One of my goals for this trip to Korea was to reinvigorate my dart game.  Playing only once a week in South Carolina and being too damn lazy to practice at home predictably resulted in a noticeable deterioration in the quality of my play.

So far I’ve managed to play in the Friday night tourney at Dolce Vita, a Saturday tournament at Phillies, an impromptu round robin singles match at Sin Bin, and finally my debut with Ride it In in league play last night.  Although my game is nowhere near what it was a couple of years ago, the recent repetition has helped work out some of the kinks in my release and I’m throwing with a little more confidence and consistency.

The match last night at Sam Ryan’s was classic battle against our worthy opponents from Dillinger’s Bar.  We were 6-6 after the singles round, and 12-12 after doubles.  So it all came down to the team game (one leg of 1001) for the tie breaking victory.   Which we managed to pull off.  HooAh!

My contribution was a 5-4 showing (2-1 singles, 3-3 doubles).  No great shakes, but I was pretty solid and woulda coulda shoulda taken a couple of more legs but for my inexplicable inability to hit the bulls eye with any semblance of consistency.

My Ride it In teammates are a good bunch and I think we’re going to have a lot of fun along the way this season.  I’m the old man on the team, but I guess at my age I’m going to have to get used to that.  I took a fair amount of ribbing at Sin Bin where I threw wearing my suspenders.  I guess I reminded people of their grandfather or some such shit, but seeing as how I am in fact somebody’s grandfather I reckon I can take whatever those young whippersnappers can dish out.

Can you tell I’m really enjoying being back in the game?

Another night, another darts venue.  State Street Pub in West Columbia has a Thursday tourney.  It’s about forty minutes from where I’m staying, but what are you gonna do?

So, I arrived early and was underwhelmed at first.  It was like Friends Bar in Itaewon, with somewhat better lighting.  In other words a bit of a dive and not too clean.

When the darters started showing up it made me feel a tad old.  They all appeared to be 20- somethings.  I guess I was old in Korea too, I just never felt that way.  At least not too often.

Anyway, everyone turned out to be very friendly and made us feel genuinely welcome.  And I wound up having a great time.  My game was only so-so, but truth be told, that’s usually the case, so what the hell.

Interesting format–one leg of cricket in the winners bracket, one leg of 301 (SIDO) in the losers bracket.  It keeps things moving pretty fast and even with 20 or so playing there wasn’t much waiting time.

There were some quality players present, (at least the ones who beat me of course!).  A group had come in from Aiken, SC to play and I got invited out for the Friday tourney at the VFW.  I might venture out there one of these days, but given the distance (a good hour from here) I’d probably want to book a room for the night.

So, it is good to be out and good to be playing again.

It was a dart playing weekend.  Regular Friday night tourney at Dolce, the end of season banquet/tourney on Saturday.  And yesterday 12 of us bussed on down to Songtan to take on the local dart community at Xenis Bar.

We split into three groups of four: our elite “A” division players (Alistair, Paul, Sammy and Chris), other “A”s and high “B”s (Tom, Jonas, Mario and me) and a “C” team of Tom, Sean, Jeremy, and Mike.

We had a great time although some of their games weren’t that familiar (call cricket, 301 DIDO).  We got along well with our rivals and drank us some beers.  Made it home last night around 10, but I’m still beat.

Actually I was beat yesterday.  Our elite guys got crushed, we took the middle team to a match deciding team game before losing.  The bright spot was the 9-8 victory of our “C” team.  All is not lost however because the rematch in Seoul is coming up this Sunday at Dolce Vita.  We are down 9 legs but feel confident we will do some ass kicking on our home turf.

In dart action last night, the Take it Easy boys from Dolce Vita put a hurtin’ on our neighbor bar Bless U 22-3.  The consensus was it was the most dominating victory in the long and illustrious his of TIE.

I’m sure the Sultans will be gunning for us when we next meet a Bless U as we definitely stung their pride a bit.  Especially because they played well enough to win quite a few of those legs but didn’t possess that intangible some call luck.

Duke had a great 2 week run in his return to the team.  I believe he had a 9-0 night in fact.  He’ll be on an airplane back to the States next Monday, but we still have the big birthday party/tourney coming up this Saturday…

A great time at Dolce Vita for Friday night darts last night.

I threw a ton-80, a 98-out, and an improbable double-17 double-15 combo to close out a one point victory in cricket.
Plus, I hit the early bird out jackpot by throwing a 24 out.  Good for a cool W114,000.

Go figure the odds of ME having a night like that.

Anyway, it is those occasional (and all too rare) moments of brilliance that keeps me coming back for more.

Opening night of the new dart season kicked off last night.  It was good to be playing again and especially nice to rejoin my old team Take It Easy.  Although we were defeated by 3 Alley Pub 16-9, it was a fun and competitive evening.  It’s been awhile since I could say that.

Played in the Dolce tourney last night and actually had fun.  I guess throwing half way decent contributed to my joy.  That and winning (a first and a second place finish).

On the long plane ride back from Hawaii I decided it was time to get back to basics and try to relearn all that I’ve apparently forgotten about the game.  Actually, I am committed to going out and practicing again on a regular basis.  That and pull my head out of my ass and start throwing with some confidence.  Although the two might be related.

I’m hoping to rejoin Take it Easy for the upcoming season.  Kind of back to the future as that is where it all began for me.  And since my time in Korea is rapidly drawing to a close, it makes sense for things to end with Take it Easy.  I’ve always been fond of the symmetry of bookends.

Well, I’m taking a self-imposed break from darting.  I ain’t sure what the hell is going on, so I need to take some time and get my head right.  At this point I’ve lost all confidence in my game and I’m not doing myself or my teammates any favors.

Rubbies achieved our first victory of the season tonight against Jagernutz from Sam Ryan’s, 20-17.

And I only lost two legs!

But then, I only played three.

It’s all good.

Dartaholics ripped us a new one tonight, 25-12.  But you know what?  I would rather be a loser than an asshole.  Congrats to the biggest assholes in the Seoul International Dart League.  You earned it!

But we played better as a team.  Lost 20-17 to Cake Mix, but we are showing improvement each week.  We also welcomed Lucky Corpuz as the newest Rubbie…

Blue Bulls put a hurtin’ on the Rubbies tonight 24-13.  Nothing to say other than I pretty much suck these days.  Buried within my pathetic performance I threw a ton-80, but I would have gladly traded that for winning some of the legs I frittered away.

Oh well.  It’s gotta get better.

Well the first dart match of 2010 is history.  Shooters from Blue Frog inflicted a 26-11 spanking on our Rubbie hides.

We played better than the score.  Really, we did.

I was 4-8 on the night.  12 marks, including a 9-mark.  So, maybe I can take some encouragement from that.

I really just want to focus on having fun again.  Because to be honest, I didn’t feel much joy last season.

We’ll do better in the weeks ahead….

Busy weekend, most of it revolving around darts.  Nice night at Dolce eeking out two first place finishes.  Saturday was the end of season tourney and I was not disappointed to walk away with 5th place money.

And we elected new officers for the Seoul International Dart League.  Lonnie returns as Secretary, Doug is the new VP and I’ll be taking the reigns as league president.

Lord help us.