Max 54

Same darts, next day during a Metro League match.  I was throwing well in general, but this quality shot came during the midst of some other great hitting.  It was followed up with a 140, and then a 40 out.

The photo is a bit blurry.  I usually feel a little guilty taking a photo during the middle of a match, partly because it cuts into the cadence of the throwing, and also if my opponent is not throwing well then I am afraid they think I am showboating.  So I just snap a quick pic and slink back to the behind-the-oche (that place needs a name. On-deck?).  Thus, in this case, blurriness.

These are the 19 gram Voks Nobus wearing #6 carbon stems and slim Fit Flight Airs.

First Ton-80 of 2020

Number 53 lifetime, and first for the year, with hopefully many more to come.

These are the 19 gram Nobus with #6 carbon stems and slim Fit Flight Airs.

Unsuccessful Singles Shoot

I was invited to the post-season B League Singles Shoot as an alternate again this time around and it didn't go as planned :P  Last season I won this shoot in fine fashion, but this time around I fell into the Loser's Bracket late in the shoot and then was beat there.  Had I won the one game I played in the Loser's Bracket I would have advanced to the finals next round and had a chance but as it happens I did not.  More on that in a bit.

The highlights of the evening included a couple of nice outs, a couple of Ton-40's (one in warm up), and a really nice 85.9 PPR 01 game. But really, it was kind of a flat evening.

The format was the same as last time: two brackets, a winners bracket and a losers bracket. Winner's bracket matches are best of three, in this order: SIDO 401, Cricket, corker's choice of those two.  The Losers Bracket was a single leg of corker's choice between those same two games.

My first match was against a great player and a nice guy named Doug. I won this match 2-1 and here is how it went. We started with 401 as per the rules in which my scores were 85, 28, 140, 100, 48 Out, in that order for a 14 dart game.  I was quite happy with my opening performance and to boot, the out was a double-double.  I was going to go S16, D16, but missed into the D16. I then hit the D8 on my next dart for the game:

Then we played Cricket and he utterly destroyed me. I threw a 1.8 and he threw a 4.2.  It was a no contest win for him.  In fact, after the match he remarked that it was his best game ever. Given how high caliber of a player he is I doubt that's true.  I won the cork for the rubber match and was not about to play him in Cricket again so I chose 401 (with a cheeky "Good choice" from my opponent) and, while I won that game taking out D8, it was not a remarkable game.  The out was also sloppy: I had 35 remaining, missed the S3 into the D3, hit the S13 pretty square, and then missed the D8 outside.  I did hit the D8 with my first dart next round though. Regardless, I won the match leaving me in the Winners Bracket.

My next match was against Lyle, who is one of the nicest guys in the league, and a formidable opponent to say the least. I happened to win this match 2-0 but I don't think it was because I was throwing well, I think it was because Lyle didn't bring his A Game that he is known for. The first game, 401, was unremarkable for both of us with the exception of my out.  I had 92 remaining and hit T20, missed the D16 outside blocking the double pretty thoroughly, and then managed to hit the D16 with a blockade runner shot.  The Cricket game was a luck win for me as I had four completely dead rounds.  Nonetheless, I remained in the Winner's bracket after this match.

My next match was against Joe, the eventual winner of the shoot.  He beat me 2-0 but I could have, and should have, won both of these games.  In the 401 neither of us were on fire and I missed 5 darts at the double ring to lose.  I had 152 left and hit a ton, leaving 52.  Then I hit S20 and missed outside the D16 twice.  Next round I missed inside D16, then missed inside D8, then missed inside D4.  I didn't get anymore chances.  In the end of the cricket game we traded missing bulls for several rounds before I lost.  This is when I knew something was wrong with my mental game.  I was losing steam. I am normally solid on bulls and not too shabby on finishing and to lose both of these B League caliber games was a sign I was not as steely-minded as I should have been.  This loss knocked me into the Losers Bracket. 

My one game in the Losers Bracket was against Keith.  A tough opponent.  His confidence is rock solid which I find admirable.  He won the cork (I choked on the cork badly) and he chose Cricket, which was a strategic choice on his part, and a good one.  "I've been watching you," he told me by way of explaining he choice of Cricket.  This was a nice nod of respect from him and I appreciated it.  I liked him before, but I like him even better now.  He won handily. At this point I was barely putting up a fight.  I tried each round but as I retrieved my darts and walked back to behind the oche I remember thinking: "I don't care if I win. How is that possible?"  But it was true.  For the first time in a long time I was content to see my opponent win, and I was genuinely happy for him when he did.

That was all she wrote for me.  I was out of the shoot and heading home before the winner even won. And good on him when he did.  I was throwing my 19 gram Accudart Cricket's (ironically named, for me anyway) wearing Volute points, #6 Cosmo Carbon stems, and Shape Fit Flight Airs:

In the last analysis: I lost because I flagged.  I ran out of steam and my steely-mindedness left me before the shoot was done. Granted I had a stroke nine days prior (a TIA, actually), and my arm was tireder than I expected, and my energy level was low but that is no excuse.  When you show up at a shoot, you show up.

