New Jersey Darts

More Christmas Gift Ideas

2009-12-06T08:37:00.004-05:00

I saw another website that is similar to Cafe Press, which offers many dart-related products. Zazzle has hundreds of interesting ideas. One thing I had not seen before was dart shoes, and they had some nice shirts. I particularly liked the wolf and spider dart shirts.

2009 Christmas Dart Gift Review

2009-12-05T05:52:00.003-05:00

I always like to review dart products, especially when the time comes around for gift giving. What better time than Christmas for that?

Lets start with darts christmas ornaments. I saw a Santa playing darts tree ornament on Amazon. The Ornament Shop also had a nice dartboard ornament, and there was a similar one at Bronners. That inspired me to check Cafe Press, which had a remarkable variety of simple dart ornaments (click here to see).

Candy and chocolate are usually safe gifts, and I found two previous recommendations are still available. You can combine a toy and candy for young darters with the ball dart, offered by Candy Direct. Another source is The Chocolate Vault, which features chocolate dart boards and darts. One new thing I saw on ebay was a dart rice paper cake topper.

Several places include darts and food together in gift packages. Amazon has a "Bulls Eye Gift Set" that includes an assortment of cheeses gift wrapped on a dart board. Gifts and Baskets has a similar set that also includes nuts, cookies, meat, and caramel corn.

I hope this gives you a start on your Christmas shopping, and drop a comment if you see any interesting holiday dart gift ideas.

New Jersey Darts Calendar December 2009 and January 2010

2009-12-05T05:19:00.002-05:00

There is plenty of upcoming open steel dart tournament action in December and January for New Jersey area darters. Next up is "The Rock" on December 11 and 12, 2009, sponsored by the USA Dart Club with a $2,750 guarantee. Men and women cricket singles and a luck of the draw are on Friday, with singles 501, doubles, and a luck of the draw on Saturday. The event will be at 414 Main Avenue, Clifton, NJ, and see the USA Darts website for the flyer. It's small, but also a great opportunity for new dart players to come out and try a tournament.

Next comes the Rae Chesney Memorial Dart Tournament, on January 8-10, 2010. The Chesney celebrates its 15th year and reports a prize fund of $25,600.00+. The tournament is at its usual location just north of Philadelphia at the Radisson Hotel in Trevose, PA. Besides the usual singles, doubles and luck of the draw events, there are youth contests as well. For more information see the Philly Darts website, which has the full flyer. This is the first major tournament of the year and draws good darters in from all around the country.

The following weekend (January 15-17, 2010) is the New York New Jersey Open, sponsored by LB Darts. This year's flyer reports a guaranteed prize fund of $10,000.00 and offers singles, doubles, mixed triples, and luck of the draw events. The tournament is in its usual location at the Islip Holiday Inn Airport on Long Island, which offers a reasonable darters rate of $69 per night. For more information see the LB Darts website, which has a flyer. The hotel is accessible via the Long Island Railroad and a shuttle from the hotel.

Until next time, good darts!

Kelly's League Report, Week 5 Loss 2-5 and Week 6 Win 5-2

2009-12-02T07:26:00.002-05:00

The past two weeks at Kelly's ended up a wash on points as we lost week 5 by a score of 2-5, and won week 6 by the same margin. Everybody was off form except Dave in week 5, and we were unable to overcome a large handicap (about 35 marks if memory serves) in all but the first match. Credit due to the other team though, who hit well above their average.

This past week we all bounced back well. John was out so we had a subsititute. We all shot to a reasonably good standard. Nobody had an exceptional performance, but nobody was off form either. Our opponents were skilled and we only had to give up about a dozen marks. We won the first game, and then lost the second by a single mark. Credit to their captain, who was in the pressurized situation of having the last dart of that second game, needing to hit one mark to tie, two to win, with a partial block from a previous dart. He hit the double to avoid the whitewash. In the third game of the night we shot well and won comfortably.

I finally started hitting better as I develop a feel for the wooden darts. My form seemed to be getting worse in weeks 3-5 but things improved last week. My best score was 36 marks, which is a 4 mark average. That will give me something to improve on. Until next week, good darts!

