We had a bye this week so no American Baseball dart reports. I will also be out on vacation next week so the guys will be getting a sub for me.
The rest of the team went to the Maryland Open last weekend while I was busy helping throw a halloween party for my son. I noticed some results posted. My team mates did well! John Daddio finished second and Dave Hascup took top 8 in the Friday 501 doubles LOD. John and Dave later teamed up for a top 8 finish in doubles cricket. Tom Waterman and his son Evan finished top 8 in the open doubles 501 and the mixed trips. Tom had a second place finish to Darin Young in singles cricket. Darin must be eating his Wheaties, as he won both singles and doubles events. Good job guys!
For New Jersey area cricket lovers I recently got an e-mail from Bob Race that the ADO Cricket Regionals will be held Friday, 11/27/2009, 10 AM sign-up, 11 AM start at the site of the Long Island Fall Classic:
Holiday Inn Airport
Islip/MacArthur
3845 Veteran's Memorial Highway
Ronkonkoma, NY
The cricket qualifier is only open to ADO members and will send qualifiers to the ADO Cricket Nationals next year.
Of course, the $10,000.00 Long Island Fall Classic follows, which is an open steel-tip tournament and great opportunity for New Jersey area darters to test skills against top American shooters. Laurett and Buddy always throw a great tournament, and I hope to see you there!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Limping Over the Finish Line With A 4-3 Win
Here is a picture with my cell phone of the outside of Kelly's Tavern, the home of our in-house American Baseball dart league.
This past Monday we only managed a 4-3 win. It was one of those nights where we started off OK but flagged off while the other team got hot. Under the handicap we gave up 37 marks per game, so we knew we had to hit something. Our opponents were Joe, Al, John and Brian.
The first game everything seemed to go reasonably well, although I was struggling to hit any good innings. John and I ended up with low scores, but Dave and Tom picked us up with some high scores and we surpassed the handicap by a 12 point margin. This carried over into the second match but we started falling off near the end. The game was close and we went into the ninth inning needing 11 marks with only Dave and Tom left to throw. It was one of those high tension moments and Dave hit a huge 8 mark turn to leave Tom with an easy three marks for the win, which he hit easily. Close call, and that gave us 4 points and secured the win for the night.
That is where it went downhill! Joe, Al, John and Brian caught fire, hitting some huge opening innings that matched our scores. We were able to make no headway against the 37 mark handicap until the middle innings, and by then it was too late to catch them. They took the final game by a large enough margin to earn the extra match point for having the largest overall cummulative margin of victory, which I learned is called "covering the wood." Ironically, the final game was my best at 30 marks, but that was still lower than my efforts last week.
Tom, Dave and I had some fine pick up matches afterwards where I was hitting better. Tom hit a sweet 50 mark game after starting off with a 9 mark in the first inning.
The reports of good bar food at Kelly's were well founded. I had a nice hamburger for dinner and the other dishes I saw looked delicious. We have a bye next week, and I am on vacation the following week, so I will post on some other dart-related topics.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Kelly's Dart League Week 1: 5-2 Win!
My first season of American Baseball Darts started tonight at Kelly's Corner Tavern in Neptune, New Jersey. The core of our old Corner Bar Dart team from the Elizabeth Dart League came back together, including Tom, Dave, John and myself. My old readers will know that I have played a lot of steel darts, but never competed in American Baseball darts. I was looking forward to playing, and tonight we managed a 5-2 win over Lou, Paul, Chris and Bob in our opener.
Kelly's Corner Tavern was new to me, but Margaret told me it has long been known as a good place to stop for a hearty late night or early morning meal along with something to wash it down with. The location in Neptune near the Jersey Shore adds to its popularity. The dart area is in the downstairs bar where five American Baseball dart boards are set up. The boards are well lit and the room has a large center area for the darters to gather. As you would suspect with the name, it is an Irish bar, and the decor reflects that. The bar served us hot wings and meatballs. Reasonably priced beer kept the crowd happy.
I gave the guys a scare by barely showing up in time, having made a wrong turn on the way there. With a short warm up I jumped into the first game.
Most of my readers are steel tip players, so a brief explanation of American Baseball darts is in order. The players from each team take three darts at all "innings" (or segments of the dart board) between the numbers one and nine. The cumulative number of marks scored is added, and the team with the highest number of marks wins that match.
This league employs a handicap system known as an eighty percent handicap. Each player's average number of marks is reported, and added to make a team total. The team with the lower total starts with eighty percent of the difference in marks. This makes the games competitive, while giving some reward for skill. In our match tonight, we had the higher total so our opponents started each match with twenty-three marks.