26 gram Dartworld Scoundrels

The Scoundrel is an interesting dart. No longer on the market, these darts were made by Dartworld in probably the 80's or 90's and, if I guess correctly, are Dartworld's answer to the Bottelsen GT line.  I say this because the dart is an especially skinny-waisted dart, taking a stem that is smaller than 3BA, but not quite as small as the 6BA of the GT line.  While this makes it an interesting dart to have and throw, it limits your options quite a bit.  After all, there isn't a single compatible stem available for purchase anywhere, and fancier stem and flight setups like the Fit Flight system are a non-starter.

This particular model is 26 grams, but I have seen others that were 24, and with a slightly different grip design, like these, but I have no idea what the entire lineup looked like, or what the weight range was originally.  Someday I'd like to get my hands on the Dartworld catalogs from that era and have a look but until that happens, they are a mystery.

The following pic is my preferred set up for them, even really all you can really do with them is swap out the flights and put on the silver stems instead of the black ones (I prefer the black).  The flights are Target X flights which are a slightly smaller standard flight.  I am surprised they throw so well with that small of a flight despite their relatively high grammage.  I find that while my middle finger still goes where the point meets the barrel, my index and thumb are slightly more back than usual where the barrel slopes to its skinny waist, basically surrounding the bulk of the dart.  I found myself hitting doubles more than I thought I would for such a new, and different dart.  I really like how they throw.  I think I'll take them to league one night and see how they do over the course of an evening.

I got a pretty pristine set, complete with case and all the internals intact and no visible damage to the darts themselves.  I am sure they have been throw, but by the looks of them not very much.  I am not sure what (if anything) went in the hollow space beneath the spare stems in the case.

The "Rotating Star"

A recent discussion over at Dartsnutz.net focuses on whether it is wise to always be aiming at the triple 20 when practicing or warming up for a match.  The prevailing argument being that finishing is key to winning and so the lion's share of your practice should be in the doubles ring.  Makes sense. But I think there is a big difference between having a practice session at home and having a warm up before a match.  In the case where you are warming up before a match part of the intention is to loosen up your arm and make sure your throwing mechanics do not have hitches.  In this light, it makes sense that you should be making sure that you have aimed at (roughly) all the areas of the board, or at least all of its extremities.  Hitting all the doubles then becomes less important than aiming at all the doubles.

Furthermore, if you start practicing the doubles starting with the D1 and then working your way around the board clockwise, or with the D20 and then counterclockwise, you run the risk of getting hung up on a number and only practicing a small segment of the doubles ring before you have to start playing your match.  As such, I have devised a different kind of doubles practice specifically meant to be used before a match.  You can spend as few as 7 rounds on it and get fully loosened up and having aimed at all the doubles, or you can spend a good 20 minutes making sure you've hit all the doubles as well.  Here is how it works:

The first key to the warm up is that you never aim more than one dart at a number before moving on.  One dart per double.  You might come back to a missed double in the next round, but you never throw two at the same double in a round.  I like this aspect of the warm up pattern because in a game, you only get one dart at your out, usually, unless you miss outside, and happen to be holding more darts, but you don't want to miss outside.  Most times you have that one dart.  When you are practicing doubles and you are willing to throw more than one dart at any given double regardless of where the first dart lands than something different is happening in your mind.  You have the deep seated notion that you have more chances.  In a game you do not.  Thus, one dart per double, then move on.

As you can see from the illustration above, you work your way around the board in a star pattern with the first five darts forming the sequence: 1, 16, 6, 9, 17. Once you are holding that 6th dart whether it is aimed at the 18 (thus starting the next "rotated" star) depends on a number of things: if you are simply aiming at all the doubles then you ignore the D1 and continue the pattern of the rotating star.  The next five darts would be in the sequence: 18, 8, 10, 12, 3.  However, if your intention is to successfully hit each double as well, than you would aim at the D1 if you missed it previously, continuing the star pattern based on your hits and misses.

If your intention is to simply aim at all the doubles regardless of your success in hitting them then the sequence in its entirety is simple:

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

However, if your intention is to hit all the doubles successfully, then what to aim at next can be confusing (until you understand the pattern and it makes sense to you - but trust me that takes a while).  It helps to remember that there are five sets of four wedges that form each section of the star pattern, and the heads of the family are: 1, 16, 6, 9, and 17, in that order.  If you your intention is to hit then you simply remember which segment in those families you are working on for each point of the star pattern.  The happy thing is this:  once you have 1, 16, 6, 9, and 17 cemented in your mind as the starts of the star segments, then remembering where you left off for each of those is easy and this warm up patter becomes a breeze and quite a fun one to do.

My Tiny GT Collection

Here are the few GT's I currently have.  There have been others over the years but I have traded away or sold some.

From Left to Right:

Bottelsen GT, 28 grams.  This is the first "expensive" set of darts I ever bought and they have a lot of sentimental value even if I almost never throw them anymore. I bought them brand new in 2003 (ish), and they were already threaded for the tiny 6ba stems.

Custom (Jeff Pickup) 26 gram Copper Tungsten dart modeled on the GT. I call them my "CT's". The back end takes Bottelsen's GT screw-in stems, and the point is fixed. 

