We had the mid-season tourney this weekend. I was teamed up with Natalie and we played tough but didn’t place. The highlight for me was throwing a ton-80. Of course, in the next round I got to experience the flipside when Chris B. threw a ton-80 against us. As you might expect, we tied for the high-out and had a nine dart shoot out. Which I took 267-262 and resulted in my walking away with W10,000. Hey better than getting poked in the eye with a bounce out. Which I’ve never seen happen, but you never know. Heh, I guess it could be the last thing you ever saw, especially if you are blind in one eye. Which I’m not.

Last night in league play we had the White Horse guys from Blue Frog. An all Korean team that has some pretty tough players, including my bud Jin Jun and Mr. Lee. We won the match 23-8. I threw ok, going 5-4 but was limited to two 5-marks and a 3BC. So, three marks in 9 legs shows that I am still off my game. I’m just not throwing with much confidence right now, and more than halfway through the season I should be over my “A” division jitters. Of course, week in and week out I am facing much stronger competition. But, when I lose I am losing ugly. Meaning I am beating myself more than I am being beat, if you get my meaning.

Nothing to do but suck it up and keep on throwing.

…so let’s talk about darts instead!

Monday night my team, the Sliders, locked horns with our neighbor bar’s Blue Bulls. We took a 20-11 victory, but in reality the match was much closer as nearly every leg was tightly contested. As seems to invariably happen I was matched up with the Goat in singles cricket. Me and Craig are friendly rivals (well, friendly between matches, but never at the oche). Over the past couple of seasons one or the other of us would win the match 2-1. Neither of us had gone 3-0 in league play. Until Monday night.

The odd thing was it was a close match as both of us were pretty much equally off our game. The difference in the end came down to bulls. And I hit them a tad more frequently than my opponent on this occasion. So I get the bragging rights until our next meeting. Heh.

Actually, it was a stellar night for all the Dolce teams. Take it Easy beat Bless U, Rubbies won their first match of the season against White Horse, and our new team (Sweet Life) took down Nashville.

Here’s hoping for a continuation of that winning tradition. Go Dolce!

Last night was a tad strange. Our opponent could not field a team so the match is to be rescheduled at some future date. Having a rare free Monday night, I decided to go watch the other Dolce Vita teams compete. I’m nothing if not flexible!

Anyway, I start out at Blue Frog where the Take it Easy lads were playing M&M, last years champs from “C” division who moved up to “B” this year. TIE wound up winning a close and hard fought match, but that’s not the strange thing.

So, I’m sitting there enjoying the competition, drinking a beer and generally minding my own business when this guy comes in with his Korean GF and starts insisting that I put him on a dart team. Hell, as far as I know no one died and left me in charge of anything! I wasn’t even wearing my jersey so I’m not sure how he even figured me for a team captain.

I explained to him the way things worked, i.e. you come out to Dolce on Fridays and throw in the tourney, meet some people, and if you are any good AND a team is looking for a player, you might get an offer. He basically thought that was bullshit saying it was Monday night and he wanted to play. I told him that I had no spots on my team at the moment, but he could put his name up on the website and maybe someone would pick him up. He then started getting kinda aggressive, which I just shrugged off, and then he actually asked his girlfriend to intercede. Damn if she didn’t practically beg me to find him a team. Of course by this point I had decided I would rather forfeit every week before I would play darts with this asshole, so I just said sorry, nothing I can do.

So apparently he left where we were, went into the other room where Dawg Pound was playing and pulled the same shit. Some of those guys are young soldiers, and I’m guessing he got off easy since they didn’t kick his ass.

Then I leave the Frog and head over to Geckos to watch our “D” team, Sweet Life, play for awhile (they won too by the way). LaRoy, the captain of the Geckos team said some crazy dude had come in there giving him crap about playing on the team while he was chalking for crissakes! LaRay sent him over to Dolce, but since our game was postponed no one was there. So he comes back to Geckos and accuses LaRoy of giving him the run around.

Without a doubt the guy was about the biggest idiot I have encountered in my three years here. He was definitely ugly. I hope he was Canadian! (apologies to all my Canuck friends, but Americans have enough baggage without people like this soiling the planet in our name).

Never seen someone burn so many bridges in one night before. I think it is pretty safe to say he won’t be playing in our league any time soon.

LOSER!

