Week Two At The Ale n'Wich

It was another small but fun group at the Ale n'Wich this week. Poor Doug was exhausted after three hearings in two days and needed to get home and rest. Anu was busy with a big training event and also had to skip. Sandra and Rosita filled in for a fun evening of darts.

Sandra was relatively new to darts but had played some before. Rosita had never thrown a dart before. Both surprised me with some good darts. Sandra showed a remarkable ability to hit the bull. Here she is pictured with her first one of the night.

Rosita proved to be a prodigy, hitting three triple 20's in her first night of ever playing darts! She managed to hit the winning shot in our practice 301 game, and won two games of tic-tac-toe darts. Here she is after her second victory. It looks like I have some mixed doubles tournament partners in training!

I took thirty minutes in my lunch break and had a great round in a practice routine that I call cricket count-up. It is a great way to gauge where you stand as far as cricket skill. You take three darts at each cricket number, i.e. 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, Bull. You count the total number of marks that you hit, and then you can easily figure your average. The following chart reflects my opinion:

-21 marks: Average of 3 marks per round. Equivalent of averaging up to 60 points per turn in 501. Good enough to do well in a local league.

-28 marks: Average of 4 marks per round. Top contender in your local league and ready to compete at big tournaments. Equivalent of 70-80 points per turn in 501.

-35 marks or more: Average of 5 marks per round. One of the top contenders at big tournaments. Equivalent of 90 or more per turn in 501.

Every once in a while you have a great run when doing this routine. I managed a 39 today, aided much by a nine-count on 17's. That is the best one I have done in the past three years...too bad I cannot average that much! My other two tries were in the mid 20's. Still, it feels good to know that I still have some competitive games in me.