Bottelsen GT, 23 grams. These darts are old enough that they do not have the threading in the stem end.  I used my repointing tool to install some Voks stems that they use on their "Javalin" line of darts.  They fit almost perfectly.  They are just barely tight enough that I needed to use the repointer to get them in there.

Bottelsen Ringed GT, 23 grams. This is a special dart.  I have only rarely seen ringed GT's.  This one is old enough that there is no threading in the back end.  I have thought about refitting them with Voks stems, but I do not want to take the chance that the tungsten would crack.

Bottelsen Superalloy GT, 17 gram. I love this dart.  A bit on the fat side, and 2ba threaded, but I could throw it all day long.  I have taken it to league nights and done well with it there too.

Voks Javalin, Steel, 17 grams.  This is one of my very few non-standard material darts.  It is made from steel (as opposed to tungsten or brass) and is quite light for the size.

Others that I have had in my collection include another custom fixed-point, nickel tungsten 25 gram GT, a 27 gram Bottelsen GT3, and a 24 gram GT that was both ringed and knurled!  Sadly I no longer have any of those :(

A Double Doubles Trick

Tonight while doing a round of doubles practice I hit two instances of a doubles trick.  The practice routine I was doing was doubles only, numeric order ascending, and one dart per double.  The first trick was D1, D2, D7, and the second trick was D14, D15, and D16.  I have been hitting the doubles more consistently since switching away from incorporating the triple 20 into practice.

The darts I was using are the 19 gram Accudart Crickets with #6 carbon Fit Flight stems and slim Fit Flight Airs.

Dead Eye!

For the second time in my life I have hit a Dead Eye.  It came during a practice session in my freezing cold garage.  I got tired of missing the Double 2 dart after dart and took a chuck at the bull and what do you know?  Three in the middle :)

The darts are my 19 gram Accudart Crickets wearing #6 carbon Fit Flight stems and slim Fit Flight Airs. 

19 gr Accudart Cricket

An absolutely sweet little dart.  This is a 19 gram version of Accudart's steel tip Cricket line.  I love these little darts.  I have been using them a lot lately and I am looking forwards to trying them out in a competitive scenario.  It feels like forever since I have played a match against anyone!  I have been experimenting with the best stem and flight combo for them as well.  In the first photo below you can see I have settled on #6 Fit Flight Carbon stems and Shape Fit Flight Airs.  I also put in some black Volute points when I am quite taking a liking to.

The knurl is quite grippy.  Some knurls are smooth and even slippy (like the Harrows Boxers) but the knurl on these darts have bite, which is nice.

I am not sure how I feel about the trend towards clamshell packaging for darts.  It seems to cheapen the product some in my opinion, but it is not only Accudart doing this.  All the dart makers are utilizing clamshelling for at least some of their product lines these days.  I have seen it with Bottelsen and with Unicorn (I think) and others.  I guess the idea is that they want to sell their stuff in big box stores where they would be hanging on hooks (thus the hook-hole at top).  I have to admit, in my early days of this hobby I spent a lot of time staring at the various Halex darts hanging in their clam shells in Fred Meyers and other places that sell low end sporting equipments.  It wasn't until I was thoroughly hooked that I started perusing the high end sets on websites.

I notice in the picture that you can see on the back of the clamshell packaging that there is a Cricket dart with a more conical nose and a different striping pattern.  I am guessing that Accudart made several darts in this line in different weights and styles.  I'd love to see them all but it is hard to find their old catalogs online anywhere and since they stopped making this dart information is simply impossible to find on it.

On the whole, this is a terrific dart, one which I will continue to throw in practice and in competition.  As they are currently dressed, they are wearing medium length Twin-Grip nylon stems and slim poly flights.  I had them dressed as such originally so that flights would match the color scheme of the darts but as I have become highly enamored of the Fit Flight system I will probably get some #6 carbon stems and some red slim Fit Flight Airs to go with them.

MDCQL #2

Last night's Metro Darts Club Qualifier match was one terrific evening out for me in terms of darts.  I won the match 5-0, taking all five sets and only dropping four legs out of the 19 total that we played.  But the goodness started early on.

I got there early.  I played a full round of doubles, and resisted very strongly throwing any warm up darts at the Triple 20.  I did the doubles in numerical order, ascending, and allowed only one dart at each double per round.  Moving on whether I hit it or not, and coming back to the misses in subsequent rounds.  I went from D1 to D20 in the space of about 20 minutes this way and ended the warm up session with a hat trick.  I was happy and I felt prepared, despite the slight butterflies I was feeling before the match (which I seem to always feel).

As I was sitting waiting for my opponent to show I was approached by the president of the other league I participate in who wanted to give me a prize I was owed for hitting a Ton-80 in B League last year.  He offered me the choice of pin or patch, and of course, being the Eagle Scout that I am, I chose the patch without hesitation.

I knew my opponent that night would be a challenge as he won his last match in straight sets, 5-0, and has been playing for quite a long time.  A good 11 years longer than I, as it turns out. He is a good person, an experienced player, and he loves darts just as I do.  I expected it to be a good match.  As it turns out I was throwing quite well, much better than I normally throw, I think, and won handily.