Congratulations to Pennsylvania Darter Darin Young

2009-11-19T18:54:00.004-05:00

I checked on Planet Darts for the results of the Grand Slam of Darts and noticed that Darin made it through his group to the top 16. Darin beat English stars Adrian Lewis and Dennis Ovens to advance. He will play again Friday against Scotsman Robert Thornton. See the report of his latest match here. Good luck D!

Darter's Anxiety

2009-11-18T06:55:00.002-05:00

It's always fun to coin a new phrase. Darter's Anxiety... a condition felt by a dart player under stress in a match...may result in sweaty palms, racing heartbeat, loss of focus and missed shots. This surely came in to play in our Monday night match at Kelly's Tavern.

Everyone reacts differently to tension at the oche. Some darters are as cold as ice and nothing phases them. Others may react if money is on the line, a lot of people are watching a match, or in a pressurized situation at the end of a game. Psychiatrists call things like this "stressors." Personally, one of my stressors is when my fate is no longer in my own hands in a game.

On Monday night we were playing the first place team and had to give up 45 marks a game due to the handicap system. Ouch! Stressor one. We were hot in the first game and made up the handicap easily. For some unknowable reason, we fell apart in the second game. Everyone but Dave posted our worst performances of the season. We went into the decider trying to figure how we could kick start our games and avoid our first overall loss of the season. Stressor two.

We shot first in the decider, and our skills were showing some signs of life. We made slow but steady progress against the 45 mark handicap. However, we went into the final inning about 8 marks behind. We were only able to produce a mediocre round of 16 marks, leaving our opponents with the normally easy task of hitting 8 marks (2 for each player) to win. We were resigned at that point to a likely defeat, and our fate was out of our hands as we watched them throw.

The first player scored 3 marks, and the next 2 each scored 2 marks. Their final player, who had been shooting well, needed only 1 mark to tie, and 2 or more to win. He hit 1 mark in the first shot, and had two darts in hand to just hit a single mark to win the match for the night. I could hardly bear to look. His next dart missed high. The room fell silent and you could almost see the tension in the air. His next dart fell low, and we all let out a huge sigh of relief at the unexpected result. The tension drained right out of us.

The league rules stated that to break the tie we had to throw a 10th inning, straight up with no handicap. We threw our best inning of the match (23 marks) and won easily, for a final score of 5-2. It was not pretty, but we were relieved with the result. Man of the match has to go to Dave, who was the only one seemingly unaffected by whatever ailed us that night. He posted a nice performance of 49 marks in the first game while we all struggled. All of us will be looking to bounce back with better performances next week. Until then, good darts!

Good Luck, Bad, Then Good Again! A 5-2 Win in Week 3.

2009-11-12T06:33:00.005-05:00

I returned last Sunday night from a nice week-long vacation in Florida. With the weather starting to turn here in Jersey it was nice to relax and catch some warm rays by a swimming pool. The day after my return found me back at Kelly's Tavern for another match with the guys. I found that despite being out last week I did not miss a match because league play was postponed due to the Governor's election. Good luck there!

Dave was out this week but arranged a substitute so we had a full complement of four. We started off hot against a new team that had only started playing darts two seasons ago. We had to make up a 38 point handicap but in the first game we eliminated that deficit by the fifth inning. I posted my best game so far, scoring 42 points. That's between 4 and 5 marks per round on average.

Just to show how quick fortunes can change, in the second game none of us were hitting well. At the same time, our opponents hit their stride, shooting some excellent innings. We rallied late in the game to narrow the deficit to eight marks by the last inning. In the ninth inning, our opponents threw, and our first three players made up some of the ground. The game literally came down to the last dart. Tom was the last to throw, needing a difficult shot of seven marks to tie and eight or more to win. The first dart hit a solid triple, and a hush settled over the crowd. The second struck the double, leaving the game shot in Tom's hand. You could almost see the sweat dripping off our opponents. Tom let the third dart fly and it raced right between the two darts, struck a flight, and deflected out of the scoring area. Bad luck, and our opponents picked up two points for the second game!

