New Year's Darts Resolutions

A bit late with these but I'll post them anyway:

• Hit two 180s in one day.
• Hit fifty 180s in 2020.
• Hit a high of 41 - as the lowest score - in a round.
• Hit 60 sixties in a round.
• Hit a 180 in a bar.
• Towards the end of the year, join a pub team and, naturally, go down in flames in ignominious defeat.

Kidding myself on?

• Hit two 180s in one day? Two 180s in one day is doable. If anything, me getting my arse in gear and posting these darting resolutions is only because I've come pretty close already this year to hitting two in one day. It should happen at some point.
• Hit fifty 180s in 2020? It appears a big ask but I've already hit six this year, and if I keep it up I can do it. If I keep it up . . . 
• Hit a high of 41 - as the lowest score - in a round? Probably the hardest one of all the resolutions. I don't even think I've ever come close to doing this. Achieving this would be a greater indicator of me significantly improving as a dart player than a hundred 180s in a calendar year. 
• Hit 60 sixties in a round? I could maybe do it as a one off but I'd have to improve my game to come even close.
• Hit a 180 in a bar? I came close a couple of times last year when I was popping into my local 2/3 times a week. I haven't been practising as much in bars recently, so achieving this goal is purely contingent on me playing in bars more.
• Towards the end of the year, join a pub team . . . ? I'd have to hit some doubles first, but why not?

Naturally I'll let the blog know if and when I achieve any of these resolutions.

Heartlands (2002)

"Charles Grodin's looking his age . . . and that's a good thing".

I needed this.

The Inglorious Nine.

No, not a reference to the Labour splitters. It's me hitting three treble 1s. I didn't even have the nous to adjust my feet after the first two went in.

Michael van Gerwen, your crown is still safe  . . . for now.

Maybe I'm amazed . . .

Second 180 in three days. I'm on schedule to be a wild card entry to the 2023 Indianapolis Darts Pub League. 

At last I am free . . .

It's been a while.

First one in Indiana.

Whilst making the kids some toast . . .

So bastard close. And it's been awhile as well.

Get In!!!!!

My third 180 in three months. If this was 1974, I'd be ranked number seven in the world.

Fucker

However, the silver lining is that if the World Darts Federation decide to hold next year's World Professional Darts Championship in the kids' bedroom, I fancy my chances.

"Fun like this . . ."

I've finally worked out how to get 180s. (My second this year.) Before the third dart is thrown, you haven't realised that you've already hit two treble twenties with your first two darts. 

The upside of a bad prescription.

Finally . . .

Thirty odd years after my first 180, I finally get my second. Granted, in the intervening years I played little or no darts but a thirty years gap between the first and the second is a tad too long.

As mentioned before, disregard the numbers round the board. I rotate the board because the 5/20/1 beds had all taken a battering in the past few months.

And, yes, if and when I get another 180, I will post a celebratory pic on the blog. But by that point I'm sure we will all have google glass surgically embedded in our eyeballs, so the blog won't even be necessary.

Close to heaven

Disregard where the numbers are. I've been rotating the board because the triple twenty bed has taken a bit of a hammering. Arguably, it's the closest I've been to a 180 in (maybe) 30 years.

It's not going to happen

Killing Me

Bellies and Bullseyes: The Outrageous True Story of Darts by Sid Waddell (Ebury Press 2007)

In mid-February I went up to Newcastle from my home in Leeds for the England/Scotland clash. I attended the pre-match banquet and had a drink with some of the players before the meal. Alan Glazier, a star exhibition player like Evans, was courteous and shy. Tony Brown, also of England, looked like Desperate Dan and was drinking gin fast. Charlie Ellix, a small Cockney, also seemed to have a mighty thirst. Across the way, nineteen-year-old Eric Bris“tow toyed with a pint of lager. Later he told me that the Indoor League had inspired him. ‘When I was sixteen me dad was teaching me darts and I used to sit on the settee watching Indoor League. I said to me mum and dad “I want to go on that”.’ He did, and he won it.

Next day the action and atmosphere at the City Hall lived up to expectation. The last time I’d been there was to see PJ Proby, and the support was a band called Nero and the Gladiators. The darts was gladiatorial and the Geordie crowd loved every minute. Two images live in my memory. Firstly, Bristow saluting the crowd after a 16-dart leg and going on to win. Secondly, a stocky mop-headed little bloke from Kirkcaldy who bounced around the stage in tartan trews and did a number on Charlie Ellix. He was described in the programme as ‘Jocky’ Wilson – ‘one of the unemployed’.