Here are the highlights of the evening: a 5-0 win in sets, and 15-4 in legs. A Ton-80 (my 52nd lifetime), a total of 15 points remaining in my 4 losses (no blow outs), I had the high turn (180), high out (70), and high PPR (75.2).  Also, I hit 2,851 in tonnage (3,231 if you count 95's, which I usually don't).  Lastly, and I am not sure if the league counts this or not, I hit a 140-on which is probably the highest for the qualifier league, but I do not know if I'll get a patch for that (I fucking better, hahaha).

As for my four losses last night, they were all pretty similar.  In each I had a low number remaining when my opponent took out his double (2, 4, 5, 4) and so it is safe to say that my losses were all due to an inability to finish.  On the whole, though, my finishing last night was quality.

I am very happy with last night's match.

I only brought a single set of darts with me on the theory that having another set of darts to fall back on allows me to ignore bad form.  If I think: "that was a bad visit, I'll switch to my other darts next turn" then I am not addressing a failure in mechanics that is what is almost certainly what caused the bad visit in the first place.  I think I am going to keep this practice up.  The darts I chose for last night's match were the 22 gram One80 Revenges, dressed in #4 carbon Fit Flight stems and standard Fit Flights.

52nd Maximum

My 52nd lifetime Ton-80 came in competition last night during my second Metro Darts Club Qualifier League match:

Of course, for transparency's sake I must admit that that photo is a "dramatic recreation" of the actual maximum as I forgot to take a picture of the actual one during the match.  But I do believe I captured the entry angles and spacing accurately enough :)

The darts I was using were my 22 gram One80 Revenges wearing #4 carbon Fit Flight stems and and standard Fit Flights.  This is quite a good combo, me thinks.

MDCQL #1

Last night was my first match in the Metro Darts Club Qualifier League.  Where to begin?

First I must say that I like it a lot better than Team League in a few ways and less than Team League in a few ways too.  In fact I think it felt a lot more like an A League match than anything as it was just me against one other guy and the competition was strong.  In fact, what I like most about it is the fact that I am the source of my own victories and losses, and I do not have a partner or a team garnering any for me. One on one. The evening is more focused, and we never have to wait for a board during the match so the evening goes a lot faster.  We started at 6:38 and ended at 8:58 making it a 2 hours and 20 minutes match.

Whats missing though is the team camaraderie.  You feel a little bit alone.

Last night was a loss.  I played against Keith, who as it turns out, is a great shot, and one of the better Cricket players in B League.  I don't recall him ever beating me in regular league but he did last night, just barely.  Even though I lost the match 3-2, I feel I threw some great darts last night, and in a few ways I actually out-performed my opponent.  Alas, his finishing was slightly, slightly, better earning him the match win.

Highlights: I had the high out (68), the High PPR (68.3), the higher match PPR (53.5), and I even out scored him in raw points (9,921 - 9,764).  I scored 2,213 Glory points (but no maximums) to his 2,226.

At the highest level it was a match loss for me at 2-3.  At the game level it was also a loss at 10-11. When you look at it that way, and you look at how many games were close in score, and look at how closely we matched each other in other categories, it would seem that Keith and I were quite evenly matched.  Based on our B League standings, tho, I think Keith was playing above his normal game while I was playing at, or slightly below my normal game.

It might be a bit tedious to go through and analyze each of the 21 games we played, but at least here is an analysis of why I lost the games I lost:

The first set I won 3-0.

The second set I lost 1-3. The first loss was due to missing the D12 when I had my shot at it. I hit the D9 leaving 6 and missed that with my last dart.  I never had another chance. The second game he was 200 points ahead of me early on but when I caught up I missed a shot at 60-out leaving 14 but did not have another shot at it. In the third loss of the second set I had 40 left when he still had 133 but I missed inside twice leaving 10, then missed it with all three darts, then cut it down to 4. While my finishing was suffering in this manner he caught up and won.

I won the third set 3-2. The first loss was a good game for both of us.  I averaged 63 and he averaged 62.6. My only shot at the out was a 125 but I could only whittle it down to 60 before he won. In the second loss I missed a 76 out to leave 40, then whittled that down to 32 before he won.

The fourth set I lost 2-3.  The first two losses I never made it to an out.  I still had 206 left in the first loss, then in the second I hit a ton to reduce my score to 124 before he won. In neither game did I ever through at the double ring. The third loss was a case of suffering finishing.  I had 46, hit the fat 6 to leave 40 and missed high with the last two darts, then somehow, and I don't even remember how, I score 17 to leave 23 and then he won next visit.

The fifth set I lost 1-3.  I must have been flagging a bit.  In the first game I had 82 left and I score 37.  I am pretty sure I aimed at the 50 and missed wide but I don't remember where. Then, I hit the fat 5 to leave 40 and proceeded to miss high with the next 5 darts before Keith won.  The second game was more of the same. We both started strong.  He hit the back to back to back tons and I hit two tons, but then, with 50 left (again I am certain I aimed at the 50 for the glory win) I score 34 to leave 16 and missed the 16 outside for 9 darts in a row.  My finishing absolutely suffered. The third loss, and my final loss of the evening was also a good showing for both of us.  I averaged 60.9 and he averaged 65.3; I hit two tons, he hit a 135, and a 140.  In the end though, I never had a shot at the double ring. I was able to reduce 175 to 75 with my last ton and he took it out next visit.

