Well, last night proved to be a dart too far as we suffered a tough 19-18 loss to Guzzlers at Geckos.

It was an exciting and well played match, a real see-saw battle.  But the way it ended was just hard to take and was an incredible disappointment.

We were up two legs at the conclusion of singles, and after the first two rounds of doubles the score was tied 15 all.  Remember, 19 legs is required for victory.

So, Ali and I are up against Joe and Billy (ranked 3 and 4 in A division).  We didn’t play great, but not bad either.  Well, Joe and Billy were on and took us 0-3, leaving the Guzzlers one leg shy of the championship.  Seung Youb and Scott played an amazing match (including a ton-80 from Scott) and in a spectacular finish, swept all three legs, leaving the score at 18-18 with the team game deciding the match.

We came out smokin’ and built a 200+ point lead.  Youb had a 41 out to shoot for, but left it at 14.  Well, I had been practicing my out shots, including the double 7, so I felt confident I could bring it home.  Two misses and then I leave it at 7.  Ali was next, hit the 3 and then missed two shots at the double 4.  Meanwhile the Guzzlers had come alive and were sitting at a 40 out.  Then missed, leaving a double 10 out.  Scott was next for us and couldn’t close either.  Then Joe hit it for Guzzlers and won the championship.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda.  I have been reliving it in my head all day and it is still hard to take.  Alas.

On the bright side, it was one of the finest dart matches I’ve had the pleasure to play in.  Except for the ending.

Kudos to the Guzzlers for their hard fought victory.  Congrats to the Blue Bulls for never giving up and fighting to the last dart.

Damn.

Championship darts, baby!  Blue Bulls versus Guzzlers at Gecko’s.

I did about an hour of practice yesterday, mostly working on my ’01 double outs.  We will soon see if it pays off.

Win or lose, look for the full report here.

Wish us luck!

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Well, I was a little blitzed last night from the after victory celebrations so I was in no condition to go much into the play by play.  In fact, in the 3 lines I did post I corrected 3 typos this morning.

Anyway, Eberhardt is an outstanding team with a strong lineup top to bottom, including the top ranked player in “A” division, Dennis Galiza.  We only had the minimum four players available, but we stacked up well and we were feeling confident.  As I mentioned, Eberhardt finished first in the league, although there was some controversy surrounding that.  We had to postpone our week two match against them and despite our best efforts we could not get Eberhardt to agree to a suitable time for a make-up match.  Now, I’m not ascribing any bad intent on their part (I know at least one of their guys reads this blog, so I want to be clear on that), but still we were pretty frustrated that we had to take a forfeit.  The forfeit gave Eberhardt 28 legs (and us a -9) which put them in first.  Guzzlers, the second place team and our opponent in next weeks championship match, was understandably unhappy with this turn of events.  Now, Eberhardt spanked us pretty good in our only regular season face-off, whether they would have taken enough legs had we made up our match to take first anyway will never be known.

So that was the backdrop going into last night’s meeting.  We got off to a good start in singles ’01 with Scott and Seung Youb both going 2-1.  I drew Dennis in singles cricket and I knew I had my work cut out for me as he has had an amazing season.  Frankly, my goal was to get at least one leg from their best player.  I actually threw some of my best darts of the season against Dennis.  But it seemed like for every six mark I threw (and I threw several) Dennis would answer with a 7 mark.  It was a frustrating experience to be sure and I went down 0-3.  Fortunately, my teammate Ali picked me up by going 3-0 against his opponent.

Youb and Dennis had another amazing match in singles mix (both throwing ton 80s, something I had never seen in the same leg), and Youb prevailed 2-1.  I took Lucky down 2-1 in our singles mix, and Scott and Ali both did well too.  Which brought us to a 15-9 lead going into the last round of doubles (19 being the magic number for victory).

Ali and I faced off against Dennis and Ron while Scott and Youb drew Greg and Lucky.  We were standing at 1-1 when Scott and Youb finished their 3-0 sweep, which gave us the requisite 19 legs and the right to meet Guzzlers on Monday night.

Guzzlers whipped us in both our matches during the regular season, so we have our work cut out for us.  They also have home bar advantage, and Gecko’s is a venue I don’t much care for.  As this is our last year as a team (I’m moving to Rubbies and Scott and Craig are returning to Canada) we want the championship bad.  Of course, wanting it the most is not enough, we’ve got to get the job done at oche. 

Despite the odds, I like our chances.

We took down Eberhardt (the first place team) in the playoffs tonight.  So, we are in the finals.  Next week it’s the Blue Bulls versus Guzzlers from Gekcos.  The league championship is on the line.

 It should be a great match, Read all about it here.