As the title says, does anybody play darts either for fun or in a league?

I play for The Cellar Bar in Paisley in the Paisley & Glasgow Mixed Darts League which started last night and we started with a 7-5 win.

Missus is out at the moment playing in the Glasgow Ladies League. She has also represented Renfrewshire Women in the 'B' team.

I play for fun a lot, though haven't had the chance to join a league due to work etc.

Going to the Premier League in April, so I'm sure I'll pick up some tips

Will be a good night.

How good do you actually have to be to play darts at pub level? What would your average be compared to a pro?

I'm normally OK when I'm aiming for the treble 20 and can throw it straight, would back myeslf to get 3 single 20's if I went for them, but see trying to hit the fecking doubles...

At pub level, it's as long as you can hit decent scores, if you can hit a score of sixty on a regular basis then you have a chance but like you say, your finishing leaves a lot to be desired, try practising finishing a score of 11 then increasing it 22, 33, 44 and so on, if you can do it in three darts after a while then you will probably have it cracked or playing against somebody who does play darts and you will only improve in all aspects of the game.

I had a board when I lived with the folks and used to enjoy the odd game with my auld man. He's a darts league veteran though so he would hammer me every time. Still have the odd game in the local boozer although it usually a game of Killer or Round The Clock rather than your standard leg of darts.

Oh, and i'm pish. Give me 3 darts to hit the treble twenty and i'd no doubt hit single 20, 5 and 1. I'm a bit erratic to say the least.

Im utterly gash. One of my mates plays at a very decent level and makes a few quid here and there. he beat the English captain a couple of years back ( some hairy guy called Adam ?? ) and said he was a complete chunt to him after it. We applied to go on the new Bullseye on Challenge but never made it

My uncle has been playing darts for about 30 years and he won the Glasgow singles a few years ago and shortly after he won he played Eric Bristow at an exhibition who at the time was well past it and he got whipped.

I play everyday, I've even bought one of those portable darts stands so I can play from the exact distance back from the board, instead of nailing the board to the wall and playing from about 5 feet.

Ability wise I'm very erratic, I'll hit 140 one minute then 3 or 7 or something like that the next. Going to try and join a pub team soon. I always bottle it when I've got two treble twenties with my first two darts and end up hitting an awful dart with my third.

Andy Fordham?

Could be Martin 'England Captain' Adams you're talking about.

I've played in the Dumfries Winter and Summer Leagues for nearly 20 years though I 'retired' last week for the time being (team has folded as we didn't have enough players for next season and for a couple of reasons I'm not looking for a new team).

I play to an ok standard. Not outstanding by any means. Good enough to hold down a place in a mid table top division team in Dumfries comfortably enough but nothing special. I have a runners up trophy from almost anything you care to name team wise (Winter League C Division, B Division and A Division and Summer League) and a finalists trophy at some point or another from Singles, Pairs, Triples and Fours over that period but I've WON nowt! I've had over a hundred 180 scores over the years though probably only a dozen or so in actual competition rather than practice.

Been playing pretty well latterly, lost only one singles match in the whole of the summer league.

Relative standards are probably dependent on geography to an extent though. I'd imagine you probably need to be better to play pub league in Glasgow than you do in Dumfries. There are some right dreadful players playing every week in Dumfries but so what? As long as they enjoy it.

Thats him. Has been buggin me Cheers

Forgot to update from Monday.

As there is only nine teams in the league we had a free week, so we had a tourney amongst ourselves in which I made the semi-finals only to be beaten by my father who went on to win it.

Double 11 is my favourite. But to be honest im gash at darts in general. highest score with 3 darts has been 141.

I've got a dart board in my room - shite a darts though.

How do you know unless you have played somebody that knows how to play.

There is a good league down your way and plenty of decent players, if your interested try going to the Norseman because I believe the Grovener dont have a team anymore.