I will say this for my opponent: he did not allow my finishing to suffer.  I had very few shots at the double ring on the games I lost.  His finishing was usually pretty spot on.  However, looking at my losses, I will say that 7 of the 10 were losses because I could not finish.  I kept up in tonnage, mostly, but not with finishing.

My go to darts last night were these two sets:

My 19 gram Nobu's wearing size 6 carbon Fit Flight stems and slim Fit Flight Air flights.  This was a nice set up and the darts flew pretty well for me last night.  The other set was 24 gram Designa Dark Thunder wearing medium length standard Condor onesies.  Next week I am thinking of trying a single match set with a more outlandish correction set.  Maybe the Jenkins wearing the same stem and flight combo that the Nobu's were wearing tonight, and a fat Nickel-Silver set?

We'll see :)

Map Pin Tracking System

Traffic in Seattle has always been bad.  It has gotten a lot worse over the decades, but I do not remember a time that it was not very bad here.  The east side of the metro area (Bellevue) is separated from the west side of the metro area (Seattle) by a giant lake called Lake Washington with only two ways across it: the 520 floating bridge, and the I-90 floating bridge.  Traffic on them is still bad but a good ten years ago, before various improvements were made to them, traffic across these two bridges was absolutely atrocious, with I-90 being only slightly better of the two.  The funniest PNW-specific bumper sticker I have ever seen said:

"I-90 Is for Pussies"

Of course I saw it on a car on the 520 floating bridge. Funny not only because I-90 was nearly as bad as 520, but also because what a thing to stake your pride to!  Your pride in taking the worse of the two bridges is so strong that you bear a bumper sticker emasculating those that take the easier bridge???

Anyway.  That's kind of how I feel about number rings on dartboards.  Learn your numbers people.

But that isn't what this post is about.  I have a fairly complex map pinning system that I use on my dartboard and on the surround around it to help track where I am with my favorite practice routine: Modified Rotational Doubles.  From afar you can only barely make out the various pins:

First the reason most of the pins are on the surround is because they make up my system for reminding me what the various colored pins mean, and never have to be moved.  Since I rotate my board frequently, if I had most of the static pins in the board itself I'd have to move them every time I rotated the board.  Incidentally, this is also why I ditched my number ring years (and years) ago.  I have known the numbers so long that I have ceased to actually need the ring, and moving it every time I rotated the board became tedious.  Also, the logos are a distraction.  When I get into the dartboard business, I will create a quality bladed board that has no branding on the front of the board, and any branding I do will be on the backside, or the round edge of the board.

Anyway, this system I have is designed such that I can walk away from a practice session at any point and come back later, even weeks later, and know exactly where I left off.  The different colored pins map out the process of working through a 5-Circuit Modified Rotational Doubles.  I have no idea how long it would take to do the full five circuits because this is a practice routine that I do in bits and pieces.  It can stretch on for weeks.

This system has two sets of pins: pins that are on the dartboard itself, and pins that are on the surround.  The pins on the dartboard move from throw to throw (potentially), while those on the surround are static (never move).  The Map Pin System (MPS) is also color coded:

1. Green: used to track Circuit 1: progression through the doubles, clockwise, starting with 1
2. Red: used to track Circuit 2: progression through the doubles, counterclockwise, starting with 20
3. Yellow: used to track Circuit 3: progression through the doubles numerically ascending, starting with 1
4. Blue: used to track Circuit 4: progression through the doubles numerically descending, starting with 20
5. White: used to track Circuit 5: progression through doubles in order of potency (detailed below)
6. Pink: used to track whether my first dart is aimed at the bull or the triple 20.
7. Orange: used to mark three random doubles (not a part of rotational doubles)
8. Purple: used to mark three random triples (not a part of rotational doubles)

The static pins placed in the surround serve as reminders for the sequence.  Not just the sequence of doubles within the various circuits, but the sequence of the circuits themselves.  At the very top of the surround I have one pin of each of these five colors: green, red, yellow, blue, white. These five pins tell me the order I go through the various circuits of doubles.  Once I am done with the Green Circuit (going around the board clockwise) then I progress to the Red Circuit (going around the board counterclockwise). 

Then, perhaps more importantly, I have three of each of the five colors positioned outside various doubles, and these are always the first three doubles of the circuit.  So for example:

• Green: 1, 18, 4
• Red: 20, 5, 12
• Yellow: 1, 2, 3
• Blue: 20, 19, 18
• White: 16, 8, 4

Knowing the first three numbers in any given sequence is enough to tell me what the entire sequence is.  1, 18, 4, ... logically means I progress around the board clockwise, for example.  The only color which is non-obvious based on the first three is the White Circuit.  It is obvious to me because I know that sequence backwards and forwards, after all, I have been throwing that sequence for years in doubles practice. But it at least tells me that it is the potency sequence, even if the sequence of the doubles within it must come from my memory (or this blog, haha).