This setback only seemed to motivate Tom, who started out the third and final game on fire. We rallied to an easy victory in the third match, with Tom leading the way with a League high score of 56 in 9 innings (between 6 and 7 mark per round average). Our margins of victory gave us the extra point on the night, so we finished with a 5-2 win. To top it off, the team contributed to the 50/50 raffle and we won that for the second time in three weeks. Good luck there!

John had three very solid games, but man of the match has to go to Tom for his remarkable performance in the third game. I am still struggling to get a feel for these light wooden darts but I am having some improvement. I posted scores of 42, 29, and 35 which was better than last time. Hopefully that will keep improving.

Thanks to Kelly's for providing a great spread of food including pasta with seafood, chicken and hot dogs! We all had a great time, and I look forward to playing again next week. There is some good tournament action coming up for Jersey darters that I will report soon as well. Until then, good darts!

2009 Maryland Open Results and 2009 ADO Cricket Regionals

2009-10-29T06:03:00.006-04:00

We had a bye this week so no American Baseball dart reports. I will also be out on vacation next week so the guys will be getting a sub for me.

The rest of the team went to the Maryland Open last weekend while I was busy helping throw a halloween party for my son. I noticed some results posted. My team mates did well! John Daddio finished second and Dave Hascup took top 8 in the Friday 501 doubles LOD. John and Dave later teamed up for a top 8 finish in doubles cricket. Tom Waterman and his son Evan finished top 8 in the open doubles 501 and the mixed trips. Tom had a second place finish to Darin Young in singles cricket. Darin must be eating his Wheaties, as he won both singles and doubles events. Good job guys!

For New Jersey area cricket lovers I recently got an e-mail from Bob Race that the ADO Cricket Regionals will be held Friday, 11/27/2009, 10 AM sign-up, 11 AM start at the site of the Long Island Fall Classic:

Holiday Inn Airport
Islip/MacArthur
3845 Veteran's Memorial Highway
Ronkonkoma, NY

The cricket qualifier is only open to ADO members and will send qualifiers to the ADO Cricket Nationals next year.

Of course, the $10,000.00 Long Island Fall Classic follows, which is an open steel-tip tournament and great opportunity for New Jersey area darters to test skills against top American shooters. Laurett and Buddy always throw a great tournament, and I hope to see you there!

Limping Over the Finish Line With A 4-3 Win

2009-10-21T06:55:00.006-04:00

Here is a picture with my cell phone of the outside of Kelly's Tavern, the home of our in-house American Baseball dart league.

This past Monday we only managed a 4-3 win. It was one of those nights where we started off OK but flagged off while the other team got hot. Under the handicap we gave up 37 marks per game, so we knew we had to hit something. Our opponents were Joe, Al, John and Brian.

The first game everything seemed to go reasonably well, although I was struggling to hit any good innings. John and I ended up with low scores, but Dave and Tom picked us up with some high scores and we surpassed the handicap by a 12 point margin. This carried over into the second match but we started falling off near the end. The game was close and we went into the ninth inning needing 11 marks with only Dave and Tom left to throw. It was one of those high tension moments and Dave hit a huge 8 mark turn to leave Tom with an easy three marks for the win, which he hit easily. Close call, and that gave us 4 points and secured the win for the night.

That is where it went downhill! Joe, Al, John and Brian caught fire, hitting some huge opening innings that matched our scores. We were able to make no headway against the 37 mark handicap until the middle innings, and by then it was too late to catch them. They took the final game by a large enough margin to earn the extra match point for having the largest overall cummulative margin of victory, which I learned is called "covering the wood." Ironically, the final game was my best at 30 marks, but that was still lower than my efforts last week.

Tom, Dave and I had some fine pick up matches afterwards where I was hitting better. Tom hit a sweet 50 mark game after starting off with a 9 mark in the first inning.

The reports of good bar food at Kelly's were well founded. I had a nice hamburger for dinner and the other dishes I saw looked delicious. We have a bye next week, and I am on vacation the following week, so I will post on some other dart-related topics.

Kelly's Dart League Week 1: 5-2 Win!