I was surprised at how much of a team game this is. The league format is to have three team matches of four vs. four. With no individual games, there is much more incentive to cheer for your team mates, which happened a lot. Two points are awarded for each match won. The final point goes to the team with the highest total number of marks on the night, including the handicap. A total of seven points are at stake each week.
We started the first match slow, but made up the handicap by the final inning. A bad round on nines cost us the first match by about two points (148-146 marks), and we were down 2-0 points. We rebounded with some huge innings in the second match, particularly on 3's and 4's, to score a big win (155-127 marks). In the third match we started out slowly again, but strong innings on 6, 7, and 8's gave us the win (151-142 marks), along with the extra point for highest number of marks. We finished with a 5-2 points win on the night.
I have some general observations on how this game differs from steel tip darts. The darts are very light, perhaps under five grams. Also, their shape (see above) makes it difficult to get tight groups. Darts must be placed around each other, because deflections are severe. The conventional wisdom seemed to be shooting for the doubles, because errors on either side still could net singles or triples. The light dart and different board will take getting used to. Everyone uses the same set of darts for the whole match. The player up to shoot next scores the preceding player, retrieves the darts, and then shoots. Hand signals are used to indicate the number of marks scored.
Man of the match tonight was Dave, whose stats for one match added up to a respectful 50 marks (about five and a half marks per turn). My best was 35 marks, which is about 4 marks per turn, and considered okay for a new player. Louie from the other team had a nice 36 mark game. John managed a 38, and Tom hit a 42. It was a night for the first week jitters and I was compelled to donate a quarter for the unfortunate distinction of blanking a round. I was comforted by the occasional clink of a quarter on some other tables, though they may have just been leaving tips.
Next week I will try and bring a camera so you can see some American Baseball Darts action. Until then good darts!
Kelly's Corner Tavern was new to me, but Margaret told me it has long been known as a good place to stop for a hearty late night or early morning meal along with something to wash it down with. The location in Neptune near the Jersey Shore adds to its popularity. The dart area is in the downstairs bar where five American Baseball dart boards are set up. The boards are well lit and the room has a large center area for the darters to gather. As you would suspect with the name, it is an Irish bar, and the decor reflects that. The bar served us hot wings and meatballs. Reasonably priced beer kept the crowd happy.
I gave the guys a scare by barely showing up in time, having made a wrong turn on the way there. With a short warm up I jumped into the first game.
Most of my readers are steel tip players, so a brief explanation of American Baseball darts is in order. The players from each team take three darts at all "innings" (or segments of the dart board) between the numbers one and nine. The cumulative number of marks scored is added, and the team with the highest number of marks wins that match.
This league employs a handicap system known as an eighty percent handicap. Each player's average number of marks is reported, and added to make a team total. The team with the lower total starts with eighty percent of the difference in marks. This makes the games competitive, while giving some reward for skill. In our match tonight, we had the higher total so our opponents started each match with twenty-three marks.
I was surprised at how much of a team game this is. The league format is to have three team matches of four vs. four. With no individual games, there is much more incentive to cheer for your team mates, which happened a lot. Two points are awarded for each match won. The final point goes to the team with the highest total number of marks on the night, including the handicap. A total of seven points are at stake each week.
We started the first match slow, but made up the handicap by the final inning. A bad round on nines cost us the first match by about two points (148-146 marks), and we were down 2-0 points. We rebounded with some huge innings in the second match, particularly on 3's and 4's, to score a big win (155-127 marks). In the third match we started out slowly again, but strong innings on 6, 7, and 8's gave us the win (151-142 marks), along with the extra point for highest number of marks. We finished with a 5-2 points win on the night.
I have some general observations on how this game differs from steel tip darts. The darts are very light, perhaps under five grams. Also, their shape (see above) makes it difficult to get tight groups. Darts must be placed around each other, because deflections are severe. The conventional wisdom seemed to be shooting for the doubles, because errors on either side still could net singles or triples. The light dart and different board will take getting used to. Everyone uses the same set of darts for the whole match. The player up to shoot next scores the preceding player, retrieves the darts, and then shoots. Hand signals are used to indicate the number of marks scored.
Man of the match tonight was Dave, whose stats for one match added up to a respectful 50 marks (about five and a half marks per turn). My best was 35 marks, which is about 4 marks per turn, and considered okay for a new player. Louie from the other team had a nice 36 mark game. John managed a 38, and Tom hit a 42. It was a night for the first week jitters and I was compelled to donate a quarter for the unfortunate distinction of blanking a round. I was comforted by the occasional clink of a quarter on some other tables, though they may have just been leaving tips.
