The dart tournament at Alley Cats last night proved to be quite the adventure. Well, as adventurous as throwing sharply pointed projectiles in a drinking establishment can be anyway. I drew Espie as a partner once again. We’ve enjoyed our share of success in previous tourneys notwithstanding our inexplicable bouts of inconsistency.

Alright, what do I mean by inconsistency? Here’s as good an example as any. I threw a ton-80, my second of the year, last night. That’s 180 points, three triple 20s, the highest score possible in the game of 501 we were playing, and a very rare event for us amateurs. So you’d think I was on my game. But my very next throw was something ridiculous like a 26 or some such bullshit. Still, with a 200+ point lead, you’d think the game was in the bag. But in this case, you would be wrong.

For those readers who don’t know the 501 game, it works like this: You start with 501 points. You throw your three darts, add up the total of your throw (e.g., a 20, a 1, and a 5=26) then subtract that from the 501. You continue throwing and deducting until you reach zero to win the game. The catch is you have to throw a “double out” to reach zero. That’s often harder than you’d think and there are lots of strategies on how to set yourself up for the win. For example, once you get below 100 points you want to leave yourself on an even number because every possible out is even.

In the first round of the tourney last night, Espie and I faced off against Troy and his partner, Jerlyn. Troy is a good darter but based on the Singles League stats, I can make a good argument that I’m better. Jerlyn is wild–she or no one else ever knows where her darts will land, although she does generally hit the board. Jerlyn seems to have more than her share of luck though–throws at the 20, misses wildly but hits a triple 18 for 54 points kind of thing. Espie is a much more reliable darter. So, I was quite confident we would prevail in the match.

It started off well enough, with us winning the first leg (a tourney match is the best of 3 games, aka “legs”). In the second leg I threw my ton-80, Espie was hitting big, and we were sitting on a 32 out (double 16). Troy and Jerlyn were still in the 200s at this point. Now, strategically a 32 is one of the most popular outs to strive for because you have some margin for error. If you throw a fat 16, your next out, a double 8, is right above it. Miss that, you’ve still got one dart left to throw at the double 4. Anyway, despite our numerical and strategic advantage my partner and I failed to throw the outshot on several consecutive throws thereby allowing our opponents to close the gap and eventually win the leg. In the third leg, Espie and I both went cold simultaneously which ultimately led to our defeat and banishment to the losers bracket.

Darts is a funny game sometimes. As we fought our way back through the losers bracket we faced off against opponents that seemed much stronger than Troy and Jerlyn and defeated them all rather handily. Meanwhile, Troy and Jerlyn continued to play well and made it to the finals undefeated. And that’s where we met them again in the championship round. Except we would have to beat them twice to win. And that’s exactly what we managed to do.

Well, I’ll be damned. When is the last time I devoted a whole post to darts? I guess it’s an indication of some of that old enthusiasm creeping back into my life. I spent the morning preparing the schedules and spreadsheets for the upcoming second half of the Barretto Singles League. I’m also going to have some custom shirts designed and made for the players. I’ve got my shirts for the previous iterations of the league in Columbia, SC, and Seoul. Yes, this singles league format is something I created from scratch and I admit I’m kind of proud of it in a daddy-like fashion.

And as if I didn’t feel guilty enough about blowing off my walking yesterday because of a little rain, Facebook reminded me of what I was enduring three years ago in Pyeongtaek.

No rain today though so no excuses.

So yeah, doing 12K in two bites is just about my speed. I was kinda bragging here the other day about doing that 12K Friday walk and then Kevin Kim posted about his 27K hike as if it were nothing. I bow before the master!

I’ll be back.