This is why I like my Pears.

Awesome Dart Poster

Check out this hilarious dart shoot poster:


My friend Barn is in charge of this kinda stuff in his league and the stuff that leaks out of his mind sometimes floors me. He is a real creative guy and a fine darter too. But the bastard is sandbagging the B League. (That's because he's a bastard.)

2 Darters Cannot Be Wrong

Surfing I just saw this pic:

I don't know who is holding that dart, but I copied it from some website somewhere that was talking about the Lakeside competition. I would hope that it is a current photo of some professional dart player who is actually in these competitions but the cynic in me says it is a stock photo and is probably not someone famous at all. Just a random hand.

Anyway, what is neat is that this is an exact copy of my grip. That person is holding their dart the same way I hold mine, middle finger barely touching the point, pinky sticking out a bit to the side, everything. So at least now I feel validated. If some pro out there is using my grip then it cannot be all that bad, right?

EZChalk Rocks

I would like to call everyone attention to an awesome online service available to darters everywhere. It is www.ezchalk.com First, you should know that I have no affiliation with it other than that I use it. There are a lot of good utilities out there for us dwellers in dart forums to get together and duke it out with tungsten and silver. Unfortunately most of them are not websites, but programs written to download to PC's. PC's running Windows, that is.

But there are those of us who hold their computers to much higher standards. We run Unix, or Unix varients, such as Linux and Mac OSX. I run a Mac and I love it. Everything is easy and everything is safe (well, more safe). So things like DartPro, and CricketScorer are awesome utilities but do me no good. Thus websites that offer these services are the answer. Websites, when well made, are cross platform and cross browser. So people like me can run Firefox on a Mac and still play darts online. So I encourage all you people reading this to go there and sign up and find a sparring partner. Here is aa pic of the game play interface:


It isn't obvious from the pic (which you can click to embiggen) but you can either enter your scores by clicking on the dartboard or you can just type the numbers in at the bottom. But in either case the scores are not official until you hit submit, which is a cool feature, especially when you are entering by clicking on the dartboard. From the pic below you can also see that ezchalk will keep track of your stats too, to some degree. I have aan inkling thaat I have lost more than I have won but who cares about that. The important stat is points per turn. Mine is sitting at a humble 58.08 but maybe that will encourage people to challenge me.



It is a nice site. It has been much improved from it's old version and I think that if more people were to use it we would have a game anytime we felt darty. And do me one more favor. Once you sign up at the site (it is free by the way), send an email to the admin of the site asking for these additions and improvements:

1. Add Cricket as a game option. (I wrote some perl code for cricket and offered it to him.)
2. Add an option for 1 Set of 5 Legs. (right now it is only 5x5 and 1x1.)

You can email him here: webmaster@ezchalk.com

UPDATE: He has already added the second feature so you can now play a 1x5 match. Also, you can now post suggestions at this location within the Steve Coote site: EZchalk Forum Section

Good Times at the PLMS

My dart teammates and I had a chance to play darts with More_Cowbell and his posse last night at their home club, the PLMS. We are considering joining it (private club) so that they can sponser us in the next dart season. I hope my teammates like it as well as I, but there may be some objections based on travel time. Good times were had by me and my teammates but we proved to be no match for them. They can each throw a good dart!

I hit a total of four Ton-40's last night but no max's nor any hat tricks. Probably the best night out I have had in a while in terms of performance but I faded by the end. As Yogi Berra would say, "It got late early."

Stick won a cricket tie-breaker against me after opening with a White Horse (which was quite impressive), and I saw Tater Bob hit a 160-IN to open a game of DIDO 301 (but I was not playing against him).

So, Stick, taterbob and More_Cowbell, thanks for the games. I hope to see ynz up there again often. Here is a gratuitous photo:

The Faux Ton-80

jsobo119 touched on this a bit in one of his posts (here) but I wanted to post a couple of pics anyway. For a B Leaguer like me a Ton-80 is quite rare, so when two of your darts hit the triple 20 and then the third dart bounces out of the board entirely it is quite frustrating. So the pic below may look like a ton-80 but it is really a score of 120, and then a re-thrown bounce out.


It just seems so cruel to have that coveted score escape. I don't really know if the third dart would have been in the sixty, but it would have been somewhere near it, for sure. Perhaps a single one perhaps not. I hit ton-40's often enough now that I simply do not take pictures of them anymore. So even if it had hit another single 20 I don't think I would have broken out the camera.

Here is another that I hit a while back and has just been sitting on my hard drive for a while. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. It felt like a 180 when that third dart finally sunk into the board, and sure I aimed all three at the sixty and all three hit their target, but... It just isn't the same, thus they are not included in the official Ton-80 count. They are separate, they are false.