Next week I will try and bring a camera so you can see some American Baseball Darts action. Until then good darts!
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
New Jersey Darts Is Back, American Style!
After taking some time off I am back and excited to be playing my first season of American Baseball League Darts! Did you miss me? :)
I am teaming up with some old Corner Bar team mates (John, Dave, and Tom) for some good fun on Monday nights. I have months of catching up to do with these guys, so the stories should be especially good next week.
The venue will be Kelly's Corner Tavern in Neptune City, NJ. I am a beginner at American baseball darts, so it will be interesting to see how I adapt. For any of you foreigners who are scratching your heads, thinking, what in the world is a bloody American baseball dart, here are some pictures:
I am teaming up with some old Corner Bar team mates (John, Dave, and Tom) for some good fun on Monday nights. I have months of catching up to do with these guys, so the stories should be especially good next week.
The venue will be Kelly's Corner Tavern in Neptune City, NJ. I am a beginner at American baseball darts, so it will be interesting to see how I adapt. For any of you foreigners who are scratching your heads, thinking, what in the world is a bloody American baseball dart, here are some pictures:
Just to be different, us crazy Americans have our own wooden board too.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
A Study In Accuracy: The Slingshot Man
I was checking out funny videos on You Tube when I came accross a video on "The Slingshot Man." His real name is Rufus Hussey. He is a sixty-five year old man who appears to be the Phil Taylor of slingshooting. He lives out in the country near Asheboro, NC. In the video he displays remarkable feats of accuracy, including throwing up a walnut and then a quarter, and hitting each with his slingshot. Then he picks bugs off of his plants with his amazing slingshot skills. Check out the video on You Tube. It would be interesting to see what he could do with darts. While the skills are different, I find that people who are accurate with a gun or bow tend to be quick studies in darts.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Catching Up On News
No, the blog has not gone to the dogs! Many events have conspired to keep me from posting lately, such as my new responsibilities as a dog owner. Here is a picture of the new member of the family, a Bassett Hound named Rainbow. The story of how he got the name is funny.
We picked him out at the Tri-State Bassett Hound Rescue. They were calling him Rambo, but my son thought he heard "Rainbow." Unfortunately there was no convincing him that Rambo was a more manly sounding name, and I suppose you have to pick your battles. So Rainbow it is. He's a good dog, quite content to curl up on the floor and watch me practice. The picture shows him in training for the upcoming 2009 New Jersey Boardwaddle, in which hundreds of Bassets will cruise the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ together on April 17-18, 2009. If you're there be careful not to trip over all the big ears.
Back to darts. I was a bit bummed out that I had to miss the charity dart event in Philly because of a change of family plans. However, I am glad to see it was another huge success. Keith McCarthy reported on PhillyDarts website that 148 dart players showed up and raised $12,000.00 for charity...Great job Philly!
So how has my practice been going? I have been sneaking in some time on the board and had a very positive development recently. I found an old set of darts that I probably have not used in about eight years. They are fatter and heavier than the set I was using, with a fairly smooth barrel. I couldn't even tell you what brand they were. Just for laughs I picked them up and good things started to happen. My groups consistently tightened, and I felt like I had a lot more control over the dart.
I have a theory about why I am more comfortable with the old darts. I have big hands. To grip a thinner or smaller dart I have to close my hand tighter, creating a more crampy feeling that probably hinders my grip and release. I remember at an expo John Lowe talked about how he sometimes missed his big old darts because they had a better feel and he could control them more easily. We'll see if the old darts keep working for me.
I am taking off all next week so I will have no excuses not to post. I will be catching up on news and passing it along. Who knows, I might even sneak out to a LOD or two. Until then, good darts!
We picked him out at the Tri-State Bassett Hound Rescue. They were calling him Rambo, but my son thought he heard "Rainbow." Unfortunately there was no convincing him that Rambo was a more manly sounding name, and I suppose you have to pick your battles. So Rainbow it is. He's a good dog, quite content to curl up on the floor and watch me practice. The picture shows him in training for the upcoming 2009 New Jersey Boardwaddle, in which hundreds of Bassets will cruise the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ together on April 17-18, 2009. If you're there be careful not to trip over all the big ears.
Back to darts. I was a bit bummed out that I had to miss the charity dart event in Philly because of a change of family plans. However, I am glad to see it was another huge success. Keith McCarthy reported on PhillyDarts website that 148 dart players showed up and raised $12,000.00 for charity...Great job Philly!
So how has my practice been going? I have been sneaking in some time on the board and had a very positive development recently. I found an old set of darts that I probably have not used in about eight years. They are fatter and heavier than the set I was using, with a fairly smooth barrel. I couldn't even tell you what brand they were. Just for laughs I picked them up and good things started to happen. My groups consistently tightened, and I felt like I had a lot more control over the dart.
