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Nemesis Blog

I've found our nemesis blog!!!!!!

http://www.madebymojo.blogspot.com/

It's all too easy to succumb to the world of ladies knitting when you're a hardened darts player! Careful lads!

We need to make sure our blog stays on the straight and narrow path to 'ockey glory!

Mine's a Double

Last night saw an amazingly close double's battle to see who will represent Selecta in the Double's Competition to be held next week. Go Rampage!

Our old favourite is now even better!

That's right: The Horse & Groom on Great Portland Street has a new board! Plus there was an addition next to the electronic scorer - a how to finish table. Fantastic! With nice cheap beer and lovely food we were onto another great Monday night.

First off we all downed an initial pint to summon up the gut's to persuade Dave to move some locals out the way so we could play. Cheers Devastating.

Next came the complicated part - how to choose the pairings. Random? Everyone choose? No-way. With 6 of us there: Naked, Rampage, Gigolo, Bags, Devastating & Houses we went for the well known triple-way cross-over round-robin into final standard tournament.

Stage 1:

The first stage involved spitting into two groups of 3. Via a high-quality bull-off we had in group 1:

Rampage
Gigolo
Devastating

and in group 2:

Bags
Naked
Houses

In each group the players played each other twice (home & away) at 401. The singles games were of a good standard with Rampage hitting a 138 High Score, Bags a 97 Checkout and best-of-all Gigolo a 3 Low Score.

The results were as follows - No. of games won and then points against decided the order.

Group 1:

Rampage - 3 wins 1 loss
Gigolo - 2 wins 2 losses
Devastating - 1 win 3 losses

Group 2:

Naked - 3 wins 1 loss
Bags - 3 wins 1 loss
Houses - 4 losses

Some surprise results there! It should be pointed out that all the games were pretty close. Great fun. Devastating's form was all over the place with him crashing to third place!

At that point Psyche turned up to make the evening even more complicated: 7 players - what do we do? We had decided that the third place people in each group would form one pair. There was going to be a playoff between them and Psyce to decide but at that point Houses called it a day.

Sadly the 4 losses had taken it's toll and Houses was still clearly recovering from the Houses House House party from the previous weekend. With so many women turning up to it, Will was quite exhausted by the end apparently!

Therefore the bottom pair was decided: Devastating & Psyche.

I hope everyone is keeping up with the selection process. It's all very simple.

Stage 2:

The next stage involved the first vs second playoffs to decided the top pair and middle pair. Each game was a single leg 401.

Rampage vs Bags

Another close game saw Rampage getting the double very quickly. No messing.

Naked vs Gigolo

Gigolo showed some good form to take the victory.

So we had our other two pairings:

Top pair: Rampage & Gigolo
Middle pair: Naked & Bags

Stage 3:

Finally we were able to have the round-robin doubles tournament. Best-of-3 301.

Match 1:

Naked & Bags vs Rampage & Gigolo

A close couple of games saw Bags & Naked (with a nice 3 darter) bag the two doubles to take the match 2-0.

Match 2:

Devastating & Psyche vs Naked & Bags

Aftre being very confident about their finishing all night long Bags and Psyche fell to Earth. Dave and Mark winning 2-0. Nice.

Match 3:

Rampage & Gigolo vs Devastating & Psyche

An on fire and determined display saw Rampage and Gigolo win 2-0. All that the other pair had to do was get one leg but no! With the pressure on the Rampage & Gigolo showed their stuff (not literally).

Crazy! We had a tie! How to decide which pairs should be in the final? Gigolo knew: The famous 6 darter! Drawing random turns to throw everyone threw 3 darts and the pairs added the total together. It got to the point that Naked & Bags were safely through and Rampage was left with the final throw. He had to get 33 or higher to put Devastating and Psyche out. But disaster! First throw: 2 Second throw: 1. At this point no-one could quite believe it with most people having to sit down they were laughing so hard. A valiant last throw at the bull saw Rampage hit the outer ring: 25. It was a sad way to drop out and see Selecta's No 1 miss out - but he has got the high score trophy to collect next week!

The Final:

With 10 minutes to go and some spectators (2 guys who came along to play table footy but were so impressed they stopped to watch!) watching it was time for the final (at last). It was to be Best-of-3 301.

