Back to the Mill this week where we started all those weeks ago!!!!! Could this finally be the one???? Who knows..... I have been saying to my work colleagues (sorry Joff, I know you don’t have any) ‘this week will be the one’ for the last 17 weeks. They have told me they don’t want to hear the word darts until we win! Would I be talking about it on Friday?
Wayne brought his team up from the Blue Anchor and after half an hour on the practice board Longy offers them a chance to warm up! Only cos he had the hump that James and Shane beat the ‘Dream Team’ in a warm up game!! I noticed a few females in the squad, nice to see a good mix!
Well, with the Halloween decor up (were the pumpkins an idea for Emma’s next tan colour????), Gem allocating nicknames for our shirts (that will be through soon hopefully) and Joff constantly going on about FOOD FOOD FOOD, maybe he should have focused more on getting changed out of his PJ’s for the night! Oh and where was Lee????? Thought he went on walkabout but he was just drinking with his mates in the other bar! Maybe we should nickname him Crocodile Dundee???
Longy wins the toss and wants the pick rather than the throw. A brave call but the tactics were to get the big guns on first and take a solid lead! He called up Shane to open the bowling, oops I mean darts:
Shane v Mick: Starting with 1, 1 and 20 with his first 3 darts I was starting to think Shane was star struck as he was playing against Lesley Nielsen from the Naked Gun films. He came back to the oche and got down to 58 with scores of 60, 100 and 97 but with 32 left wasted 6 darts and Mick followed in with 60, 71 (that was mis-scored as 73, well done Gaz) and 100. He then took D10 after missing it with his 3rd dart in the previous throw for a 60 out shot. Second leg and Shane looking a little ragged with scores of 26, 8, 26 but ends up on 91. A solid 60 leaves 31. Single 3 and a bent wire on D14 followed by single 14 left 14. After busting/missing 6 times Shane has now reverted to throwing on 1 leg as he is struggling with a bit of dartitis... This is after Mick couldn’t finish from 40 (he had 30 darts at it!). Shane takes out D1 and goes to the decider! He wins the toss but goes behind to a very consistent Mick who eventually takes out 40 with 20/10/D5. 1-0 down
Longy/Gaz v Mick/J Coleman: Longy starts the game with a Gazza style 26 and as he draws the darts from the board and turns to face the crowd 3 voices bellowed ‘GGGAAAAAZZZZAAAAAAA’. Love it! Gaz banged in a 75 which included a flukey switcheroo to T18. From there on in it was average scoring that didn’t see us capitalise when the option was there and Mick took out D16. A similar second leg that saw them bust out on 31 twice and Gaz took out 4 (2 & D1). Level peggings and their throw. Mick puts in a 180 to a big cheer from us, not alot from them, but that put us under pressure and never saw us get close to a double! The Dream Team finally beaten! 2-0 down
James v P Murdoch: 6 throws in and all James’ scores ranging between 39 and 65 he moans that he hasn’t hit a ton yet! Next through = 100! Had chances but failed to take out 48 (hit 24) and then the remaining 24. Won the 2nd leg with D16 after some erratic darts that saw 4 scores 60+ but 5 scores of 45 and below. Again steady scoring in the decider but after hitting 80 the opposition tidied up and took out 40 with a wild 18 followed by D11. 3-0 down
Lee v T Hogan: Not surprisingly (after last weeks ‘shoulder’ injury – PRICK) Lee looked rusty in the early exchanges with only 2 60+ scores in leg 1. 1-0 down and hurting! How would he react? Starting the 2nd leg 81/140/66 helped his cause but when you bust out 100 (by hitting 20/20/60) can you expect to win? This boy can! Double 8 was the bed victory tonight! 1-1 and on double 1 Lee couldn’t lose! But a row of Duck Eggs 0000000 were the 7 scores following but his resistence was high and D1 and the cry of ‘Thank Fuck’ echoed round the pub!! For the statisticians out there, Lee hit a 66 in each leg. 3-1 down
The Chilli comes out (not sure if it was from the Neville or not) with some nachos and James tucked straight in, fair play