Something a little different in the Friday night dart routine at Dolce Vita. Tom C. and Doug are on the first leg of their farewell tour, so the tourney was held in their honor. Yes, two more darters/Soldiers are leaving the land of the morning calm soon as they complete their tour of duty here. Both have been regulars at Dolce and their presence will certainly be missed.

The opportunity to bid them farewell in the darter tradition (a tourney) brought out the biggest crowd ever in the history of the Dolce Friday night competition. And the two kegs of free beer probably helped too! Lots of new faces, and it was also good to see the Goat out and about again. 32 players in all, so the bar was packed. Which was good, because it was damn cold last night. Hell, its been bitingly cold all week, with the high temperature hovering in the mid-20s F.

I drew my former Take it Easy teammate Matt as a partner. He’s currently ranked #1 in B division, so I thought we had a fair chance to finish in the money. We played some good darts, most notably against Alestair (a great player from Scotland) and his partner Natalie. He tried to mess with our minds with some psychological warfare techniques, but I just kept telling him “fook you”. Of course, his ability to pound the bullseye 5 at a time was a little more difficult to overcome, but Matt and I pulled it off to advance in the winners bracket.

Which led to our first encounter with Petro (number 1 in A division) and his partner Eric who is also a strong dart thrower. In the first cricket leg they jumped out to a huge lead in closed numbers and points. We fought back and were one bull from the win, but wired it and Petro closed the door. We took the ’01 game, but I lost the diddle and Petro called cricket. He then proceeded to throw a 9-mark and that was pretty much our ticket to the losers bracket.

We then faced the Goat and his partner Rod, a team I was surprised to see in the losers bracket as the are both outstanding players. Me and the Goat have a friendly rivalry going and our games our always close and hard fought. He has it in his head that he has beaten me one time more than I’ve beaten him, but I don’t think he is counting our tourney matchups. Regardless, he’s playing A division this year too, so I’m sure we will get the chance to face-off again soon. Last night Matt and I dispatched them 2-0 (although it took some great darts to do it).

That brought up Natalie and Alestair again. Pretty much an instant replay of our first match: three tough legs of back and forth leads. Alestair was itching for a chance to win the last cricket leg on the bullsyes (they had 3 to our zero, and needed two more to catch us on points). Matt burst his bubble though by throwing three single bulls for the victory.

Which led to our revenge match against Petro and Eric (who had inexplicably been beaten by Jay and Kyle). Well, revenge will have to come another night because we didn’t get the job done, being eliminated 2-0. That gave Matt and I 3rd place and W60,000.

Petro and Kyle went on to beat Jay and Kyle two times to take the tourney title. Petro also won the drawing for a bottle of Jack Daniels, so he went home very happy. Some guys have all the luck! But congrats anyway.

Alestair was spoiling for more darts and wanted another shot at me and Matt. He pulled out W50,000 and said let’s play winner take all. I was tired and had consumed my share of the free beer and wasn’t willing to play for those stakes, although I said I would go W25,000. Natalie had the good sense to say let’s keep it friendly, so we all put in a mahn won. Which me and Matt collected two legs later. And that was all the darts I wanted.

Had a late night meal of samgapsil and soju on the walk home and a final beer at the Opry and that was the end of a fun night.

The second leg of the Tom/Doug farewell tour is Sunday at Bless U. Petro talked me into playing in my first soft tips tourney next Sunday, so we will see what that is all about.

Ok, that’s about all I have to say on the subject. Yeah, yeah, I know I said too much. Deal with it.

A good night for darts. Sliders beat the other Dolce “A” division team 21-10. Solid play around. I played much better in week two, going 7-2, including a sweep of my singles cricket match. Even managed a couple of five marks, tons, and a 3 bull combo. Long way to go, but I think we are going to be tough to beat over the course of the season.

My old team Take it Easy also pulled out a big win against Eberhardt, 10-9, so half of the Dolce teams are feeling good tonight!

I have to be at Incheon Airport at 0630 to meet my new employee and his family flying in from Germany. It is such a relief to be getting those vacancies filled.

So, it is off to bed for me…

Well, I’m no longer an “A” division virgin anyway. You know, the first time is always the worst, right? I went 3-3 and had zero marks, so that was pretty much bleh. But, the team won 16-15. And we were playing XOX, probably the best team we will face this season. And none of us played as well as we can, so all in all it was a pretty positive night.

Anyway, I am glad to have the first night behind me. Now, I just need to relax and throw my game.