I've always said i'll find the time and spend an hour or so a day practicing, and slowly building up - it gets so tedious though and after a while I give in and forget about it.

I spend about half an hour five times a day at the board. There's a terrific improvement on my doubles. So much so that I'm fairly confident about hitting them. I still can't score worth a f**k though.

Bought tickets for the last 4 days of the Worlds at Lakeside in January.

Will probably just do the Saturday and Sunday to catch the 2 semi's and the Final itself

Jubbly

I used to be half decent, but I started to pull my darts very badly everyone told me not to think about it but it's terrible and gets inside your head. Now when i play i just can't relax at all

Inverclyde league plays a tuesday nite with teams all over the place, u should give it a try, its usually a good laugh, unless ur playing at the hitler-esque dockers club!!

Might as well use this thread for general chatter on the sport. Seeing as Barney and Taylor looked world class tonight. Barney has been off form for a while now, but he has turned it up a notch this week. I don't reckon he can cope with the schedule that the PDC demands, but he's still a class act.

He's shown that in his Premier League stints. Quite similar to John Part, and that has to be down to their travel schedules during those particular campaigns. Both travelled over the night before the game, then travelled back the morning after (albeit with Part having a much longer journey to cope with).

The two month break has done Barney the world of good and has looked fantastic this week. Taylor, though, has just been one notch better. He's been on a 9-darter at least 4/5 times during the week which, on this format, is not a bad feat in itself.

Really looking forward to the final tomorrow, and reckon Taylor will take it 6-4 (as per Rod and Sid's predictions post-match tonight).

Tomorrow night should be interesting, Barney v Taylor in the final.

I've a feeling Taylor will win even though I don't like him.

I play a lot of darts and average around 65, favourite double has to be double 18.

would not mind playing in pub league again.

Taylor is 3 sets to 2 up just now but it's very tight

Starting on a double makes it interesting

Magic stuff from both players tonight so far.

Majestic display in the end from Taylor... Barney just couldn't compete. It's looking good for the World Championships though with 5/6 players getting back to form just in time.

Anyone watching the European Championships on ITV4?

Adrian Lewis just put in the performance of his career, demolishing Barney 9-2 with a 108.6 average and smashing in 6 180's. Most complete performance of this, and any, tournament this year.

Edited for, erm, spelling....

Phil Taylor is in a right match against the Scottish Robert Thornton. It's 5-5 at the half way point and Thorton was down 4-1 at one point, but he has more fight than any of Taylor's opponents to this point.

EDIT : Loved Peter Manley's arrogance about Lewis in his pre-match interview. "I've beaten him so many times it's like watching paint dry.".

Manley is fantastic for things like that. He'll do anything to put his opponents off though I do think that Lewis has matured enough to handle Manley's gamesmanship (unlike their World Championship clash when Aidy walked off).

Robert on the whole done well and gave Phil his toughest match. His doubles were awful at times though. Hes beaten some well establish players on circuit now on Live Tv which is good to see (Part, Manley, Baxter)

Can't wait for the GSoD Lewis and Tabern are very good late additions to the pool. Only problem I have with the tournament is giving a women an invite. Hope she gets pasted so they don't invite any more women before they can prove themselves at qualifiers. Manley, Klaasen, Walsh to name but a few would hammer her, not going to bother attempting to spell her name its too much of a mouthful. I also wonder why Martin Adams continually rejects his invitation to the tournament. I know hes really pro BDO/anti PDC, but surely hes not dumb enough to turn down the 4 grand or whatever just for turning up. Then again he would get shown up by some even average PDC players.

The GSoD claims to feature all the champions from the last 12/24 months so wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't invite the Women's World Champion and Dobromoslova would be silly to turn it down, especially after her decent showing in the UK Open (?) against Robert Thornton.



You've hit the nail on the head. It really beggars belief that he would turn it down. The BDO can't be happy either as he's their recognised World Champion and won't be appearing at the biggest event of the year involving both organisations.