Naked & Bags vs Devastating & Psyche:

Once again Bags & Naked just couldn't find there doubles that had come so easily earlier in the evening. With Bags sure it was something to do with 5 pints and not his ability he forgot that they had already lost 2 legs thinking there was one more left! Pathetic. A close D1 battle was well taken by Psyche and Dave. Well played lads. We'll be cheering you on next week!

song and dance

Hello and welcome to the match report for the 6th Feb.

This week, through the magic of modern technology, the match has added sound. Each player, as well as the team as a whole, gets a theme-tune to walk in to. Left, Dave helps the United bods out on the sound desk.

Thanks to the long-awaited return of selecta star-player bendelayo, this evening's team is 8-strong. A bully-off sees psyche excluded from the singles due to landing his dart beyond the doubles outer-orbit. Above right, the playing order is worked out.

sixes

psyche, houses, bendelayo, devastating, gigolo & bags stand up for Selecta. The team enters to the strains of craig david: "the crowd says 'bo, seleeecta!". The rivals, United, have 'some track from a trance compilation' as their theme.

Early on in the game houses manages to back-end his own dart. Remarkable, but it doesn't count towards the score due to some pithy technicality about the dart actually having to be in contact with the board. 35 scored. boo.


With consistent high-scores from devastating and a mid-game 100 from bendelayo, selecta is soon down to 3 to finish. houses fluffs his opportunity, busting with a premature D1 with his first dart. ben gets the 1, leaving a madhouse finish which gigolo gets.


doubles

bendelayo and psyche:
1st leg: A fast game, this: down to a 16 finish in 4 darts. pscyhe clinches the game with a D1 finish.
2nd leg: the guys don't hang about this time either. Selecta is quickly down to D2, and again psyche obliges.

bags and houses:
1st leg: starts badly with a 10 thrown by houses. Further poor darts leave the selecta boys still on 102 when united checks out.
2nd leg: houses likes the number 10 this evening; he scores another 10 to open this leg. Despite some recovery work by Bags (another 100 scored mid-game) this one goes to United too.


warrior and rampage:
1st leg: game proceeds swiftly down to 16, then 8: warrior finishes it with a D1followed by a D3.
2nd leg: rampage checks out on a D4. He modestly protests "I fucked around a bit [on the way down]".

triples

psyche gigolo bendelayo:
The match reporter was largely distracted during this
game by some Very Important Questions:

Which station name occurs in both the london
underground and the paris metro (with the same spelling)?
Which london underground station has six consecutive consonants in its name?
What is the rudest station in brussels?
Which two football players have played in the 4 biggest uk derbies?
(answers will be posted on this blog sometime)

they lost the triples.

devastating warrior rampage
dave makes a healthy start with a 72.

Another Very Important Question:
Which two uk hit records sold over a million but never got to no. 1?

Warrior checks out on madhouse to win the triples game. Says it only took them "about 300 darts".


singles:

houses
Plagued by low scores all evening, the singles match proves troublesome for Houses. Quickly falling behind, he perseveres, getting down to a D20 finish, but his opponent checks out first on a D2. Houses blames his poor performance on the accidental purchase of a disablingly strong beverage earlier on in the evening: the guest ale "A over T" weighs in at a scary 9%.


bags
bags loses! opponent checks out with a smart, two-dart, 19 D19 combination.

rampage
close finish - victory to rampage in the end with a D4 check-out.

devastating
close finale in this game. dave almost checks out with 60 to go, getting 20 and 20, but just landing the wrong side of the D10 wire. The tension is heightened by the drum and bass playing in the background. Dave manages to overcome distractions to check out on D2!!!

warrior
ted's opponent has a chance at a 133 finish, but hits 140. The game is eventually lost with a D14 check-out going to the opposition.

we're 6 games to 5 up at this point.

gigolo
the match is lost to the ginger bloke from united.

Now it's 6 all. It's all to play for.

captain's match:

dave loses both legs. que pena!

..and the match is lost :-( But selecta doesn't go home empty handed! A recent change in the rules means the losing team gets a bonus point if they lose 6-7. Huzzah! (BTW, despite what it looks like, I'm not wearing a party-hat in the photo below.)