2009-10-12T23:41:00.003-04:00

My first season of American Baseball Darts started tonight at Kelly's Corner Tavern in Neptune, New Jersey. The core of our old Corner Bar Dart team from the Elizabeth Dart League came back together, including Tom, Dave, John and myself. My old readers will know that I have played a lot of steel darts, but never competed in American Baseball darts. I was looking forward to playing, and tonight we managed a 5-2 win over Lou, Paul, Chris and Bob in our opener.

Kelly's Corner Tavern was new to me, but Margaret told me it has long been known as a good place to stop for a hearty late night or early morning meal along with something to wash it down with. The location in Neptune near the Jersey Shore adds to its popularity. The dart area is in the downstairs bar where five American Baseball dart boards are set up. The boards are well lit and the room has a large center area for the darters to gather. As you would suspect with the name, it is an Irish bar, and the decor reflects that. The bar served us hot wings and meatballs. Reasonably priced beer kept the crowd happy.

I gave the guys a scare by barely showing up in time, having made a wrong turn on the way there. With a short warm up I jumped into the first game.

Most of my readers are steel tip players, so a brief explanation of American Baseball darts is in order. The players from each team take three darts at all "innings" (or segments of the dart board) between the numbers one and nine. The cumulative number of marks scored is added, and the team with the highest number of marks wins that match.

This league employs a handicap system known as an eighty percent handicap. Each player's average number of marks is reported, and added to make a team total. The team with the lower total starts with eighty percent of the difference in marks. This makes the games competitive, while giving some reward for skill. In our match tonight, we had the higher total so our opponents started each match with twenty-three marks.

I was surprised at how much of a team game this is. The league format is to have three team matches of four vs. four. With no individual games, there is much more incentive to cheer for your team mates, which happened a lot. Two points are awarded for each match won. The final point goes to the team with the highest total number of marks on the night, including the handicap. A total of seven points are at stake each week.

We started the first match slow, but made up the handicap by the final inning. A bad round on nines cost us the first match by about two points (148-146 marks), and we were down 2-0 points. We rebounded with some huge innings in the second match, particularly on 3's and 4's, to score a big win (155-127 marks). In the third match we started out slowly again, but strong innings on 6, 7, and 8's gave us the win (151-142 marks), along with the extra point for highest number of marks. We finished with a 5-2 points win on the night.

I have some general observations on how this game differs from steel tip darts. The darts are very light, perhaps under five grams. Also, their shape (see above) makes it difficult to get tight groups. Darts must be placed around each other, because deflections are severe. The conventional wisdom seemed to be shooting for the doubles, because errors on either side still could net singles or triples. The light dart and different board will take getting used to. Everyone uses the same set of darts for the whole match. The player up to shoot next scores the preceding player, retrieves the darts, and then shoots. Hand signals are used to indicate the number of marks scored.

Man of the match tonight was Dave, whose stats for one match added up to a respectful 50 marks (about five and a half marks per turn). My best was 35 marks, which is about 4 marks per turn, and considered okay for a new player. Louie from the other team had a nice 36 mark game. John managed a 38, and Tom hit a 42. It was a night for the first week jitters and I was compelled to donate a quarter for the unfortunate distinction of blanking a round. I was comforted by the occasional clink of a quarter on some other tables, though they may have just been leaving tips.

Next week I will try and bring a camera so you can see some American Baseball Darts action. Until then good darts!

New Jersey Darts Is Back, American Style!

2009-10-06T20:11:00.007-04:00

After taking some time off I am back and excited to be playing my first season of American Baseball League Darts! Did you miss me? :)

I am teaming up with some old Corner Bar team mates (John, Dave, and Tom) for some good fun on Monday nights. I have months of catching up to do with these guys, so the stories should be especially good next week.

The venue will be Kelly's Corner Tavern in Neptune City, NJ. I am a beginner at American baseball darts, so it will be interesting to see how I adapt. For any of you foreigners who are scratching your heads, thinking, what in the world is a bloody American baseball dart, here are some pictures:

Just to be different, us crazy Americans have our own wooden board too.

I will be doing weekly stories, just like in the Corner Bar days. Our opponents will be whole new cast of characters, so it should be interesting. Look for the first report next week!