Dolce’s B and D division teams also won, so we had cause for celebration. Nothing but positive vibes. It was especially nice to see my old team, Take it Easy, get the win against Pacific Ratz, our rivals and a top quality team.

Now it’s time to sleep. Anyong.

Friday night at Dolce we had a small group, but still managed to put together 3 very nice little tourneys. Paul and I took the first one, then it was Jim as my partner and we took that pot as well. Finally, Dave and I were teamed up and finished second to Rod and Doug.

Saturday afternoon I participated in an invitational tournament at 3 Alley Pub. It was a nice change because most of the guys were pub throwers (not playing in the league) so there were lots of new faces. I was impressed with the overall quality of the darts.

I was throwing good up until the semi-finals when I faced of with Scott from Blue Bulls. Actually, I threw well against him, but just not good enough. I was way up in the cricket game, but he came back and beat me on bulls. Then he threw awesome darts in ’01, and while I managed to hang with him, he got the out before I had a shot at it. Well played matches.

I had Neil (aka Thirsty in my comments) and we played a nice set. He took the first ’01 leg, I came out in cricket with a 9-mark and that was too much to be overcome. We played a close ’01 to finish and I got the out for a 2-1 win and third place. Rodney was the host and tourney champion and good on him as he put together a very classy event.

Later I found myself at Blue Frog. No intention to play in their Saturday night gig as I was quite wasted after several hours of throwing and drinking. The were on an odd number though so I was compelled. Took a third in my inebriated state so I guess that was a plus.

Tonight went to Dolce and practiced for my “A” division debut tomorrow. I’m a little nervous but I think by the end of the season I will know whether I can compete at that level. I do look forward to the challenge but I also intend to have fun.

And that’s story of my weekend.

Dart tourney tonight at Bless U Pub. Couldn’t have been much better. Jesse and I took the first round after a slow start. In the second set, I teamed up with Dan and we won again. I also had the high ton in both tourneys. Then I was drawn for the mystery out. So, if you are keeping score, my take on the night was W130,000. Not a bad nights work.

I made a batch of chili tonight this afternoon and I was quite pleased with the result.

Got drunk last night.

And there you have my weekend in a nutshell.

Peace. Out.

Yesterday we had the end of the season dart league banquet, awards ceremony, and tournament. Dolce Vita was packed as we had 50 people sign up for the tourney, plus many others who came out to support the league. Congrats to the outgoing SIDL officers, Petro, Tom and Max who did an outstanding job in organizing a great event.

So Young, one of the Dolce bartenders, is laid up with a broken foot, so YJ brought in a replacement to help with the tourney crowd. It was a nice surprise to see Ji Young, my buddy Duke’s girlfriend (and soon to be wife) again. Duke will be in town for a couple of weeks in February and we are all looking forward to seeing him again. The purpose of his visit is to have a pre-wedding celebration reception for his friends and family in Korea. Ji Young will be returning to the States with Duke for the long awaited nuptials.

The pool table was converted to a buffet stand. Great food from three different vendors with a nice mix of Korean and Western delicacies. I chowed down on bulgogi and turkey, a surprisingly good combination.

Unfortunately, Take it Easy did not qualify for any team awards this season. I did earn pins for my 9-mark, high ton, 5-marks, and league elite (finishing in top ten). This photo shows some of the players admiring their hard earned pins.

The Arctic Division Champions, Cake Mix from Wolfhound Pub. Congrats guys on a great season.

The Sliders, Dolce Vita’s “A” league team, won the Pacific Division Championship. The entire Dolce Vita family shared in the pride and bragging rights they brought to the “best damn dart bar in Itaewon”.

I finally got off the fence last night and made the decision to play in “A” division next season with the Sliders. I do want to take my game to the next level, and I’m thinking the challenge of playing in the top division will push me to play more consistent darts. We shall see.

Tough to leave Take it Easy, the only team I’ve ever played for and great bunch of guys. The decision was a little easier because Dan will be joining T.I.E. and with Sliders needing a fifth player, it works out best for both teams. We are also doing some recruiting in an effort to put a third team in the bar, and I think that is going to come together.

Time to register for the tourney. Max, the outgoing secretary-treasurer collects the entry fees and sells the raffle tickets. This year they raffled a complete home dart setup that was really fantastic. I don’t know why I didn’t take a picture of it, but the lighted board was really cool. The whole set-up was worth over $500. I really coveted that prize and spent W20,000 on raffle tickets, but alas, my teammate Rick had the winning number. I did get a nice board as a door prize. Since I have a rarely used board at home already, I donated this one to Dolce Vita.