Kenergy's Textbook

A new year and an opposing team have the gall to develop nicknames....mind you Bodger and Understacker aren't really on the same scale as...er...Bags and Houses.

After the oppo completed their three hour warm up the sixes were lukewarmly contested by Selecta as scores of 5 (Bags) and 3 (Kenergy...though it did include a treble!) meant we were down straight away as Weekes amassed impressive three dart totals of 121 and...2.

Weekes 1-0 Selecta

A bully off on Warriors arrival sees Gigolo miss out (as usual when he makes the journey over from 'Kent') of the trebles and a hilarious dart leaves Bags out of the doubles.

The first trebles match saw Houses, Kenergy and Rampage...er...rampage their way to victory. I'm not sure what was more odd in this match - Kenergy's pint location during throws atop the doorframe or his 'textbook' 68 checkout....1, treble 19, double 5...he "likes to include a 1" apparently.

Weekes 1-1 Selecta

Then a trail of woe...

An uneventful second trebles match is lost by Devastating, Bags and Warrior amidst tales of how Warrior's flatmate has left and his girlfriend has left the country as she is an illegal immigrant (Its amazing he was able to concentrate enough on his bicycle journey to the pub to be able to balance some chilli and rice on a plastic plate)

The first doubles match included Devastating's suggestion that Gigolo should set one of the darts boys up with his sister (a lesbian). And Rampage calling for Kenergy to go for "treble 18, treble 18" only for Ken to find the double 17 bed. Unfortunately Dave's Bullseye for throw in the deciding third leg was cancelled out when he later got 8 and Weekes triumphed.

The second doubles match was also a home victory and was hailed with a squeal of excitement from one of Weekes' members...which is hard to understand seeing as Gigolo and Houses 'competed' with consistent three dart scores of 15, 11, 10 and 9.

Weekes 4-1 Selecta

Some serious singing for Warrior sparked a slight recovery as Rampage displayed magnificence with a 102 checkout of 20, treble 14, double top...topping his earlier season 101. A bonus point will surely be forthcoming...

Weekes 4-2 Selecta

Then the singles...

Ken got whooped by Ginger and Will narrowly lost to the fella who continually punched his chest in celebration during the evening...is he an ape?

Weekes 6-2 Selecta

A recovery was called for and began in a tight game between Gigolo and the most awkward action in the history of darts (new oppo nickname: Awkward)...a double three finishing it off. Devastating, in the words of Bags, "whipped" Understacker and Warrior brought us to within one with a first class three dart finish on 45 (though the oppo still being on 170 at the death didn't reveal the 967 bounce outs he had during the match.

Weekes 6-5 Selecta

Just the captains match and, prior to that, the final singles match to go...and who would you want playing in that very match...the man himself...Bags.

In a great match against Rufus, despite consistently finding the treble 20 and painfully close shots at double 16 for the tie, Bags failed to keep the recovery going as Dufus finished with a double 15.

Weekes 7-5 Selecta

Only the captains match to come and a solid display and 60 checkout from Devastating clinched a bonus point for only losing the match by one.

Final score
Weekes 7-6 Selecta

And there it is, Gigolo left for the English Channel enjoying his mini roll and contemplating the night's match and how Awkward, Dufus, an Ape and a ginger guy who never once untucked his t-shirt from his jeans during the entire night could have beaten Selecta. They did play well though.

Next time we may just have to bring in our secret weapon...and I'm not talking about Bags' clone...

Singles Competition (part 2) - Bags 2 Pounds Worth!

Thanks to Teddybear for his fine first post.

Alas I (Bags) did lose my second game with a truelly dismal display.

In the 3rd match Bags was up against Tim from the HC. A much better performance saw Bags take the only leg off the eventual winner all night long. With all 3 games having a first go 3 dart finish the standard was pretty good and he managed a 60 checkout all be it to no avail...

With just pride to play for the final game was against Duncan of ORCS. Thankfully Bags regained some respect with another 2-0 victory including another 3 dart 50s checkout!

And amazingly Bags took runners-up place with 2 wins and 2 losses with a better leg difference than the others he tied with on games won.

His prize - his 2 pounds entry fee back.

Woohoo!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas Selecta and a Happy New Year!