Womens darts to me is totally different from men IMO. She also lost to Robert Thornton and its a lot different doing the business on the floor compared to on the stage.

Adams is being groomed by the blazers to replace Olly Croft when he pops his clogs, so he wants to appease the hierarchy by turning down the chance to play at a PDC run event.

At this rate anyway when the BBC TV deal is up in 2010 or whatever and with several more defections coming up the BDO is done. Theres big rumours going round that Darryl Fitton is a certainty to switch after the Lakeside and more to follow, surely its time for Gary Anderson to move as well.

Once all the decent players are gone there will be nothing left of the BDO bar Adams and Hankey who will probably retire in the next few years anyway. I also don't buy into the BDO produces players argument. Talent does. The BDO aren't hiring any coaches to bring on players, its all down to the player.

Losing to Thornton is hardly a damning thing. You only have to see Thornton's run in this tourney alone to see that. He was the only one who gave Taylor anything close to a decent match.



I really hope Anderson moves. If there's one guy that would be found out on a massive scale it's this guy. He's the ultimate bottle merchant, which would be terrible for him as there's a boatload of big tournaments, plus the PL. Fitton is someone who could be solid at least.

On the topic of playing the game again I've developed a new throwing style which I have been playing lights out with the last week, and my consistency level has went way up, and I've hit 4 180's since last Thursday. I've also decided to enter the Scottish Youth Masters in Bannockburn a week on Saturday, a wee bit nervous about possibly looking really out of my depth or getting embarrassed but looking forward to it to playing competitively.

Here's the pools for the Grand Slam of Darts. The top pool is in order of seeds from first to eigth.

Pool One : Phil Taylor, Raymond Van Barneveld, James Wade, Mark Webster, John Part, Gary Anderson, Terry Jenkins, Andy Hamilton

Pool Two : Mervyn King, Adrian Lewis, Colin Lloyd, Wayne Mardle, Kevin Painter, Alan Tabern, Robert Thornton, Vincent Van Der Voort

Pool Three : Daryl Fitton, Andy Jenkins, Gary Mawson, Kevin McDine, Wes Newton, Denis Ovens, Michael Van Gerwen, Simon Whitlock

Pool Four : Niels de Ruiter, Anastasia Dombrotyslova, Colin McGarry, Phil Nicholson, Phil Nixon, Kirk Shepherd, Brian Woods, Darin Young

Draw gets made tomorrow. I'd love to see Fitton, Anderson, Thornton, Nixon in a sort of BDO style group.

The groups.

Group A : Phil Taylor, Vincent Van Der Voort, Andy Jenkins, Phil Nixon

Group B : Andy Hamilton, Alan Tabern, Simon Whitlock, Brian Woods

Group C : Mark Webster, Mervyn King, Michael Van Gerwen, Colin McGarry

Group D : John Part, Wayne Mardle, Kevin McDine, Anastacia Dobromyslova

Group E : Raymond Van Barneveld, Robert Thornton, Gary Mawson, Kirk Shepherd

Group F : Terry Jenkins, Colin Lloyd, Wes Newton, Darin Young

Group G : James Wade, Adrian Lewis, Denis Ovens, Niels de Ruiter

Group H : Gary Anderson, Kevin Painter, Daryl Fitton, Paul Nicholson

Groups C and H interest me greatly.

Those are the two groups that grab my attention though Group D, I suppose, could be defined as the Group of Death.

Group B looks good too. Simon Whitlock is a top class player and Brian Woods played pretty well at the Lakeside in January. Group D looks good except the fact theres a woman in it. I'll happily take that back though if she performs well.

The first set of matches have been confirmed for next Saturday.