Here’s dead-eye Colin showing his winning form during warm-ups…

The format for the tourney was blind draw, double elimination. Basically, all the entrants names are placed in pool and drawn for partners. The “A” players are in one pool and everyone else in another to avoid having two “A” players paired up. The top “B” players are moved into the “A” pool to balance the numbers, so I was included with the “A”s.

My partner last night was Hanna, the owner of Bless U Pub, and a solid “C” player. To be honest, I didn’t think we would have much success, because quite a few teams were “A-B” or “B-B”. It is always the luck of draw, but my attitude is whoever your partner you still have play hard and hope for the best.

Let me tell you, Hanna was a pleasant surprise. We wound up going 3-2 on the night, but we beat some teams that were statistically better than us and our two losses went all three legs and we were in a position to hit the out dart in every match. I didn’t have anything in the first couple of games, but Hanna picked up the slack and carried me. I got stronger as the night went on and we almost made it to the money rounds. Best part was we had a lotta fun and that is really what matters most (ok, that’s the loser lament, but I think it is a fine consolation prize).

Speaking of consolation prizes, there was a drawing to pick one team from the group that didn’t place, and Hanna and I won that. Woo Hoo!

Jim and Petro played for the Championship, but wound up short. If you can call second place and W150,000 each coming up short. Way to go guys!

After the tourney, eight of us headed over to Don Valley for beer, soju, and samgyapsal (pork belly). During the meal the manager came to our table and said customers were complaining that we were being too loud. We probably were. But, there was a group of Koreans having a birthday party who were certainly every bit as loud as us. And anybody who has been around Koreans who have been drinking can attest that they tend to be quite boisterous. So, I think our crime was being loud in English. Anyway, no big deal. Just a reminder that us foreigners will always be viewed as second class citizens here. Just a fact of life. You accept it or spend your time being angry.

And that’s about all I have to say about that. Or anything else right now.

Last night we had the inaugural playing of the Dolce Vita Invitational Dart Tournament. And I think by all accounts it was very successful. We had invited 20 players, and 12 showed up. That was my goal as a minimum. We had invited the top ten finishers from the Arctic and Indian Divisions, and wound up with six players from each, so that made a nice balance. Seung Youb showed up too late to play and Craig (the top seed) had a conflict and couldn’t make it, so that was disappointing. I was also sorry that Cake Mix, the Arctic Division champions, did not have a representative in the tourney. Next time guys!

The concept of the tourney was to have the best of the B/C divisions play head-to-head for bragging rights. And to give us something to do on a Monday night between seasons. But mostly, it was an excuse to get some dedicated darters together for some camaraderie, competition, and fun. I’m quite certain we achieved each of those objectives. I was especially happy to see that all three of the invited females competed. Anyone who knows Kyung Mi, Becky and Natalie would not be surprised that they came to play and were not intimidated by all the testosterone in the room.

Anyway, the format was a blind draw, double elimination, singles tourney. YJ, owner of Dolce, generously kicked W100,000 into the pot, which gave us a W220,000 purse. We had all four boards in play and quite a few spectators which made for a full house.

Here’s how the bracket went:

Round 1: (winners in BOLD)

Kyung Mi (M&M) v. Colin (Blessed Bulls)
Max (Alley Ratz) v. John (Take it Easy)
Jesse (Dawg Pound) v. Natalie (Survivors)
Paul (Dawg Pound) v. Brian (B Team)

Bye: Greg (Eberhardt), Dennis (Eberhardt), Chris (Alley Ratz)

Round 2:

Greg v. Colin
John v. Becky
Dennis v. Jesse
Brian v. Chris

Round 3: (Winners Bracket)

Greg v. John
Dennis v. Chris

(Losers Bracket)

Natalie v. Colin
Paul v. Becky
Kyung Mi v. Jesse
Max v. Brian

Colin v. Becky
Kyung Mi v. Max

Chris v. Colin
Greg v. Max

Round 4: (Winners Bracket)

John v. Dennis

(Losers Bracket)

Colin v. Greg
Dennis v. Colin

Round 5:

John v. Dennis

Championship Match

Dennis v. John

Yep, I managed to take first place. But it was a struggle. I was throwing some of my best darts of the year, and I needed everything I had to stay alive. I had some classic battles with Max and Greg and I was fortunate to come out of them victorious. One dart either way would have changed the outcome.

