Defeat in the first round of the SIDL championship

For those of you who follow the darts I'm afraid I have some bad news. I went crashing out in the first round of the tournament.

I did well though, I won two of my three games but went out on leg difference. Basically one guy in our group lost all the games and the rest of us all beat each other and lost to each other so there were three people on played 3, won 2 and lost 1 at the top of the table. Sadly I got spanked 3 - 0 in my second game so had the worst leg difference.

This means the dream died at the first hurdle..... Never mind, there's always next year. 

The finals are to be played on Tuesday evening. Four of The Taverns player's have gotten though so I may go along and watch.

So, that's it for the darts this season. It all resumes again in a few months time after Christmas.

Draw for the SIDL Division 3 knock out tournament

The draw has been made for the SIDL division 3 knockout tournament that starts tomorrow. It works in the same way as the football world cup where you are drawn in groups of four and play each other in a round robin format. The games are best of 5 legs, not the usual best of three and the top two players progress to the finals next week.

I'm afraid I've got some bad news. The draw has not been kind to me. I've highlighted below the four players that are in my group.

As you can see I've been grouped with the ranked 2 and 4 players in our division. Both of them have lost only one game in the season. Its going to be a big ask to beat them. Looks likes its a battle for third place between me and John.

Anyway, I'll give it my best and see what happens. I'll have to play well and as its only the first to three legs you never know.

Tuesday night darts – Game 14 of 14 – The Tavern vs B.I.A

The last game of the season was a home match against B.I.A. The team that plays at one of the most overpriced bars in Saigon which since getting promoted I won't have to go to next season. As I said fortunately we were playing at home so beer was reasonably priced. Enough about beer, onto the darts.

Team photo! The Tavern - Division 3 champions!

It was a fairly standard evening in all. We were winning 3-2 after triples and doubles then we won five of the six singles games which meant going into the last game, which we also won, we had a match winning lead. The final score was 9 - 3. I was third up in the singles and got to play the guy who beat me last time which was nice as I was pretty confident I could win... and win I did! It was a fairly comfortable 2-0 win. I didn't play great in the first leg but in the second I checked out with my first throw at a double.

The final table is below.

Top of the league... happy days! There have been some other interesting statistics from the season are below. I've got them from the website which if anyone is interesting in can check out at www.thesidl.com

The first one is of my record for the season. My goal at the start of the season was to win as many games as I lost. I achieved this having won 9 and lost 5. You can see there are some interesting names on the chart including Manneken Pis and Porridge. These are not real names but 'dart names' - I think.

The next is the list of top players in our league. I finished a respectable 15th out of about 65 players. I was fourth for my team which was pretty good considering our top three players finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd for the season. I finished with 108 points which again is respectable. I set the goal of 100 points halfway through the season so, again I'm happy.

So, that's it for the darts season. There is a singles tournament next week which will be all players in a knockout tournament for division 3. I've entered it. If I get through the qualifiers the finals night will be in two weeks.

Also I found out that the end of season award ceremony is on Friday 12th December which is the evening I'm supposed to be flying back to the UK for Christmas. I may be able to do both but my have to limit the booze consumption by going straight from the party to the airport.

Tuesday night darts – Game 13 of 14 – Dreamtime vs The Tavern

The newly crowned division 3 champions were up against Dreamtime in their penultimate game of the season. This was also our final away fixture at M52 bar in District 1. This was also out of interest the first bar I played darts in nearly three years ago when I came to HCMC.

The Okey - sponsored by tigers, ready for war!

With the pressure off and with Dreamtime 2nd from bottom in the table we were, perhaps rather arrogantly, not anticipating any problems. 

At the end of the doubles and triples we were winning 3-2. This should have been 4-1 but we blew a 400 point lead in one of the matches. I only played in the doubles but won it for the team 2-0. So along came the singles. I was fourth up. Dreamtime had already caused two upsets by beating two of our best players so with the score 4-4 it was important I won.

I'm happy to say I didn't disappoint. I scored ok but my checking was very good. I won my match 2-0 and with one game left I've a season record of W8 L5. 

Top Division 3 darts action

After my game disaster struck! We lost our last two singles matches meaning it was 6-5 to Dreamtime going into the last match - A big, big upset was potentially on the cards. Without drawing out the suspense I'm happy to say the upset didn't materialise and we comfortably won the 6 vs 6 team game meaning we drew the match 6 - 6. This was our first draw of the season but it's better than a defeat.

One more match to go in the championship winning season at our home ground of the Tavern next Tuesday night.

My first 180 in darts!!!!!

Great news! I was playing darts in the pub with my mate the other day and I hit my very first 180! I took a selfie to the occasion.

Darts tomorrow night. I’m hoping this is a good sign for things to come.

Tuesday night darts – Game 12 of 14 – The Tavern vs An Udder Team

The match this week was the potential title decider with us at the top of the league playing the only team that can catch us, An Udder Team, in second place. With three games left we had a 5 point cushion. If we win our lead will be 8 points making us uncatchable, a draw would pretty much put us there with us maintaining our 5 point lead with only 6 points available, a defeat would cut our lead to 2 points making for a very nervy last few games. However we wanted to get the job done tonight at our home ground - The Tavern.

Glorious scenes as The Tavern are crowned Division 3 champions

 It all started very well with us winning both triples, I checked out in my game. In the singles we won another game meaning we had a 3-2 lead going into the singles. I was last up in the singles which meant there was a good chance I would win us the championship. We won the first two singles then lost the next two putting the score at 5-4. Fortunately our next player won which made the score 6-4, this meant we could not loose this match AND I'd have a chance to win us the title!!

It all started really well, I hit three hundreds in a leg of darts which Id never done before. The other guy was still on 300 when I was trying to check out. Sadly the curse of checking out returned and he caught me up and won... very embarrassing. I stormed back to take the second leg to make it 1-1. The third leg he took a big lead but I managed to catch him putting us both on doubles for the finish. I was very nervous as was everyone else. I've never shook so much when throwing darts. Sadly I lost the game meaning I didn't win us the match. No fairy tale ending for me.

Fortunately we had the final 6 vs 6 game to win the match. I'm happy to say we won this, meaning we won the match and the championship!!!! I stayed a bit longer and had several beers which is always risky on a school night.

League table. The Tavern are now can not be caught

I was pretty pleased with how I played. I hit 6 hundred plus scores which nearly beat our team record of 7. I just need to work on the checking out.

So with two games left we are the champions so we can relax now and enjoy the remaining games.