An interesting night of darts yesterday, all the more so because we played a singles tournament and all the matches were competitive. Oh yeah, I went undefeated which is always special. I like playing the Tuesday and Friday tourneys because the format includes cricket–my favorite dart game. What I like about cricket is that it is more strategic than other games, like 501. Playing a smart game of cricket can result in victory even if your opponent is throwing better than you. Way back in 2012 I wrote about this phenomenon in a post called “Pointing is Cricket”. The pointing strategies I outlined there came into play last night and ultimately led to my victory.

A brief recap: I was playing against Billy, always a tough competitor. It was the third and deciding leg of our match. Billy had all her numbers closed and was up on points. All she needed was three bulls to win. I still had my 15s open, but since I was behind on points, I needed to score some bullseyes to get ahead. Now, rather than close her bulls, Billy kept throwing for more points at my open 15. I’m not sure what triggered it, but all of the sudden I was hitting bulls like crazy. I hit 4 bulls on one throw, good for 100 points, which closed the point deficit Billy had created. Even when Billy just needed one more bull to win, she kept throwing at the 15. She’d hit a triple 15 for 45 points, I’d answer with a double bull for 50. This went on and on until finally she missed and I didn’t. A bull for points and then I closed the 15 for the victory. I was shaking my head at the outcome and afterward asked Billy why she didn’t close her bulls? She responded, “I wasn’t feeling it.” What? You know you can’t win until you do. A blank stare was her response. Oh well, worked out fine for me.

I had a good morning as well. The usual leaders of the Friday hike were absent, so it fell upon me to pick the trail. I opted to do an end-to-end trek on My Bitch, then come down into the valley, and walking back to Barretto from there. Made for a nice 8K hike. Here are some photos from the journey:

You can Relive the hike here:

That’s all for today’s installment. Thanks for dropping in!