Kelly's League 2010 First Two Weeks

Well, I'm back, and there is a lot of catching up to do! I spent this summer doing a variety of fun stuff. A family fishing trip to Alaska, which I have done the past three years, went very well. Check out my Dad with our daily catch. Don't bother asking where our secret hot spot is :).

Work and a long list of other projects kept this dart player away from the board more than he would like. I found myself looking forward to the fall Monday night American Darts in-house league at Kelly's Bar in Neptune, NJ this year. Last year was my first year playing American Darts, and I struggled a bit to get used to the light weight, wooden darts. However, by the end of the year my averages were improving and the team of Tom Waterman, Dave Hascup, John Daddio, and myself ended up winning the league regular season and the playoffs. It was a great time.

For my readers who aren't familiar with American darts, some of my earlier posts from last year about this time will explain all. It's a different game, on a different board, with different darts than the traditional steel tip game.

League started up again two weeks ago and we got the old team back together. I started practicing a few weeks before and it paid off in my first week. I hit my first nine count in league play, which came at a great time. One of our opponents had just hit a nine count right before, so my shot cut their rally short. The rest of the team had a solid performance to take home the win.

This past Monday we took a clean 7-0 sweep, though the match was actually remarkably close. We won the first game handily, but in the second game we were very much behind until the last two innings. We barely squeezed by with a one point win in that game, when Tom, our last shooter, hit a three mark in the ninth inning. Tom had the high game of that match with a very respectable 53 marks.

In the third game, we lost the start, and fought a see-saw battle that ended up with their last shooter, in the bottom of the ninth inning, needing a four mark to tie, and a five mark to win. He shot a double with the first dart, and we all groaned. His second dart hit a single. The third dart seemed to fly straight for the double, but nose-dived at the last possible instant. The scorekeeper had to carefully inspect the board and squint to determine that the dart barely landed in the single section instead of the the double. It was a tie! The game went to the 10th inning, and we won the tiebreaker. Whew! In each of the last two games, one dart landing slightly differently out of over a hundred thrown, could have easily altered the outcome.

I had fun catching up with my teammates. Dave is off to England next week to discuss working on the website for the WDF. Tom Waterman's son Evan is now hosting a "Darts Around The World" podcast, in which Tom, Dave and their friend Bones particpates. I listen to a lot of podcasts on my daily commute to and from work, and they had me cracking up with thier antics. You can check them out at the link above or on iTunes.

Future plans for this blog include giving you regular updates on our team escapades each week. I also plan to post a list of upcoming dart events in the area, and as the holiday season approaches, I will do my yearly dart gift review. Those of you familiar with my previous reviews will recall that it focuses on the more unusual items. Until next time, good darts!