Gaz v C Buxton: Seething after the Dream Team winning streak was broken, he was determined to get his own back! 6 scores out if his first 8 were 60+, that is great consistent scoring mate! And the trusty right hand guided the tungsten into the green bit of the double 5.Not such a high scoring leg followed but only 1 26. 1 missed set of darts at D16 followed by a great take out. No drink offered by the LOSER tells a story in itself! They expected to win this one! 3-2 down
Shane/James v W Tidey/C Buxton: The fact that Longy didn’t go down the conventional route of getting the doubles out of the way, this confused them as Wayne (their skipper) expected to play this way! Some up and down scores here and Gaz (once again) naused up the scoring. Longy steps in and just resets it (by accident) and walks off ha ha. Shame for them cos they hit 80 to start and we started with a 27!! But some good scoring from a confidence lacking Shane supported by the ‘ton machine’ James saw them ease in front. James taking out D9 for the first leg. Even though they started the 2nd leg with a ton the rest of the scoring here was slow. No ton’s from James or Shane in 2 legs, never been heard of! We bust twice on 16 and they took out D5 on 9th dart at it. Decider again. Nip and tuck all the way here saw Shane take out D1. Still no ton’s from us but 2 from them and we still done them! 3-3
Longy v Wayne: Skipper v Skipper seems to be a trend at home! Each time Longy has gone in front against his opposite number but lost both times! 61/83/123/85 in consecutive throws followed by 22/26/26/17 ended up leaving me on 17. Casually, Longy pings a fat 9 and a D4 that looked easy! 2nd leg underway and Longy hits 85/100/70/100/80. Good scoring again but back to normal ending up on D1 and was nicely taken out! As with Gaz’s opponent, no sportsmanship shown by offering a beer! Losing is sore (or so they tell me ha ha). 4-3 up
Joe/Lee v B Lawson/K Stevens: Well, a chance to win our first ever match! The guys v 2 birds! Could it be????? Joe does all the scoring including 81/47/91 and then Lee finally wakes up after hitting 11/45/22 by hitting a ton! The crowd of the Millhouse (including Daily Mirror) are now edging closer to the darts area. Stumpy leaves Lightweight on a dodgy 9 finish but he tidies up well to leave D4. Lee hits it, top right corner and 1-0 up. Nervous with anticipation now! Joe solidly scoring again and this time Lee gets off to a flier too with 111 (or was that 3 single 1’s?)/100/72. Joe with 64 hits T16, misses the board and gets an unlucky bounce out of D8 that would have won us the match. Lee does the honours and the pub goes beserk! 5-3 up
‘They’ve got, some people are on the pitch..... They think it’s all over! It is now!!!!!!!’ – Ken Wolstenholme: World Cup Final 1966 in case you were wondering. Although I prefer Joff’s quote ‘Did you know Betty cooked 200,000 hot pots in the Rovers Return’...... Class!!!!
First win of the season, the year and EVER! Get in! May many more come our way!
Emma v Mandy: To finish the night, 2 old friends lock horns! A slow but steady start from both players that saw both get down to 22. Who had the steely nerve to hold out? I know! Emma scores 0 and 8 with her next 2 throws but then casually slots in a D7 for a 14 outshot! 1-0 up and it is all looking rosy! Starting the leg with a ton would be nice and Emma obliged. Not really followed up with any major scores but all steady eddy! 60 left, how will she go? D5 – an attempt at the Bull but hit 3 – tidy up with 7. Next throw = 20 scored. Next throw = D10 and another 2-0 single win for Dicky. 6-3 up
Well played all! Was great to get our first win on the board. Just got to hunt the second now!
Cheers to Joff who stepped down to let Lee play!
Remember, I will give the players that are reliable the games. I know James and Shane played doubles and singles this week but they also play on a Tuesday! For the rest of us, this is the only darts that we play and every wants a slice of the action. I will have to put a more robust rotation policy in place!