The pins in the dartboard itself all move from turn to turn or from circuit to circuit.  The pink pin, for example, is only moved between circuits because MRD calls for aiming the first dart at either the bull or the treble 20 for the entirety of the circuit.  The pink pin is placed under the 'B' (in Bandit) if I am aiming for the Bull that circuit, or it is placed under the 'T' (in The) if I am aiming for the triple 20 during that circuit.  So while it does not move frequently, it does move. 

The cluster of pins behind the DMI logo are all the pins that are waiting for their turn.  The only pin going from double to double around the board during the MRD practice session is one of the five circuit colors (red, green, yellow, blue, or white), and it gets placed by the double which I am aiming at that turn.  If I hit it, I move the pin to the next double in the sequence.  The exception is the three orange pins and the three purple pins which I use during a completely different doubles (or triples) practice routine.  With them, essentially I use 20-sided dice to determine three random numbers and the pins either go in the doubles (the orange pins) or the triples (the purple pins) of those numbers.

So there you have it.

A Happy Ending for an Unhappy Dart

Back in the early days of my darting life, in the early aught's, as they are called, there were fewer online options for darts, fewer companies selling them (I think) and darts were a hell of a lot less, well, blingy.  But even in those days there were the highly regarded "expensive" darts that everyone more or less fantasized about having.  For us, those were the Bottelsen GT Hammerhead, the Laserdarts Black Widows, and the Laserdarts Black Eagles.  All were in the neighborhood of about $150 at the time, if I recall correctly.

Years passed, and then one night a teammate shows up to league sporting a set of Black Eagles.  I was impressed and envious at the same time.  After the match was over he let me throw them some and wouldn't you know it, I couldn't miss.  I didn't hit a Ton-80 or anything, but I do know I hit mostly anything I aimed at.  In fact, my memory may be a bit hazy on this but I am about 80% certain that my very first dart was aimed at, and hit, the inner bull.

I bought a set the very next day.

Years more passed.  The Black Eagles served me well for quite a long time but eventually my finicky dart preferences moved on to other sets in my collection and the Eagles got shelved. But then more or less on a whim, in October 2019, I break them out again and take them to Monday Night league where two things happen:  I hit a Ton-80 with them, and then later in the evening, one bounces out, hits the floor, and the stem snaps off right at the barrel, leaving the threaded portion inside and nothing to grip to turn it out.

This is not an uncommon occurrence.  Stem breakage is a fact of life for the darts aficionado, and we all (most of us anyway) carry a tiny tool called a stem extractor to remove those pesky broken stems from threaded darts, like this one:

I've never had it not work before when needed, so I was surprised this time when it couldn't even gain purchase in the broken stem.  It was like trying to dig into hard glass or something.  So I reverted to a few other ideas that I have known about but never really had to use.  My next attempt at extracting the stem was to superheat a tiny screwdriver and insert it into the stem, let it cool and then unscrew the stem like any regular screw.

No love.  All I accomplished with that tiny screwdriver was to chew up the middle of the stuck stem.  The stem itself refused to budge.  So my next move was to  go online for advice, and the good folks over at Dartsnutz.net had plenty of suggestions, including this:

The L-Style Bull Extractor.  I bought one and tried it, but while I do not doubt that it is a fine stem extractor (after all, it is highly lauded), it did not work in my case.  In fact, it basically hollowed out the stem as you can see in the photo above, and that left me with a quandary.  So then I thought, "okay, what I need is a screwdriver that is the exact width, minus maybe a hair, of the inside of the dart's stem hole.  I did my best to measure it and it seemed to be about 4 mm.  I sought out my computer repair screwdriver kit and found a 3.5 mm and 4 mm.  The 4 mm was too tight a fit so I super-heated the 3.5 mm wide one, rammed it into the broken stem, let it cool and gave it a turn.  But again, no spinning, just more disintegration.

In the end I decided to drill it out with a 5/16th bit:

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The bit seemed to fit in there almost perfectly, but I eased the drilling as much as I could be cause I was very worried about permanently ruining the threads of the dart.  After all, the darts are not just expensive, but at this point carry sentimental value for me as well.  It seemed to work though, and got out all of the material except for the plastic that was still in between the threads.

So I went online and bought a 2BA Taper Tap, and a Tap Wrench:

This set up is what I used to clean out the remaining plastic material. I honestly do not know why I have never bought one of these before, given my love of darts as a hobby.  You'd think I would have by now but I guess I never really needed one before this incident.

Worked like a charm:

The happy ending is of course that the Black Eagles came with me to Wednesday night league for the last match of the season and I won all but one of my games; scored a Hat Trick to win a Cricket game in spectacular fashion; and in general performed well.

The other happy ending here has to do with Cosmo, the maker of the stem that was broken off inside my dart.  Cosmo makes the Fit Flight line of stems and flights which I happen to be a big fan of. The fact that it was a Fit Flight stem broken off inside the barrel is immaterial (see what I did there?) because really any stem can snap off the way this one did.  The stem I was using may have been a tad more fragile for various reasons, but it is certainly not Cosmo's fault.  After all the stem was purchased at least 4 or 5 years ago so that could contribute. But also it was a mostly transparent stem, or at least translucent.  The reason this is relevant is because of the material needed to make a transparent stem.  A rep from Cosmo Europe hopped on the thread where this was being discussed and offered some insight into the change in materials (normal nylon cannot be made transparent).

