Just Darts Since 2009
Well, we’re officially halfway through the season, and I guess I’m getting lazy about these updates, since I received the stats on Wednesday and here it is Sunday before I post anything.
It’s been a couple of years since we played against this team, but one thing I remembered about them was that they thrive on momentum. You have to strike early against Brickhouse I if you’re going to have any shot at beating them. They’re great at psyching each other up, and if they smell blood in the water you’re sunk.
Unfortunately, we didn’t do anything right the first two games and ended up down 2-0. No one on our side folded though, which was encouraging, and we found ourselves down only 5-4 heading into the tenth game.
I think if we’d won that game we might have shaken the Brickhouse team’s confidence some. At least I’d like to think that, and that we could have built up some momentum for ourselves. It didn’t happen, though. And the way it didn’t happen was very disheartening: it was a lack of communication.
Vulture and Meister were playing a game of 501 which was coming down to the wire. The opposition had scores of 5 and 7, so although our team had low scores themselves, each of our players was freezing the other one out. Meister was up, and he and I talked about what he should shoot for, and he ended up the round with a 7. Vulture’s unfrozen and can win if the other team doesn’t end it. They bust.
Then Vulture’s up, with a 21. He hits a 3. This should have warned me, but I’m thinking: “An 18 and we win!” But I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t want to distract him. He hits a 19, busts, and the other team goes out with the next dart.
Vulture was devastated, so I didn’t ask him how he could hit a number on the opposite side of the board from what he needed. It was only later that I found out that he thought he was still frozen, and was trying to hit a 17 to get his score to 1. He missed the 17 and hit the 19, and was upset that his partner was still frozen. He didn’t realize he’d had a chance to win until I told him.
So that’s why you keep talking to your teammates, even if you’re worried about distracting them. Any time the situation changes, you have to make sure everyone knows about it. And I can’t be upset with Vulture either, because in a playoff match against Muggs Away a couple of years back, I didn’t realize that I had just been frozen and went out, costing us the game and any chance of winning the match.
This kind of thing happens when teammates assume everybody’s on the same page.
Oh, well. Final score: an 8-5 loss.
You’ll notice that the schedule has been changed above. Instead of an off week, we’ll be playing Casey’s RBs, who had to reschedule our December match against them because of another meeting they’re going to.
I don’t know how realistic it is, but I can’t set our goal at a close loss. We still have a chance to make the playoffs, but we have to start winning. Let’s see if we can pull of a 7-6 squeaker.
It doesn’t matter how many games you win by in the playoffs; as long as you win seven games, you advance.
We won 7-0.
I’m assuming we’ll be playing in the finals next week against the Dart Fellas. If Hideaway beat them, I’ll let you know.
I received the final stats and standings last night, so those are all updated now. Not much to say about this last match, because the Hideaway team was not really into it because they were going to take 3rd place no matter how well or poorly they played.
Final score: an 8-5 win.
So, we actually gained a game on the Dart Fellas over the past two weeks. It would have taken some pressure off us if we’d known that, but then maybe we wouldn’t have played so well.
Tonight we’re up against Shana’s Chosen Ones. Wish us luck!
Okay, my man Pat from Shame Us says that they won at least 3 games against the Dart Fellas.
That means if we win 7-6 against Hideaway, we take first place.
The goal is still 10-3.
It’s two weeks later, and we still don’t know how far ahead of the Dart Fellas we are. This happens every year—Rick gets bored and leaves us to fend for ourselves.
I just shot an e-mail to a guy I don’t know, who would know how the Dart Fellas match turned out. He may or may not get back to me. He may or may not know the result of the match. This is what we’re reduced to, thanks to Rick.
What we do know, is that if we win 10-3 this Tuesday, we’ve taken first place. That’s really all we need to know.
[Special to the person in Oregon: Sorry if I freaked you out by e-mailing you. I still am curious about why you’d subscribe to this blog. No need to answer, but if you want to get in touch with me—and I’d love that—just leave a response to this post. Excelsior!]
I’ve been waiting to receive our weekly stats report before posting this, but it looks like we’re not getting one again. That’s frustrating, because without it there’s no way to know how many games we’re still up on the Dart Fellas.
The team played very well—maybe as well as we’ve played all season. Hideaway is very good, and the goal I set of a 10-3 win was a tall order against them. We didn’t do quite that well, but if it turns out that the Dart Fellas lost a game or two against Shame Us, we’ll be in good shape.
Final score: a 9-4 win.
If I ever find out what happened in the Dart Fellas’ match last week, I’ll post it here. We don’t have a match this Tuesday, so we’ll be practicing then instead. Our next match is the following Tuesday, at Hideaway. If worse comes to worst, we can guarantee a first place finish with a 10-3 win then.
Okay, I’ve cooled down since my short note the other night.
Here’s what happened:
We knew going into this match that this was our only chance to put any distance between ourselves and the Dart Fellas. Our next two matches are against Hideaway, while they play Shame Us twice, so that’s two straight matches where we have to expect that we’ll lose ground. With only a slim three-game margin, every win against Shana’s team was precious.
The goal I had set was an 11-2 win, which seemed unrealistic. Well, we were up 12-0 and were playing the final game when I went to the bathroom and passed by Vulture, who was playing a bowling game.
“Cut it out,” I said as I walked by.
On my way back, he was still playing it. “You have to stop. We have one more game to go.” I looked at the scores on the dartboard, and got exasperated. “And we’re losing.”
So I take my turn throwing, then turn around to see if he’s finished, and I see that the game is still going on, and now Meister is playing, too. I lost my temper then, and I’m starting to lose it again just thinking about it.
Guess what happened in that last game?
Final score: a 12-1 win.
On the bright side, the Dart Fellas only won 7-6 in their match, so we have an eight-game lead on them at the moment. But they own the tie-breaker against us, so we only have seven games to play with.
I’m going to set a goal against the Hideaway club that will allow us to control our own destiny. If I assume that the Dart Fellas win all their games against Shame Us, we’ll need to win 19 games in our two matches against Hideaway. We’re at home for the first one, so we’ll need to win it 10-3.
That’s a tall order, because they’re a good team and they almost beat us the last time we played. (And if we’d won that last game on Tuesday, the goal would have only been 9-4.)
And I swear, if we end up losing by one lousy game after twenty weeks of darts, I’m gonna go ballistic.
I’ve never been so angry at some of my own teammates. You’ll learn why later.
On the ride up to this week’s match, I said to my driver—I’ve found it helpful to retain a driver, as it allows one to focus upon the upcoming battle—that we really needed to win the match 11-2. We’d beaten Shame Us 10-3 a couple of times, and we needed to stretch ourselves to have any hope of staying out in front of the Dart Fellas.
Well, we won the first game and then lost the next two. My driver and I looked at each other, and I just shook my head. “Well, we’ll just have to win the rest,” I said.
So we did.
Final score, 11-2 win.
Okay, so while we were playing Shame Us, the Dart Fellas were beating up on Harry O’s, 13-0. So that’s behind us. This Tuesday, we’re playing Shana’s Chosen Ones while the Dart Fellas are against Hideaway. This is our last chance to gain some ground on the Fellas, and we have to do that, because our final matches are both against Hideaway (one scheduled, and one make-up) while the Dart Fellas are playing Shame Us twice.
I think it’s just possible that we could beat Shana’s 11-2. I don’t think it’s likely, but it’s what we’ll have to do to give us a decent shot to hang onto first place.
Falling Awake 