A Study In Accuracy: The Slingshot Man

2009-04-11T09:10:00.003-04:00

I was checking out funny videos on You Tube when I came accross a video on "The Slingshot Man." His real name is Rufus Hussey. He is a sixty-five year old man who appears to be the Phil Taylor of slingshooting. He lives out in the country near Asheboro, NC. In the video he displays remarkable feats of accuracy, including throwing up a walnut and then a quarter, and hitting each with his slingshot. Then he picks bugs off of his plants with his amazing slingshot skills. Check out the video on You Tube. It would be interesting to see what he could do with darts. While the skills are different, I find that people who are accurate with a gun or bow tend to be quick studies in darts.

Catching Up On News

2009-04-09T22:04:00.007-04:00

No, the blog has not gone to the dogs! Many events have conspired to keep me from posting lately, such as my new responsibilities as a dog owner. Here is a picture of the new member of the family, a Bassett Hound named Rainbow. The story of how he got the name is funny.

We picked him out at the Tri-State Bassett Hound Rescue. They were calling him Rambo, but my son thought he heard "Rainbow." Unfortunately there was no convincing him that Rambo was a more manly sounding name, and I suppose you have to pick your battles. So Rainbow it is. He's a good dog, quite content to curl up on the floor and watch me practice. The picture shows him in training for the upcoming 2009 New Jersey Boardwaddle, in which hundreds of Bassets will cruise the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ together on April 17-18, 2009. If you're there be careful not to trip over all the big ears.

Back to darts. I was a bit bummed out that I had to miss the charity dart event in Philly because of a change of family plans. However, I am glad to see it was another huge success. Keith McCarthy reported on PhillyDarts website that 148 dart players showed up and raised $12,000.00 for charity...Great job Philly!

So how has my practice been going? I have been sneaking in some time on the board and had a very positive development recently. I found an old set of darts that I probably have not used in about eight years. They are fatter and heavier than the set I was using, with a fairly smooth barrel. I couldn't even tell you what brand they were. Just for laughs I picked them up and good things started to happen. My groups consistently tightened, and I felt like I had a lot more control over the dart.

I have a theory about why I am more comfortable with the old darts. I have big hands. To grip a thinner or smaller dart I have to close my hand tighter, creating a more crampy feeling that probably hinders my grip and release. I remember at an expo John Lowe talked about how he sometimes missed his big old darts because they had a better feel and he could control them more easily. We'll see if the old darts keep working for me.

I am taking off all next week so I will have no excuses not to post. I will be catching up on news and passing it along. Who knows, I might even sneak out to a LOD or two. Until then, good darts!

Varuna Cup 2009 Flyer Out

2009-03-22T08:53:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Bob Race for forwarding the announcement that the $5,000.00+ Varuna Cup will be held in Brooklyn, NY on April 17-19, 2009. This is an open tournament with singles, luck of the draw, doubles, and a mixed triples event. Click here for the flyer in pdf format.

2009 Philadelphia Cancer Shoot and Virginia Beach Coming Up

2009-03-09T20:01:00.004-04:00

Any New Jersey darters who missed Darts for Dreams this past weekend can still do something for charity by attending the 3rd Annual Philadelphia Cancer Shoot later this month. The event will be held on Saturday, March 28, 2009, at 1:00 p.m., at Philadelphia House (formerly Jokers), 7312 Castor Avenue, Philadelphia, PA. The format will be luck of the draw doubles, $10 to enter, with $1,000 in prize money. All proceeds will go to benefit the worthy charity Crossing The Finish Line, which offers respite for families of people with cancer.

The same weekend 23rd Annual Virginia Beach Dart Classic will be held in (where else?) Virginia Beach, VA. Click here for the flyer. This year's tournament features $35,310.00 in prize money which is sure to lure many of the top national players. This will likely clear the field a bit for a lot of you local players to go to the Philly Cancer shoot and show your stuff!

Darts for Dreams 2009 a Great Success!

2009-03-08T20:10:00.006-04:00

Congratulations to Gary Yourman, the Greater Trenton English Dart League, the sponsors and everyone who attended the Darts for Dreams charity event on Saturday. It was another record year with over $16,000.00 raised for the New Jersey Make-A-Wish Foundation. Click here for Gary's report. Some highlights were that 18,300 darts were thrown. Paul Seladones of the Quaker City English Dart League had high score on the day with 2,780 scored in 100 darts. Many winners donated their winnings back to the cause.

