Kelly's League Report, January 11, 2010, 7-0 Win!

We danced on the razor's edge all night and got our first clean sweep! The scoreline was a great injustice to our opponents, who played a phenomenal match. I cannot recall ever having played a team match that was so close, yet resulted in such a lopsided final score.

Our opponents had the benefit of a 13 mark handicap. In the first game they were on fire, and we found ourselves down 39 marks by the fourth inning. Yikes! We kept on fighting and John and I found our stride in the last three innings. The game was barely within reach in the ninth inning, and following good scores by John, Dave and myself, our anchor (Tom) needed to hit his last dart to win the game. Tom nailed it for a one point victory. To give an idea of how close that is, each team had over 150 marks in that game. Tom's last dart in the ninth inning was the first time all game we had the lead. Whew!

In the second game we started out hot, but our opponents surged in the middle of the game. We again found ourselves down in the ninth inning, needing to hit big to win. In a replay of the previous game, Tommy needed to hit a good score to win, and he obliged. This time we won by four marks.

We went into the third game nursing the small 5 mark margin from the previous two games, hoping to hold on to the wood. By the time the game reached the eighth inning we had a double-digit deficit again, and were looking at prospect of losing the two points for that game as well as the extra point for the wood. Some good darts cut that deficit to 7 marks going into the 9th inning. Our opponents were off, hitting only 10 marks in the 9th inning, leaving us needing 17 marks to tie, 18 to win.

John and I stumbled, hitting only 5 marks between the two of us. That left Dave and Tom needing to hit 12, which is no easy feat. Dave hit six, and Tom again needed to play the hero. His first dart hit a single, and his second a double. You could hear a pin drop as he lined up his final dart. Only a triple would tie it. Anything else and we lost the last game. The dart flew and it struck so close to the wire between the double and the triple that you could not tell what he scored until you walked right up to the board. A triple!

That made us play the 10th inning as a tie breaker, and on the momentum of Tom's shot from the last inning we coasted to victory. The margin through all three games, with each team scoring close to 450 marks, was only 5 marks total. What a close match! Tom definitely deserves man of the match for facing must-hit situations at the end of each game and coming through each time. Until next time, good darts.