If you will indulge me, I want to talk about my games with Dennis. First of all, Dennis is a great guy and a true gentlemen from the Philippines. I’m not sure how long he has been playing, but this was the first year he was in the league. Damn, he is good. With Craig’s absence, he was the top seed in the tourney. And he will kill you with triples. Always tough to beat, but when he is on he will destroy you. I took him 2-1 in our only match during the regular season and he tells me that was the only singles match he lost all year.

In our first game last night, I took him to school in cricket. Whenever he left a number open, I would pound him for points. I think that threw him off his game just enough for me to get the win. He came back to take a close ’01 game, then it was back to cricket. We had a back and forth game (he was killing me on my open 17s, hitting a triple 3 times in a row. I was answering with 4 and 5 marks on 16s). We went to the bulls with me up on points, but less than a bull. I started with one bull. He answered with three. I stepped up to the oche and threw a double bull to close, and then another double bull for the win. Dennis was stunned, and to be honest, so was I.

So, as I expected would be the case, Dennis came up through the losers bracket to meet me again. He apparently took the cricket lesson I had given him in our first match to heart. He opened with seven 20s, putting me down 80 points out of the box. And he never let up. I would use three darts to close a number, he would close by hitting a triple and then pointing me on my open 20s with the next darts. He was determined not to let me back into the game, which is exactly the way cricket is supposed to be played. After he completed my destruction in cricket, we moved on to ’01. Although it was much closer (we both exchanged a couple of ton-20s) he got the out and the match.

As you might imagine, he was pretty excited. Until I reminded him that he had to beat me again for the championship. That was my first loss in a double elimination tourney.

Dennis took the diddle, called cricket, and did the seven 20s thing again. I answered with five 19s, and the battle was joined. Frankly, I don’t recall just how I managed to do it, but I overcame the deficit and wound up winning the leg. I know I was pretty amazed by the outcome and I imagine Dennis was a little crushed. I owned the ’01 leg that followed, throwing a ton to open, a couple of 60s, a ton-21, a ton, and then my out for the win. (You can tell it was late and all the beer I had consumed was kicking in because the details are definitely fuzzy).

Anyway, I had a great night and it was especially satisfying to defeat some players I really respect.

I also need to mention that Colin was playing some really outstanding darts as well. I’m glad I didn’t have to face him last night. He was seeded 9th and took 3rd, so that tells you that he had to beat some great players to finish in the money. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Well done!

Here’s the final standings:

1st: Yours truly
2nd: Dennis
3rd: Colin
4th: Greg
5th: Tie-Max and Chris
7th: Tie-Kyung Mi and Becky
9th: Tie-Brian, Jesse, Paul, Natalie

As I said at the beginning of the tournament, everyone there was invited because they are a winner. Last night was the reward for excellent play all season long. Our plan is to make the Dolce Vita Invitational a regular event that the top players look forward to with anticipation.

Here’s some photos from last night:

Four of the twelve participants (L-R) Dennis, John, Becky, Natalie

Money winners, Dennis, John, and Colin. Kinda like the Olympics: Canada bronze, Philippines silver, USA gold. This time anyway!

Colin takes home W30,000 and a big smile.

Dennis is W60,000 richer and no doubt plotting his revenge for the next time we meet.

Nothing beats the thrill of victory, but W130,000 comes close! Thanks to Jim for hosting the tourney, keeping everything on track, and being a big supporter of darts in Itaewon.

I can’t help but wonder how many people actually made it to the end of this post. If you did, leave a comment. I want to know if someone out there actually reads my long winded dart reports. Thanks!

Gawd, I amaze myself with the witty, er, punny, blog titles I come up with. But then, I am easily amused.

Today’s post is dedicated to Cake Mix of Wolfhound Pub, Arctic Division Champions in the Seoul International Dart League. I went to watch the finals last night against Eberhardt from Scrooge Pub, and saw some nice darts and great sportsmanship. Well, done gents.

It was an interesting playoff series this season. Blessed Bulls and Alley Ratz (first and second place respectfully) had first round byes, but were both defeated in the second round. Eberhardt, the third place finisher took us down us down in week 1, and whipped Alley Ratz in round two to make it to the finals. Cake Mix beat FFOD to set up their big upset of the Bulls in round two. That match went to the final dart in the team game, with the Bulls missing the double 19 out, and the Mix lads hitting the double 18 for the win.