Afternoon Session ( 12pm - 5pm )
Adrian Lewis vs. Denis Ovens*
Andy Hamilton vs. Brian Woods
Robert Thornton vs. Gary Mawson*
John Part vs. Anastacia Dobromyslova*
Phil Taylor vs. Phil Nixon*
Mark Webster vs. Colin McGarry
Kevin Painter vs. Daryl Fitton*
Terry Jenkins vs. Darin Young

Evening Session ( 6pm - 11pm )
Vincent Van Der Voort vs. Andy Jenkins*
Wayne Mardle vs. Kevin McDine*
James Wade vs. Niels de Ruiter
Gary Anderson vs. Phil Nicholson
Raymond Van Barneveld vs. Kirk Shepherd*
Alan Tabern vs. Simon Whitlock*
Mervyn King vs. Michael Van Gerwen*
Colin Lloyd vs. Wes Newton

The ones with a * are the ones that I'm looking forward to the most. The battle of the women's and the PDC world titles is definately the one that intrigues me the most. I reckon Thornton is a better player than Part this season and Anastacia gave him a good run so I don't see why she can't get a win over the current PDC World Champ.

i honestly think part might struggle against droblomyslova, hes been poor of late (sadly). Why does taylor vs nixon interest you, if only to c nixon get whitewashed it might be worthwhile i suppose. Tabern vs whitlock should be quality, really interested to see how whitlock and webster play against these guys.

Hoping thornton gives a good account of himself again this week, but as he has said, its not worth ranking points, so the world championship is much bigger for him.

Also hope andy hamilton can thrash that smarmy brian woods!

Nixon will step it up like he did last year. Nixon was not bad at all, and even in his tougher games, looked good in defeat. He might not exactly give Taylor a scare or anything, but he'll do his best to make it close and he'll relish the oppertunity.

Best of luck mate. I admire your bottle I really do, pretty keen player myself but share your fear of making a t*t of myself. I go through spells where I'll play for a few hours a day and I get pretty decent, good on the doubles. But if I leave it a few days and go back tend to struggle to find rhythm.

I played at Bannockburn for the first time last year in the scottish singles, its a huge place, luckily when i went, it was so busy, that nobody was really able to watch me or put pressure on me, still got humped in my first game right enough

im still going to consider sticking a quid on a whitewash everybody relishes the oppertunity to play taylor, but generally bottle it, Thornton was the only player to give him a game at the euros

Nixon has already proved that he can play well when the pressure is on. He's probably better with a bit of pressure on him.

Anastacia has the same problem that she had in the UK Open. She seems to have a dip in form in the middle of a game. She probably would have beaten Thornton at the UK if it never happened there, and it has to be a worry for this coming week.

This Celebrity stuff is pretty bad. Entertaining at times though.

The celebrity darts is rank, roll on tomorrow for the real deal.

Cannae throw for toffee but watching guys like Taylor at the oche is an education. Makes things look so fucking easy.

I'm a fan of the darts of yesteryear. Have a look at YouTube, there is some classic Bristow v Wilson footage on there, in particular where the wee man fae Kirkcaldy claimed his second world title. Absolutely brilliant. Some terrific players in those days like Bob Anderson, Mike Gregory, Bristow, Lowe, Big Cliff etc. Contrary to the belief that Bristow was the man us Scots loved to hate, he showed our wee Jocky the greatest respect whenever the two met, and were good mates. He always said he and Wilson were the two ambassadors for the game. Their battles on the oche were the stuff of legends.

My favourite darts story? Wee Jocky was playing a world semi-final against Dave Whitcombe and was well in command. However, the wee man was hitting his doubles hard, well the vodka variety, and the more pissed he became, the less control he had over his throwing. So much so, he threw away his lead and Whitcombe won through. Tony Green went to interview Jocky and he had his back to him when he heard this thud. Tony turned round and it transpired Jocky had fell off the stage completely pissed out his brains

Thats when darts was a real man's game. f**k this athletic look and mineral water lark. Bring back the beer and fags tae the darts. I demand a petition

Taylor's group is pretty guff. I expect him to get through with barely a hiccup.

Good luck to Robert Thornton and Gary Anderson.