Dartplayer & SEWA-Darts

Three Times Two

Once again this year I travelled to the UK Open in Bolton - better at Horwich Parkway near Bolton. The weather was outstanding - warm, blue sky, sunshine. I never had better weather here!

But the weather had a big disadvantage too - in the Reebok stadium it was even warmer then usually, it was disagreeable warm and the hugh number of spectators made it even warmer. It was crowded more crowded then the last years I felt and it was almost impossible to really follow the matches. Only the matches on the main stage could be seen from every where. It would have been important to secure yourself a place in front on one of the boards but I was too late for this and only was able to follow the Preliminary Round matches of Bernd Roith and Maik Langendorf from row 5 or six. Both had no problems at all and were cheered by several German fans. I fought my way further on to watch Tomas Seyler who played not successful at all against Jason Wilson. Beside I followed the close match between Conan Whitehead and Roland Scholten on the main stage and saw how James Wade on one of the neighbouring got an easy win against his first round opponent.

The long road back to 'fun' darts.

For the longest time I wanted to compete in BIG tournaments. The Lucky Lites Strike tournaments of the '80's were driving me to throw more and more and pushing me to improve my game constantly. Then I moved back to Canada and there I found a different driving force: Team BC. I worked at my game and tried to push myself to get better all the time.

A return to the US and several years of off-again on-again darts found me driving for competition again and a return to tournaments (The Oregon Open in 2003 or 2004) really wet my appetite for competitive darts. I believe my match with Wade Wilcox (you'd probably read about it here years ago) was the catalyst. I knew I could beat him, I just didn't and THAT is what drives me as a competitive player: the chance to win, to beat someone I see as a better player.

180! Fascinating Darts Facts

Dr. Patrick Chaplin has published a new book that with a wealth of information will appeal to all people interested in darts. Of course one of the focal points lies in darts history and Chaplin is able due to his research to expose some of the most popular myths of the sport as myths and tells us the not less thrilling truth instead. In this context he reports how such myths can develop – some years ago he was the unintentional source of a myth himself when one of his famous Fool’s Day Columns was so convincing people took it at face value.

Beside you can between others find chapters about the Embassy World Championship, the Winmau World Masters and women darts. But interesting things like the walk-on-girls, music and darts and the origin of some of the nicknames are included as well.

All that is written fluently and gives as an understanding of the sport in a colorful, informative and entertaining way. As the recently deceased commentator Sid Waddell aptly writes in his preface the book is a kaleidoscope of darts.

Dr. Patrick Chaplin once again brought a book to be recommended on the market and I’ve only one point of criticism – it is much too short. It would have liked to read much more of it!

Darts and the mind

What is involved in the mental aspect of darts? Way too many things to talk about here
but I can talk about one thing which falls into my description of the Mental part of darts.
First I need to define my view of Mental as part of the dart game. I use Mental as one of three types of practice.

There is Solitary physical practice (develop/maintain a stroke); Mental practice (committing to memory the rules, strategies and out shot combinations involved in the game), and then there is Emotional practice

Winmau Backs Disabled Darts

World class dart company Winmau are now the exclusive dart partners of the World Disability Darts Association.

The full press release can be read here:

http://www.winmau.com/news/1719/Winmau_are_the_Exclusive_Darts_Partner_of_the_World_Disability_Darts_Association/

Toronto Darts: SEWA forum member David Sproull at QSDL singles tournament

A disappointed but not embarrassed David Sproull was taken out of contention for the annual QSDL singles tournament.

The 'Abominable Throw Man' disappointingly only took a single leg, managing to keep pace despite playing against a higher tier of player,and was in a position to win all but one leg but was unable to close out the doubles.

David was the only 'C' league player participating.

Dartslive in London

During the last PDC World Championship in the Alexandra Palace in London four Dartslive automats were presented to the crowd.

The Company Dartslive Asia was founded in 2009 by Steve Ngu in Hong Kong. 2011 the launch of Dartslive International followed. In the same year the “World” tournament series for the first time was played on the Dartslive soft-dart machines in Hong Kong. The series consists of eight events and the Gran Final for which the top players from the ranking and qualifiers from a special qualifying tournament qualify. The price money for the winner of the Grand Final is 1 000 000 Hong Kong Dollars, that’s around 82 723 British pound or 128 938 US Dollar – the highest price money ever for a soft-dart tournament. It’s exceeded only by the PDC price money for the World Championship winner. Of course that aroused the interest of the dartplayers and especially a lot of players from North America traveled to Hong Kong among them players like John Part (who won an event), Ray Carver, David Fatum and Chris White. The Grand Final 2011 was won by Paul Lim which even enhanced the interest in the tournament series in the USA where Paul Lim is one of the legends of the sport and highly popular.

Snowpocalypse

Shoveled a total of 4 times, just under 2 ft total.

Winner in MA was West Boylston, 34.5 inches.

Power was out from 11:30pm Fri till 5pm Sunday and many others are still without.

Thank goodness the worst of it is over for the Bad Ass..

Getting the point

Getting the point:
The dart is a ballistic, just like a bullet, a thrown stone or a rocket ship. The path the dart follows when released is a parabola, meaning that it goes up and then comes down driven by the twin forces of the upward and forward energy you impart to it when you throw it and the downward pull of gravity. The dart will not go anywhere other than where your hand is pointing it when released.

Toronto Darts: QSDL Singles Tournament.

The QSDL (Queen Street Dart League) in Toronto Canada will be holding its annual singles tournament this Tuesday February 12 2013. Events will take place at the following venues.

A Division: Thirsty fox
B East: Fox and Fiddle
B West: Gabby's
C Division: The Eagle Club.

SEWA forum member David Sproull will be participating.