Cake Mix won last night 10-5, but it was much closer than the score. Most of the legs were extremely tight, but Cake Mix hit the big dart when they needed it. So, once again, congrats on a great season and a well-earned victory.

And for what it is worth, we did beat Cake Mix twice in the regular season. Which means nothing of course. The way they played last night I don’t expect we would have fared any better than Eberhardt.

So, I have to hang loose ’till January and the new season. Not sure yet if I will move up to the “A” division. I’m leaning it against it. Although I think I could be competitive at that level I’m not sure I would have as much fun. And frankly, I like the having fun part. Win or lose, our team pulls together. None of this crap about gettin’ on someone who is having an off night. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I still have soft tips on Thursdays. I’m playing a little better but I’m not sure its the game for me.

We are having an invitational tournament at Dolce on the 17th. Top ten players from the Arctic and Indian Divisions meeting head-to-head for bragging rights. Yeah, that’s what its all about!

Last night’s first round playoff match ended with the Take it Easy lads getting a pretty good spanking. But we didn’t take it laying down, and we are not hanging our heads.

Contrary to my initial belief, we did not play Cake Mix, we played Eberhardt. Eberhardt was ranked 3rd, Cake Mix 4th, and us 5th. 1st and 2nd place teams had byes this week. So, normally the highest ranked would play the lowest ranked, but for some reason (the league President gave an explanation, but I’m not sure I understand it), 3rd played 5th and 4th played 6th. My only gripe is that our “reward” for finishing higher in the standings was to play a higher ranked team. That seems backwards.

But games are won (or lost) at the oche, so on with the match report. Eberhardt is always a powerhouse. This year they had the number 2 and number 3 ranked players in the league (Dennis and Greg). I surmised that they would play in the first two spots in the lineup. I decided our best shot was to put our two best players up against them and hope to come out at least 3-3, then let our 3 and 4 players take their chances in more evenly matched games. So, when lineups were exchanged I was surprised to see Greg in the #3 slot and Dennis in #4. Ah well, the best laid plans and all that.

So I had Sean in the opening match and pretty much had my way with him. To be honest, the way I was throwing I would have liked my chances with either Greg or Dennis. I owned the cricket numbers and threw a 90-out in ’01 (20, 20, double bull). The Eberhardt guys were calling me Barry Bonds (alluding to steroids). But all I had in me was a burrito, beer, and nicotine. So, we start out 3-0.

Matt is up next against John. Matt is our new player picked up to replace Cuatro. He’s been throwing decent all season and I was pretty confident he would take at least two legs from John. Well, they played 3 outstanding legs. Matt took the opening cricket leg, but had to do it by pointing out on bulls for a come from behind win. The ’01 match also went down to the wire, and Matt had a couple of shots at the out, but John got their first. Matt won the diddle and called ’01, and a very similar game took place with the same outcome. So, after two matches, we are sitting on a 4-2 lead.

Greg and Jim were up next. Jim has really been coming on strong in the second half of the season, but Greg was just too much for him last night, and he took a 3-0 sweep. Now we are down 5-4.

It’s a race to ten legs won in the playoffs, so Rick was under the gun in his match with Dennis. Rick had to work, so the match was delayed for about 15 minutes while we awaited his arrival. It’s tough to start throwing cold, but throwing cold against a quality player like Dennis is usually fatal. Dennis dominated the cricket leg, but Rick played well in the ’01 leg, taking a couple of out shots before Dennis caught up and took the win. Same thing in the third leg, so now we are barely clinging to life, down 8-4.

It was Lonnie and Matt in the ’01 doubles, and we had to have 2 legs to avoid elimination. They were throwing against Dennis and Charlie so they had their work cut out for them. After a real dogfight, Lonnie outed to take the first leg. Charlie had a monster game in the second leg to even it up. So, it was do or die time. And after a mighty struggle we died, losing 10-5.

Although the match was over, Greg offered to go ahead and play it out. That gave Rick and me the chance to see what we could do in cricket doubles against Greg and John. Nothing on the line but pride, but hey, I’ve played for less. And we had some titanic battles, back and forth, pointing, and contesting every number. With some clutch come from behind darts from Rick (i.e. double bull for points, 15 to close and triple 18 to close) we got a 3-0 sweep. So, one more leg up top and we would have been sitting 9-9 going into the team game. Woulda, coulda, shoulda, and all that.

