It Must Be Thursday
It must be Thursday because the wind is blowing, the sky is gray, and rain splashes to the ground in an occasional manner. At school we have been studying astronomy and the area of information was about eclipses. Most of the period has been spent answering questions about astronomy that have nothing to do with a solar eclipse. I enjoyed the classes all day but I must admit my mind would drift to the evening of darts ahead. Why does the weather seem to always be nasty on the day of darts? I can remember many times of driving to Chalmers or Monon with a snowfall glowing in the beams of my headlights. One evening we were at Trio's and the fog swept over the small building like a desert sandstorm. We stood and watched the approaching fog out the window of the bar. You could see the cloud line approaching devouring landmarks along the way. The lights of the parking lot gave a changing glow to the fog as air moved the dense mass by in streams and eddies. It was wonderful to behold but the knowledge of a soon to be drive home was unsettling.
Now standing in my classroom I thought of tonight and the darts ahead. We played so well last week. No, we didn't win all of the games but both Mike and I threw well enough to be in the running for the most improved player for the week. Brian started a little slow but soon was throwing in the manner we are all used to. Jason too was throwing very well that night. We had some games we should have won but over all not a bad night. After a couple of dismal nights the past few weeks I was happy with my performance and I didn't want to let down this week either.
It is 6:30 and I walk into the bar and find that Bev has place a table of diners right next to the bar. Shit, this is such a pain in the ass to try and play darts. S O Are you playing darts at home tonight? It turns out that these are people who are often here dining when we play and know we are going to need the space. They graciously move to another table and one disaster is dodged.
Jason provided entertainment at the beginning of the evening with the discovery of new bar darts in the basket. The new darts were the 1-piece plastic flights and had a nice barrel of a good weight. Jason was disappointed the tips were of the smaller size, he throws using the large diameter tips. But these dart flights were ribbed like the Ribtext flights I spoke about in my last story. He threw them once and missed his mark badly and put them away. Later in the evening he found a new set he liked and I believe kept them.
My darts didn't do as well as I liked but I swear I did better than the computer thought. I would play a game and Josh or Jason would read off what I threw and I would say, OWhat! I could have sworn I threw better than that! I guess not but at least I threw well enough with my teammates together to earn 11 out of 12 games. Josh ended up receiving most improved player of the week for his efforts. If the reader is waiting for some funny tale about the evening's play I cannot think of any. We did miss having Brian with us that evening. A friend of his had passed away so he had much more important matters to attend to.
I must say that we did create a new term for darts on this night of darts. We started the evening with a number of Sally on Sundays and also noticed an other pattern happening. Josh seemed to be doing this the most of all but I think we all scored on what is now called the crotch shot. First dart falls to the left or right of the bull and then the second dart sticks on the other side of the bull. The third dart then finds the mark of the bull scoring a crotch shot. I don¹t know who coined the term but my money is on Jason's creativity.
This past dart night has strengthened my resolve to improve my darts. At home I have a routine of practice. Of course some good dart music and a beer are prepared and then let the darts fly. I play a quick two-player game of 301. This just helps to get the arm ready for the practice ahead. Then I switch to a four-player game of Split Score. All the Cricket numbers are used and with a four-player game I have the chance to throw 12 times at each number before moving on to the next. After that comes a four-player game of 501. Now I can work on any spot I want and I don¹t worry about trying to win, just consistant throwing. Finally, I play a two-player game of Cricket. I am going to be ready this coming Thursday when we go to Gibbs at home. This will be the better of their two teams and who knows, maybe Dog will be there?