Then, in an act of terrific generosity, sent me a replacement set of stems!  But not just any stems.  He sent me their new titanium stems which retail for about $85.  And this was despite my acknowledgment on the forum that Cosmo was in no way at fault for the random stem break!

I am very happy with Cosmo darts, and especially the rep from Europe who not only participates on dart forums but also engages in a friendly and generous manner with customers.

So there you go.

A Happy Ending to League

Last night was the last match of Fall 2019 B League (at least for me - my team might play a make up match next week and I will not be on hand for it).  It was a great night form start to finish: I had a quality warm up game against a teammate with a 92 finish, I won most of my games in the match, even if I didn't have a single drop of tonnage, and after the match I proved the adage 'there's no music in a piano'.  I had a wonderful evening and it was a nice way to end my B League experience.  My team lost last night, but only barely, and it would have been our first and only match win had we won even one more game last night.  But alas.  I have been back in league for two full seasons now and my team has finished dead last both seasons, with only a single match win between them.  That's okay.  My goal was to have fun and raise my own game a little bit and I think I may have done both of those!

Here is how the night went:  When I arrived the only other player there was an opponent named Jeff, with whom I have shared a few non-standard games in the past, and I was hoping he'd be down for a game of Shove Ha'Penny or Golf or something but he just wanted to warm up.  Then my teammate Cory arrived and we played a couple of warm up games.  The first was a 21 darter for me in which all of my scores were at least 60, and which had a 92 finish (that you can see below) in the style of S20, T12, D18.  My first dart aimed at the double was a hit and that was happily more portentous than our next warm up game.  The next game we played I went 125, 100, 85, 43, ... and it went down from there.  We both ended up at double 1 and spent too many darts at it to count, and we ended up aborting the game because everyone else had arrived and needed to warm up.  Happily, that turned out to be the only instance of my finish truly suffering this evening.

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Then the match started. I captained for the team last night since our normal captain was traveling. I played two singles games and won them both, and five doubles games and won four of them. The team game was also a win, making the evening one of my best in terms of personal win loss ratios, even if I was severely lacking in tonnage.

My first singles game was a 401 against their captain Ori, and I won, but only because I missed my out one fewer times than Ori.  It was middling scores all the way down. Once I was at 80, I went 20, 20, then missed the double 20 into the double 5 leaving 30.  Then I missed outside with all three darts next round, but hit the double 15 with my first dart next round.  I had four missed shots at a double but I do not think my finishing suffered, and while it was a B League caliber game, it was a happy win.

My second singles was a Cricket game against Bill, whom I will be seeing in Metro League soon.  I won the game handily.  I had a 2.5 average, no dead rounds, and I hit the bulls when I needed to, finishing them off in 2 rounds with an inner and an outer in the last two rounds of the game.

My first doubles was a 501 with Cory. Not a great game on my part. I ended up with 69 and left my partner with 32, which he halved next round. Then I missed the double 8 three times outside next round and then he took it out first dart his next visit.  Three misses is not suffering exactly, but who knows how that would have gone had he not hit it.  My next doubles was another 501 with Chris and this was my only loss for the night. I threw low scores all game until I hit a 94 to leave my opponent 44. He whittled that down to 20, which I missed outside with three darts.  Then he whittled it down more to 4, which I then missed outside with all darts.  Then we lost.  However, I will say my shots at those outs were close with every dart.  It did not feel like suffering at the time but by the numbers I have to admit it was.  My last doubles 501 was with Julia.  No tonnage, but the finish was nice.  I was left with 90. I missed the triple 20 into the single with my first and second darts, leaving 50, and then missed the inner bull game shot by several inches into the 17, leaving 33.  Next visit she whittled that down to 14, and I hit the double 7 with my first dart my next time up.  That was a nice little win for us.

Doubles Cricket went swimmingly.  My first was with Cory.  Not a single dead round between us, I hit one 5 mark round, and Cory went bull, double bull for the win in the last round.  Good stuff.  My last Doubles Cricket was with Chris and it was a thing of beauty. No dead rounds for either of us, and in my last visit I hit a Hat trick for the win.  It felt wonderful.  So wonderful, in fact, that I took a pic (below).  Happily, that wouldn't even be my best Hat Trick of the evening.

The team game was uneventful for me.  No tonnage, and when left with a 20 I could only whittle it down to 4, which Cory took out during his next visit.  However, that win in the team game was enough to allow us to lose the match by only one game.  We had already lost though, as we went into that game 9 to 11.  The final score sheet:

After the match a dude name Nate showed up and wanted to play a game so I obliged him.  We played no-slop, no-points cricket, 20-down.  I won that handily but throughout the game he was asking me a lot of questions like how to stand, the difference between darts, etc.  I explained to him that the dart itself makes absolutely no difference whatsoever.  He was throwing very, very cheap brass bar darts and I was throwing the 24 gram Laserdarts Black Eagles that I'd been leaning on all night.  $3 darts against $125 darts (which were wearing Fit Flights, adding to their value). But to emphasize my point about there being 'no music in a piano,' I swapped darts with him and said "Watch."  I then promptly threw another Hat trick (seen below) with the $3 bar darts.  He was impressed, and my point was not just made, but proven: the darts themselves don't matter.