My seven year old son Oliver (pictured above) and I attended the event and had a great time. Oliver and I practice at home but he has never thrown in a formal dart event before. It's great that his first experience is a charity event. He had no trouble throwing 100 darts for a score of 745. I have no doubt he will improve on that for next year. He was also thrilled because everyone got a gift bag and he won a door prize. I was able to throw my hundred and ended up somewhere around 2250. I had a couple of 140's but a few too many 26's and 45's!

One of the families whose wish was sponsored by the funds raised in last year's Dart-A-Thon appeared and gave a moving talk about what it meant for their young daughter to get her wish. The young girl had an incurable metabolic disease and her room needed a complete makeover for the medical equipment that she needs to function. They gave a heartfelt thanks for the support provided by the generous darters and sponsors.

Gary (pictured above with Oliver) and the untiring folks at Make-A-Wish and the GTEDL are already setting goals to raise $17,000+ next year. Congratuations again and best wishes.

Hot and Cold

2009-02-15T19:04:00.003-05:00

I'm not describing my dart playing, but rather what the temperatures around here are doing. Some days you can walk around in short-sleeved shirts and others are like this picture of my backyard that Margaret took last month. All you can do is wait for spring I suppose. At least it does not effect dart practice!

Dart Photos

2009-02-14T09:02:00.002-05:00

Margaret has been experimenting with post-production work on digital pictures. Here is one she did of me and Oliver after last year's tournament at the Mohegan Sun. Let me know what you think.

New Tournament in Massachutses

2009-02-12T22:08:00.002-05:00

I received a notice that the Montachusett Dart Association is having a nice small weekend tournament ($4,100+) on March 13-15, 2009, in Leominster, MA. That is a bit of a haul for New Jersey dart players, but well within reach for a weekend road trip. Click here to get the flyer.

Work has been interesting but time consuming lately, which explains my less-than usual posting on the blog. Things look to normalize next week so you will be hearing more from me. I have been reading some other books lately that aren't necessarily about darts, but should have some good parallels.

NJ Darts Book Review: The Dart League King

2009-02-10T05:56:00.004-05:00

Last weekend I finished reading a book written by Keith Lee Morris called "The Dart League King." How could I resist a book with a title like that? In September Dartoid did a good review of the book. I will leave the literary reviews to the literary reviewers, and focus on one narrow question: How well did Morris capture the feel of a dart league night? My readers from way back know that a lot of my early posts were weekly accounts of league matches, so I find that particularly interesting.

Morris quickly caught my interest in the first fifteen pages by describing the buildup to league night. The team captain, Russel, has conversations in advance with his friend about matchups for a big league night. Anyone who has filled out a roster for a league match knows what I am talking about...all the little distracting anxieties about who you should play where to maximize your team's chances of winning.

I also enjoyed Morris' description of the dart bar in question, the 321 club, and how the players interact with the setting and each other. There is live music at the bar that tends to distract the dart players, and they complain about it. That amused me, because every dart bar has something like that, and the acquired ability to tolerate it is something of a home field advantage. At the Corner Bar in Elizabeth, there was a loud buzzer that went off any time someone walked into the adjacent liquor store...usually when you were lining up that shot for a game-winning double!

Then Morris describes how dart players sometimes try to reach a "zone" where they feel loose but not too much so, usually involving a certain number of beers, drinks, etc. One of the characters describes how he looks forward to the Thursday night league match, but dreads going to work the following Friday morning after a night out. Very authentic.

The players from the opposing teams inevitably size each other up while warming up, but at the same time there is a loose cameraderie. There is a bit of trash talking but it is good natured. I also found that authentic and he did a good job of creating the feel of it.

I particularly liked it when Morris reached into the heads of the players. One of the top players, Russel, has a case of the nerves and Morris describes it as follows: "it was as if his motor memory had suddenly been erased...and so his heart struck up against his chest like a little hammer and his fingers pulsed strangely...Russel missed and missed and missed." In my opinion, he did a good job of describing a character who has let nerves get the best of him. Haven't we all seen that!