They are Faux Ton-80's. And I've hit two so far.

Consolation Prize for 2006 Sweeps

Even though I am not a dart dealer nor a peddler of any dart supplies whatsoever, I have decided to contribute to the prizes that will be awarded for the 2006 Sweeps which take place over at the terrific and always spectacular Paul Williams site.

And since I don't have tons of inventory in and out my door, I will contribute one of what I happen to have plenty of...

My Favorite Stem!

But it will not go to the first place winner. Instead it will go to the person with the fewest points but who has participated in all (okay most) events. So this is a consolation prize for the one person who is persistent, yet persistantly unlucky... Unless that person happens to be me, then it will go to the next in unluckiness. Here is the stem set:


The Sweeps I am referring to is a fun thing run by the operator of the Paul Williams website. He runs a year long contest where participants are randomly assigned to various dart players in the major competitions and then we accumulate points based on how they do in real life. In 2005, I accumulated the second most points of all the people who played and I won a nice little prize doing so! (Which will be blogged upon arrival.) The generosity of the people offering gifts from their inventory has inspired me to kick in a little tid bit.

Happy New Year

Well, I have few dart related resolutions this year. I want to hit more Ton-80's of course, but I also want to hit at least one more Deadeye. I would also like to attend more Luck of the Draws and be more active online. And despite what seems like a lot of dart resolutions and a potential for more dart activity, my primary resolutions are all health related (i.e. less junk and more fresh air).

The performance related resolutions should be easy to measure in terms of success. Afterall, there is a number associated with them:

1. I resolve to hit more Ton-80's this year (6 last year).
2. I resolve to hit more Deadeyes this year (1 last year).

The online activity is easy to track too. For example,

3. I resolve to blog more this year (91 posts last year - (131 total)).
4. I resolve to forum more this year (your guess is as good as mine).

But socialization in darts is more difficult. I know I only hit one LotD last year and I'd like to hit more this year, but my life is only 5 to 10% darts and I have so many more interests it is unlikely LotD's will play a huge role. Only when I move back to Seattle will this change (not likely this year).

5. I hope to hit more Lucks this year.

But in the end, this year is really the Year of the Dog. Literally. In Chinese astrology the year of the dog will start at the lunar year and I got a new dog a couple of months ago so it is more likely you will see me holding a leash than my darts!

Happy New Year folks.

Xmas Spoils

I had a very darty Christmas this year. In addition to a couple more pairs of my favorite jeans I ended up with some very nice dart related items. Take a look:


First, I scored a brand new Unicorn Eclipse dartboaard. It didn't have the white blades I was expecting, but it is a very nice dartboard. I threw on a DMI Bandit for several years and I still think it has a few years left in it before it is completely kaput, but I asked for a new dartboard anyway. The Unicorn Eclipse is the premium offering from Unicorn and a direct competitor with the Bandit. I wanted it mostly because the Bandit was getting really beat up on the blades and the reason I didn't go with another bandit is because I wanted to have a chance to compare the premium boards over a long period of time. This time next year I'll be able to provide a definitive "which is better" declaration.


Four new sets of darts. In order from top to bottom: 20 gram black GT2's wearing Spinpactor points and black aluminum GT screw-in shafts with black poly pears. This is a nice dart. It throws pretty consistently despite the fact that it is a very light dart. The nice taper on it is the redeeming factor, of ocurse. A good forward weighting will make grammage nearly irrelevant. The second dart is a 21 gram fixed point Steve Coote Signature Datadart. Also a terrific dart with a nice feel. The third dart is a 21 gram brass dart that came free with the Eclipse dart board. They are massive compared to what I am used to, but I like them a great deal. They are quite long and so I have to use an extra-short nylon to get the dart to the length I like. All of these darts, by the way, are wearing my CPF's. The Brass Biggies (as I call them) hang from the board at a slight down angle like the Vectors used to before I removed the ADM mechanism. I can still hit ton-40's with them though. The last dart is the Orion Vector Smart Dart properly configured. The ADM was too heavy for the dart and once replaced with a medium nylon stem, the dart flies like a dream!!

My buddy in Seattle came to the same conclusion on his own. He took the ADM off as well but still likes the dart for its grip.

Dart ornament and keychain-mini-frame: These are both quite nice. Every year my girlfriend and I exchange one ornament for the tree and this year she got me the little pueter dartboard. The little dart picture frame/keychain it pretty neat. I have been toying about using it for toting around a picture of my dog but since I don't really use a ketchain at all anyway I will probably just come up with picture of my dart team.