back of the ferry

Much rejoicing

Last night was not like that.

When your darts become unruly, they can be disciplined to a degree but a battle with your darts is never a glorious victory. The harder you try, the harder it gets and such darts will never smoothly find their own way to the target. A series of outer wires can rattle the concentration and the treble-20 can start to look very small and very far away.

To peg out on such a night the overwhelming emotion is relief. Behind 6-5 and down a leg in both the 12th and 13th game it was looking like Dee Why Master Builders was heading for an 8-5 loss. It was a tight, tense match up and both teams may have been a bit nervy. Sometimes there is only a few millimetres between a 180 and a 26 and a slight tremble of the hand is more than enough to do the damage.

One of the proven techniques is to apply amber fluid regularly, generously and vigorously. It may have been the difference as Dee Why Master Builders steadied and with a bit of luck evened the legs and then went ahead to win the GF 8-6. There was much rejoicing. Bad luck to Time&Tide especially Frank & Sharyn who were the only undefeated players on the night.

The former Fishos, now Dee Why Master Builders 3 darts team managed to win the elimination final against Dee Why Master Builders 4 team to meet Time & Tide in the Grand Final at Manly Leagues club next Wednesday, 23 November from 7:30pm.

The darts constitution requires that all finals be held at away venues, so no team gets home court advantage, hence the all Dee Why Master Builders elimination final was held at Leagues as holding the final at Builders would have given both teams home advantage.

Time & Tide had comfortably beaten Builders 3 the week before at Pittwater RSL to gain their place in the GF and were rewarded with a week off to rest those niggling darts injuries and prepare psychologically for the battle ahead. They spent last Wednesday at Leagues watching the elimination final, scoring, commenting on form and generally checking out the opposition.

Of note last Wednesday was the 9-2 result. Normally, a final finishes when a team gets 8 wins but the first 2 single games finished on the same dart with both pegging darts in the air at the same time. It was unclear which dart hit the board first to claim the night.

Two milestones that a darter will hope to reach in their darting career are a 180 and a high peg. But what exactly is a high peg?

A high peg usually means pegging out from a score of greater than 100. It is possible to do this with only 2 darts but normally a high peg will consist of 2 scoring darts and then pegging out with the third dart. While first shot pegs are fairly common, to peg out first shot with the third dart may only happen a couple of times in a darting evening. But a high peg requires even more! At least one of the scoring darts needs to be a high triple, so 2 of the 3 darts need to be perfect darts. For example, Bobby completed a 114 peg last Wednesday: triple 18, 20 and double 20 to finish.

Pegging out from scores greater than 120 is even rarer than a 180 and can be called ‘a really high peg’. It requires 3 perfect darts. Say a triple and 2 doubles or more typically 2 triples and a double. While you could argue this is easier than a 180 (as the double is bigger target than the triple) it is less common as there is there is normally only one opportunity for a really high peg per game. Also, changing targets is harder than 3 darts at the same target. I’ve only ever seen it done on 2 or 3 occasions.

Any peg greater than 160 can be considered ‘a really, really high peg’  as we now enter the undarted realm. I’ve never seen it done (except on telly) as it requires 2 big triples followed by the very difficult centre bull finish. A 170 peg is, of course, the ultimate peg though maybe once or twice a night someone steps up to the ocky with a score of 170 and dares to dream. If I ever see it done, I promise to buy that darter a beer and one for me too.