I guess you could call it that.  Had a fine traditional feast at Dolce Vita last night.  Thanks Jim and YJ!

We had 14 players in the dart tournament that followed dinner. The draw was nice in that the teams were pretty evenly matched (which does not always happen in a blind draw).  I teamed up with Ron and we wound up meeting Alistair and Matt for the championship.

Dolce features live music on Thursday nights and the tourney ran a little longer than expected.  So, by the time we started the finals the band (well, two guys on amplified acoustic guitars) was going full bore.  The dart boards in play are right next to the ‘bandstand’ as it were, so it was a lot louder than normal playing conditions.  And the place was packed with darters and music fans, with the music fans sometimes forgetting darts etiquette and walking through the game.  Suffice to say, appropriate levels of concentration was difficult.

Giving the environment (I really hate throwing while the band is playing if for no other reason than it seems rude and disrespectful somehow) I suggested that we call the tourney a draw and split the combined prize money of 160,000W equally.  Alistair wanted to play it out and so we that’s what we did.  And after a tremendous battle with some great darts on both sides, Ron and I prevailed.  Sweet.

It was a blessing to throw some decent darts for a change.  I had a real up and down season and somewhere along the way I’ve developed a flaw in my mechanics.  I really focused last night on reacquiring a smooth rhythm with a consistent release point.  For the most part I succeeded.  The challenge will be maintaining that week in and week out.

We shall see.