Morris also does a great job of examining the pressure of a game winning shot. It's not always so easy to hit that single bull with your last dart when you have a bar full of people looking at you, the room goes suddenly silent, and there is a good looking woman in a short skirt in your peripheral vision.

Morris obviously knows the game and I was not surprised to learn that he plays darts. His descriptions of the games played and strategies as they progress reflected that knowledge. He weaves some interesting tales and characters around a dart league night, and I recommend his book to all adult dart players. This one is not appropriate for the young due to frequent profanity and some violence. That being said, the profanity and violence are not gratuitous. They fit the story and the characters. Until next time, good darts!

Darts for Dreams 2009

2009-01-26T06:24:00.002-05:00

The Fourth Annual Darts for Dreams Charity Dart-A-Thon is announced for March 7, 2009, with doors opening at noon and darts starting at 1 p.m., at the following location:

77 Christine Way
Hamilton, NJ

All proceeds will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of New Jersey. This is a great event that allows dart players to get out and support a worthy cause while doing what we love to do. Click here for the flyer.

I have attended this event and it is a lot of fun. Last time the format was that you pay a certain amount to throw a hundred darts. You keep score and report it. The top thrower every hour won a prize, as did the overall winners for the day. Of course, it may be different this time! They also had a raffle. I hope to see you all there!

Live From The 2009 Rae Chesney Tournament in Philly

2009-01-10T15:48:00.002-05:00

It's Saturday at about 3:45 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel in North Philly, and the men's singles cricket is underway with 256 entrants. Earlier today in the men's pairs 501, Tom Sawyer and Tim Curtin from Massachutses overcame Joe Slivan and Mike Sansoucie from Florida in a close match in the finals.

I managed to find a partner for the pairs and we got through the first round, only to lose to Dick Keen and his partner. Dick took out a nice 78 in two darts in the first leg, denying me a shot. In the second game I hit a ton to leave my partner 40, but Dick again hit is double 4 on the first dart. In singles I again had the second round blues. I shot well the first round to take a sweep, but lost the second when I could not hit a pesky 18.

Many top shooters are here, including Darin Young, Bill Davis, Chris White, Jim Widmayer and many others from accross the country. I will take a rest during the mixed trips this afternoon and I am contemplating shooting in the luck of the draw tonight. Tommorrow is another chance with the singles 501 and pairs cricket events. I will provide updates as I am able.

2009 PDC World Championship Finals

2009-01-06T07:32:00.002-05:00

The 2009 PDC World Championships featured Phil Taylor against Raymond Van Barneveld. Taylor won it with an amazing 110+ three dart average over the course of eight sets (each best of five legs). Barneveld only managed one set despite averaging over 100 himself! The standard of play is really impressive now at the top. Here is a link to the PDC's reporting of the final.

If you would like to follow the Lakeside World Professional Chamionships, they are going on right now and you can see updates on the World Dart Federation's website.

I am practicing for this weekend's tournament in Philadelphia and look forward to seeing a lot of you there. Reports will follow.

Holiday Baking NJ Darts Style

2009-01-01T18:30:00.005-05:00

While I am neither a baker nor an artist, I got in the spirit this holiday.

Happy New Years

2009-01-01T11:25:00.002-05:00

Best New Years wishes to everyone. I am back from a great holiday in North Carolina. It was quite an interesting scene for Christmas at my brother's house with fifteen people celebrating, including five kids. My little nephew got a dart game and I could not resist playing some.

When I returned home and checked the news I was glad to see that Bill Davis of Philadelphia had a big day at the PDC World Championships, beating defending World Champ John Part in the first round. Check out the Phillydarts website which has a link to an interview with Bill right after his win. What an amazing crowd they have for that event! Bill dropped a tight match in the next round to Barrie Bates, who was hitting some big checkouts.

I just finished booking my reservations at the Radisson NE Philadelphia for the Rae Chesney Tournament (flyer available at Phillydarts), and hope to see a lot of you there. I have some good new ideas for articles on darts that will be coming out in the next couple of weeks, and I will be sure to include some good pictures and reports from the tournament.