I have a theory about why I am more comfortable with the old darts. I have big hands. To grip a thinner or smaller dart I have to close my hand tighter, creating a more crampy feeling that probably hinders my grip and release. I remember at an expo John Lowe talked about how he sometimes missed his big old darts because they had a better feel and he could control them more easily. We'll see if the old darts keep working for me.
I am taking off all next week so I will have no excuses not to post. I will be catching up on news and passing it along. Who knows, I might even sneak out to a LOD or two. Until then, good darts!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Varuna Cup 2009 Flyer Out
Thanks to Bob Race for forwarding the announcement that the $5,000.00+ Varuna Cup will be held in Brooklyn, NY on April 17-19, 2009. This is an open tournament with singles, luck of the draw, doubles, and a mixed triples event. Click here for the flyer in pdf format.
Monday, March 09, 2009
2009 Philadelphia Cancer Shoot and Virginia Beach Coming Up
Any New Jersey darters who missed Darts for Dreams this past weekend can still do something for charity by attending the 3rd Annual Philadelphia Cancer Shoot later this month. The event will be held on Saturday, March 28, 2009, at 1:00 p.m., at Philadelphia House (formerly Jokers), 7312 Castor Avenue, Philadelphia, PA. The format will be luck of the draw doubles, $10 to enter, with $1,000 in prize money. All proceeds will go to benefit the worthy charity Crossing The Finish Line, which offers respite for families of people with cancer.
The same weekend 23rd Annual Virginia Beach Dart Classic will be held in (where else?) Virginia Beach, VA. Click here for the flyer. This year's tournament features $35,310.00 in prize money which is sure to lure many of the top national players. This will likely clear the field a bit for a lot of you local players to go to the Philly Cancer shoot and show your stuff!
The same weekend 23rd Annual Virginia Beach Dart Classic will be held in (where else?) Virginia Beach, VA. Click here for the flyer. This year's tournament features $35,310.00 in prize money which is sure to lure many of the top national players. This will likely clear the field a bit for a lot of you local players to go to the Philly Cancer shoot and show your stuff!
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Darts for Dreams 2009 a Great Success!
Congratulations to Gary Yourman, the Greater Trenton English Dart League, the sponsors and everyone who attended the Darts for Dreams charity event on Saturday. It was another record year with over $16,000.00 raised for the New Jersey Make-A-Wish Foundation. Click here for Gary's report. Some highlights were that 18,300 darts were thrown. Paul Seladones of the Quaker City English Dart League had high score on the day with 2,780 scored in 100 darts. Many winners donated their winnings back to the cause.
My seven year old son Oliver (pictured above) and I attended the event and had a great time. Oliver and I practice at home but he has never thrown in a formal dart event before. It's great that his first experience is a charity event. He had no trouble throwing 100 darts for a score of 745. I have no doubt he will improve on that for next year. He was also thrilled because everyone got a gift bag and he won a door prize. I was able to throw my hundred and ended up somewhere around 2250. I had a couple of 140's but a few too many 26's and 45's!
One of the families whose wish was sponsored by the funds raised in last year's Dart-A-Thon appeared and gave a moving talk about what it meant for their young daughter to get her wish. The young girl had an incurable metabolic disease and her room needed a complete makeover for the medical equipment that she needs to function. They gave a heartfelt thanks for the support provided by the generous darters and sponsors.
Gary (pictured above with Oliver) and the untiring folks at Make-A-Wish and the GTEDL are already setting goals to raise $17,000+ next year. Congratuations again and best wishes.
My seven year old son Oliver (pictured above) and I attended the event and had a great time. Oliver and I practice at home but he has never thrown in a formal dart event before. It's great that his first experience is a charity event. He had no trouble throwing 100 darts for a score of 745. I have no doubt he will improve on that for next year. He was also thrilled because everyone got a gift bag and he won a door prize. I was able to throw my hundred and ended up somewhere around 2250. I had a couple of 140's but a few too many 26's and 45's!
One of the families whose wish was sponsored by the funds raised in last year's Dart-A-Thon appeared and gave a moving talk about what it meant for their young daughter to get her wish. The young girl had an incurable metabolic disease and her room needed a complete makeover for the medical equipment that she needs to function. They gave a heartfelt thanks for the support provided by the generous darters and sponsors.
Gary (pictured above with Oliver) and the untiring folks at Make-A-Wish and the GTEDL are already setting goals to raise $17,000+ next year. Congratuations again and best wishes.
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