Just Darts Since 2009
This is a team we’ve played several times before, and it’s usually a close match, so the handicapping wasn’t a factor.
It was close again, but we came up a little short. It was frustrating to be up 3-1 and end up losing the match, but we didn’t play cricket very well–and they played very well indeed–so we got what we deserved.
Final score, a 7-6 loss.
Next up, it’s the team we’re tied with for first place, Armed and Hammered.
Short but sweet this week.
We needed to beat Office Cafe 7-6 this week, to keep them from climbing back into contention. After going up 3-0 in the match things were looking good, but we had a lot of trouble with cricket this week.
In the end, we pulled it out and got the victory.
Final score: a 7-6 win. Pivotal game: Rook winning the first game of 501 to knock them back on their heels and gain us a little breathing space.
Next Tuesday brings us to Tracks to play against Good Strokes, the team just behind us in the standings.
No predictions, just math: we have to win 5 games to take first place. (Worst case scenario: three-way tie for first with us winning the head-to-head tiebreakers.) I’d like to get 6 wins to take it outright.
Almost halfway through the season, so it’s time to recap.
Week 1 – Bradford’s I
We got away with one here. You could tell that these guys were good dart players, but they hadn’t gotten their rhythm yet. You can see from the standings that they bounced back nicely. Glad we caught them the first week.
Final score: a 9-4 win.
Week 2 – Brennan’s II
We couldn’t do anything against them. Judging from their reactions (and the conversation I couldn’t help hearing on account of I was listening to every word) this was the best they’d played in a while. It was unbelievable. We were down 9-0 at one point, until Rook broke through with a win and it was time to celebrate.
Final score: a 10-3 loss.
Week 3 – Casey’s I
People who’ve read this blog for a while probably remember Moose from when he was on our side. (We like Moose.) He plays for Casey’s I now, and it looks like he’s a good fit there. Nice bunch of guys, and a lot of fun to play against. We went up 6-2 against them, and took the foot off the gas a little. But it was a good time.
Final score: a 7-6 win.
Week 4 – The Office Cafe I
Roller coaster. Down 3-0, then 5-2 before we started to click. But when we did, we really caught fire. For a few games, we played as well as we ever have as a team. Down 6-5 in the last game of cricket, Red hit a double bull with his final dart for the win–a game the other team would have surely won the next round. In 701, I shot over 40 ppd for the game–far and away the best I’ve ever done. It didn’t change the standings much, but it was a confidence booster.
Final score: a 7-6 win.
So there it is. A lot of darts, a lot of fun, and we’re at .500 so far. Nothing wrong with that.
(I don’t know why the left axis on the cricket graph above is not displaying the scores correctly. I’ll try to fix it.)
I really started getting confused with the stats reports, because we played during the bye week, then skipped a week when everybody else was playing, and then played two matches in one week. I couldn’t keep straight which week on the stats reports corresponded to our week, and so I sort of threw my hands up.
I think I’ve got a handle on it, but we haven’t gotten our results from last week yet and since we’re playing tomorrow I figured I’d just post what I have.
Quick recaps:
Office Cafe – Typical loss for us. We went down 4-0, then battled back to tie it 5-5, then lost the last three games for an 8-5 loss. Frustrating.
Muggs Away – Our sister team, and it’s always fun playing against them. It’s even better beating them (8-5) especially since they’re in first place, but that’s a little less impressive when you find out that one of their key players was missing.
Dart Fellas – Fun group of guys. This match was almost the reverse of the one against the Office Cafe team. We went up 4-0, they battled back, and then we put them away 9-4. I wonder if the Office team was as nervous when we did it to them as we were last week?
Two matches left–against The Cards and Brickhouse. We were nine games out of the playoffs before last week, and unless that number went down quite a bit it doesn’t look like we’ll make the playoffs this time.
Sometimes playing darts is more fun when there’s nothing at stake.
Sorry this is a little late: my “time for thinking about darts” allotment has been spent trying to reschedule next week’s match. The other team can’t make it Tuesday, and it can be really difficult finding a new date for eight people without getting them all together on a conference call. Right now the only thing I know is that it won’t be on Tuesday. I’ll update when I know more.
As for last Tuesday, I’ll just say this: we started out like gangbusters and then fizzled. That was disappointing. We began 4-0 in our first round of 501, and then only won three out of the last nine games. I’d say it was overconfidence, but that’s probably giving Office Cafe too little credit. They stepped up their game, and we didn’t. One thing I hope didn’t contribute was our opposition’s style of play in cricket.
“Point-whoring,” as it’s called, is a difficult thing to define, but you know it when you see it. Almost every cricket game involves some scoring of points, but sometimes a team with a nice lead doesn’t go for the win when they have the chance, but instead tries to run up the score. This can be because they don’t have the confidence that they’ll be able to hit bullseyes, or it could be an attempt to humiliate and demoralize the opposition. I have no idea which reason the Office Cafe had, but it was definitely irksome. I just continued to play my game and not try to “get even” with them (except for winning games, of course). I hope it didn’t throw off my teammates, though. Angry darts aren’t good darts, usually.
Anyway, despite their style of play I spoke with a couple of the guys on the other team and they seemed to be decent enough gents. If I had to guess at their motivation, it’d be that we were leading 4-0 (and I’m pretty sure we won the first cricket game so make that 5-0) and were desperate to ensure that they won a few games. Running up the score in that situation is not unforgivable.
This week’s ridiculous glitch: the rules for the 701 game were changed without notice. The way bullseyes were scored differed both from all previous 701 games, and from the 501 games in the same match. In an email the next day, the league office promised this would be fixed for next time. I wonder what bug will emerge to replace it? Two darts per turn?
Final score, a 7-6 win.
Our next scheduled match is against Casey’s RBs, but we don’t know when that will happen yet. They’re one of the best teams in this division, and we haven’t had a lot of success against them in the past. We did have a fracas at their place last time we were in their division, which is still the most bizarre evening I’ve ever had playing darts. It was a real dust-up with everyone screaming in each others’ faces. We’ve interacted several times since then and everything seems fine. I mention it not to stoke up my troops (angry darts aren’t good darts!) but more in the “Remember that night? That was something, huh?” vein.
Against them, if we walk away with another 7-6 win, I’m happy.
Falling Awake 