Well, we wound up getting spanked in the team game anyway, so kudos to Eberhardt who played an excellent match. Good sports (now that a certain fella from England no longer plays on the team) and a good time, all in all.

Yeah, winning is great. But one thing about Take it Easy, when we lose, we do it with class. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Another dart league season has drawn to a close. Kind of a mixed bag for the Take it Easy boys this time around. We finished in 5th Place, but we had a hell of a good time doing it. We lost a couple of players (military guys that rotated out), but played with a lot of heart and we were competitive in most of our matches. And we qualified for the playoffs where anything is possible.

Blessed Bulls, from our neighbor bar Bless U Pub, took the league championship this year after a real dogfight with the reigning champions from 3 Alley Pub. It was decided on the last night of the season. The other top team is Eberhardt from Scrooge Pub. The have a couple of tough players and really came on strong at the end.

Monday night we will play the guys from Wolfhound, with the unlikely team name of Cake Mix. They are also a quality team, but we managed to eek out two victories in head-to-head play during the season. Of course, all bets are off in a single elimination playoff round.

The two players we lost this year were Mario and Cuatro. Mario left at the beginning of the season, but we really missed his heart, spirit, and clutch darts all season. Cuatro is also a big loss. He left two weeks ago and was ranked #5 in our division. We had him in both of our previous match ups with Wolfhound, so we will really have to kick it up a notch come Monday night.

I had a decent season, although I was a little disappointed that I didn’t play with a little more consistency. I had nights when I couldn’t miss, and other nights when I was mediocre at best. I went through a couple of weeks when I just could not hit the 20 with any regularity, and that is a killer in cricket. My ’01 game was ok, except it is taking me too many darts to close. With the exception of one or two legs, I had a shot at the double out in every game that I lost. No excuse for that. Anyway, I finished ranked #4, down from my second place ranking last season. I don’t feel too bad about that because the two guys who passed me have been playing awesome darts, week in and week out. My Canadian buddy Craig (aka The Goat) wound up with the number 1 spot, and he definitely earned it. Congrats!

On the bright side, I finished first in 5 marks, and second in 6 marks. I also threw my first 9 mark in competition. So, all in all I am not unhappy. If you are interested, check out the webpage for the Seoul International Dart League (SIDL) and follow along as we attempt to pull off some upsets in the playoffs.

Just to prove what a dart fanatic I have become, I went back and crunched some numbers to try and measure my progress as a darter. Here are the results:

Season 1: 38-25 (60.32%) 6.49 quality points and 21 total marks

Season 2: 92-22 (80.70%) 8.54 quality points and 44 total marks

Season 3: 66-21 (75.86%) 8.29 quality points and 50 total marks

Current: 70-23 (75.27%) 8.54 quality points and 83 total marks

So, if you just look at winning percentage I appear to have hit the ceiling as far as improvement goes (ok, strictly speaking, regressing). But you really can’t measure performance on wins alone because there are too many variables. For example, it depends on who you play. I think I drew the top players from other teams more frequently this season, and you can throw well and lose in that situation. Another variable is doubles where the outcome also depends on your partner (I played cricket doubles with Cuatro most of the season, and we played excellent, so that is not an excuse).

Quality points is a mathematical formula based on wins, marks, and legs played. While a better measure than winning percentage, wins are still worth 10 QPs, and marks are worth between 1 and 5 QPs. After my rookie season, I’ve been pretty consistent in that regard.

So, being a “glass half-full” kinda guy, I choose to measure progress by marks thrown. Marks are scoring 5 or more hits per throw in cricket (i.e. a triple and two singles or two triples etc.), or scoring 100+ points in ’01. In that regard I showed marked improvement this season. So, I will call that a positive trend. If I can improve consistency and do a better job with my mental focus I can hopefully take my game to the next level.

Still with me? If so, I’m worried about you. But that won’t stop me. I’m also playing in a Thursday night soft tips league (you know, those monstrous machines that make a lot of noise and require you to feed them copious amounts of money). I joined somewhat reluctantly because I really don’t have a feel for it and I worry that it will affect my steel tip play (I throw 26 gram darts versus 16 grams in soft tips). Bottom line, I really stink at soft tips. My darts are like butterflies in a strong wind as they meander to the board. Just don’t have a sense of control and it is frankly embarrassing to play as poorly as I do. I’m no quitter so I will finish out the season, but absent some miracle it may be a one time thing.

Ok, that’s enough darts for one night, don’t ya think?