The penultimate game of the 2010 Summer League was another winnable fixture v Cobden Raspberries. They treated us really well at their place and I was looking forward to welcoming them over to The Mill House for the return.
Only Mark was making my heart skip beats, not because I wanna shag him, just because he was bloody late AGAIN and he only lives down the road.
But he got there and as always he brought a round!
Well, we get the darts underway as Spurs have battled back from 3-0 down to make 3-1 –
Longy / Gaz / Joe: Their player kicked off with T19 / T19 / T19!!! Great darts, how do you follow that? Well lucky it wasn’t Gazza to throw cos he would have probably hit 26! Longy follows up with 75 scored. Gazza chipped in with single 20 / single 1 but bottled going for another 20 in case it got the dreaded, but for to frequent, 26. Joe pinged in a score of 73 to get us down to a finish but as always, the doubles were not found. 1-0 down
James: Well Spurs got a goal back to make it 3-2, get in there! After an even first leg their guy took out 59 but James came back with a 78 in the second to leave 24 which he comfortably took out! Peppering the 60 in the decider, which was close but a frustrated James, who threw a dart into another twice in the same leg, proved once again he can’t do it in a competitive singles league game. 2-0 down
Longy / Gaz: Playing against the 2 younger blokes (this brought the average down to about 68 of the other team) the scoring was pretty even and steady with Longy chipping in with consecutive 60’s and Gaz with 81, 45 and 60. They were left with 28 and Longy has been left with 131. T17 – Hit, T16 – fucking miles away.... Enough said about that, their guy took out the double 12 and the score was 3-0 down
Mark / James / Joff: Mark starting the night with an 81 followed by an 85, Joff followed up with a 3 and James (still reeling from his singles defeat) kept the scoring ticking over. Mark then took out 59 to win our first leg of the night. Could another comeback be on the cards, like last week. 3-1 down
Mark / James: Could they carry the winning trend on from the trebles game? Mark scored well, James’ scoring dipped below average for him. Mark was left on 21 and bravely went for single 5 – Hit, composing himself before taking 2 shots at D8 only to see them miss. They took out the double promptly. Fight back over? 4-1 down
Joe: After making some steady progression in recent weeks, Joe’s darts were a little wayward at first (hitting the cabinet a couple of times) but then pinged a score of 85 (including Tops twice) and got down to double 1 along with his opponent. I could see him winning this leg. Unfortunately, not enough accuracy with that final dart cost the leg. In leg 2, scores of 81 and 59 were not enough as he was left with 74 but the other guy took out D4 to win 2-0. 5-1 down
Gaz: They hit 81 to start and Gaz firmly came back with T20 but followed it up bugger all. Then bust on 80. They took out 15 (Single 1 and D7). Gaz came back with some great recovery darts (after some pressure and barracking from his own team as well as the opposition) to take out Double 7. In the end the final leg just slipped away from Gaz as he had 25 left and missed a dart at D4 for the game and a 2-1 defeat was imminent. 6-1 down
Longy: Emma (my lucky charm) kindly chalked the game and it paid off as Longy hit a Brucie bonus (flukey D20) to kick off proceedings and a solid lead built (ton to leave 167). Longy should have been out of sight in this leg. 107 left but the opponent crashed in 125 to get first crack at a double. He took that out after we had more than enough attempts at our doubles. 2nd Leg was a replica, Longy looked in control when the guy hits a 121 to set up double 16. Longy got dicked. 7-1 down
Mark: Starts with a ton that looked like a 180 from me and Emma I was standing but followed it with a 3. Still done enough to hold on and calmly hit the highest checkout of the season – 96. Great darts son!! Mark went on to win his 2nd singles game in a row. Great to have you back son..... 7-2 down.
A great bunch of lads, some great food cooked by Emma at Jon’s beloved Neville and served by Emma’s daughter Gemma.
A few games of doubles and a game of halves followed, as it is the ritual on a Tuesday... Although James skulked off home as he was off his peanut!
Overall:
James still has no singles ‘scalps’ to his name (He won as many singles games as he has bought rounds this season!)
Mark wins 2nd doubles game in a row
Joff tastes success for the first time this season in the doubles game
Food: 9/10 for the Beef and Ale pie and 8/10 for the chicken and bacon with mustard mash