It was a great way to end the season.  A wonderful night all around!

Steel Arrow

Just happened across this lovely blog with a lovely name:

There seems to be a lot of great content!!

51st Ton-80

I have thrown these darts quite a bit in the last month or so, including more than one instance in which they were the only darts I took with me to league.  Finally hitting a maximum with them after shying away from them a bit is a nice way to move past them a bit.

They are my 22 gram One80 Revenges, wearing tweenie Fit Flight stems and standard Fit Flights.

23 gram Elkadart Steve Beatons

Originally I thought these darts were Voks due to the spring loaded point. As it happens, tho, they probably are not.  One person at Dartsnutz.net believes they are Steve Beatons and this was seconded by someone who was selling a set on ebay and listed them as 

"MEGA RARE 23 GRAM ELKADART STEVE BEATON SPRING LOADED TUNGSTEN DARTS".

I don't know for sure but I am willing to go with that.  Of course, if something is listed as "mega rare" on ebay, that means it most certainly is not.  Still, other than my set, this is the only set of them I have ever seen.

As they are currently configured, they are wearing their original spring loaded steel tip point and medium length, standard condor stem-flights.

D1, D1, D1

A nice little Doubles Trick that occurred in last nights practice session:

You can see from the red pin above the double 1 that only the first and second darts were supposed to be aimed at it.  A red pin signifies that it was the last double in the counterclockwise doubles circuit.  After red, comes the yellow pin which means that I then work through the doubles in numerical order, ascending, which means that the second dart should also be aimed at the double 1.  Since I also hit that, on a lark I threw the third dart at it as well, hitting again, for a nice little Doubles Trick.

These came off the 22 gram Smart Darts, wearing tweenie pear Condors.  Between this and the recent maximum I hit with them, I am increasingly liking these darts!

Tyrion, FTW

Last night we visited the Incredibulls at the Old Peculiar, and they did not fall short of their name.  They brought their A Game and won the match 16-5.  Two of those wins were very satisfying wins for me, but I must say, I felt like I was mostly throwing rubbish during the night.  The Incredibulls are a swell team full of nice people and I like them immensely.

Here is how the night went: I played two singles games and won one, I played four doubles games and won one, and we lost the team game.

My first singles game was a 401 against Tre.  It was an unremarkable, B-Leaguey kinda game, and I whittled my score down to zero with low numbers until I took out 39 for the win.  The one thing I am happy about with this game is that I hit the double 16 with my second dart at it.

My single Cricket match was against Tom, who is a swell darter.  We were both throwing well, but I could not overcome his dominant performance.  He opened with three 20's and I responded with three 19's.  Then he tripled in the 19's and score 40 points on me.  I chased him the rest of the game. I had one dead round and one 5 mark round but the rest was only average play.  In the end I hit the bulls when I needed to (with a single and a double in two rounds), but then so dis he.  He won 212 to 160, but had he not also been hot on bulls that would have been a nice win for me for sure. 

My first doubles match was a 501 with Julia and we lost.  This was not a bad effort at all. I had back to back tons within it, and then when left 80 by my partner I went 20, 20, and then missed the double 20 inside to leave 20, but my partner never had a shot at it as they took out their own 20 to win in the next turn. My other doubles 501 was with Chris, also a loss.  The game consisted of middling scores, and I had one shot at a 72 out but could only reduce it to 20 before the other team won.

My first doubles Cricket was with Cory and it was a highly satisfying win. It was a point war between their 20's and our 18's.  I never had a dead round in the match and I also only had one round in which I hit fewer than 2 marks.  Several triples and 4 mark rounds and in the end I did not miss the bulls.  My last dart was a double bull for the win and the final score was 428 to 340.

My last doubles Cricket was with Dani, and it was a loss. I hit mostly one and two marks and only had one dead round.  However, again, I was on target with the bulls, but it was not enough to win. They wrapped it up quickly and won 18 to 0.  The team game was rubbish.  I hit 21, 41, 21, 41 and then had a shot at the 34 for the win but missed outside with the first two darts and then wired it on the inside with the last, cutting it in half for my teammates. I never had another throw during that game.  Frustratingly, after the match I hit a spate of tons and ton-40's.  WTF?

The darts I used were the 22 gram One80 Revenges, which I have been favoring lately.  I am thinking about switching it up for next week.  Several times during the night I found myself wishing I'd brought more than one set of darts because sometimes your throw gets hinky and you want a couple of correction rounds.  Next week I'll bring more.  Maybe the Dark Thunder's and the Superalloy GT's. We'll see :)  Also, as you can see, the Revenges are sporting the new titanium spinners that Cosmo Darts sent me gratis recently.  They spin nicely and they are attractive to boot.

Also last night one of the opponents brought their dog, Tyrion, and he hung out on a nearby bench during the match.  A sweet, docile little fella.  He provided a much needed dog fix throughout the night as I lost my sweet girl over seven months ago.  Frequently between games (or even throws) I would sit on the bench next to him and pet him.  I wish I'd gotten a better pic!

Anyway.  My performance was lackluster last night (if I am being generous) but Tyrion and the good company of mine and the other team made it a good night.