My 2013 darts review

Date Started: 13/08/2013 180’s: 2 160: 1 Highest out: 100 (t60, s20, d10) Highest Ave (p3d): 55.5 (December 2013) Duration playing darts at year end: 4 months 19 days Summary: Well this has been my inaugural year playing darts. I started as I had been a peripheral fan for years but rarely watched it consistently. I had caught Wolfie against someone years ago, and had vague memories of Bristow, George and Fordham. I had caught the worlds in 2012 and had gotten into it as my father-in-law and brother-in-law were fans and I ended up seeing an exhibition held by modus in may 2013. It had the likes of Nicholson, MVG, Les Wallace, Van Der Voort etc and so I was hooked from then on, at least from a spectator point of view. I hurt my back in the July (re-aggravating a serious injury I sustained in 2009) and this caused me to call time on my bodybuilding and since I couldn’t return to boxing I thought it would be a good time to take darts up. I sold off all my bodybuilding equipment and converted my gym (a big summer house I had built at the end of my garden) into a darts room. I purchased an old Winmau masters with cupboard (later to be replaced by a Unicorn pro eclipse) and then set about choosing a set of darts. Oh boy did this open a can of worms. In the first week I had purchased: Hankeys 24g Red Dragon hellfire D 26g McCoy Phase 5 copies 26g Whitlock 24g Bobby George 24g My first experience playing, was shall we say an ‘eye opener’. I had watched the worlds and the 180 fests that were going on and incredibly naively thought that banging in at least 60 a time would be no issue. Well you can imagine the results, with no teacher, and no idea yet on different setups, weights etc I watched in dismay as the darts flew everywhere whilst shaking and wobbling. Needless to say within the first 2 hours the cupboard looked like it had been on the receiving end of small arms fire. I can safely say that I wasn’t a prodigious MVG talent from the off, and after a few days was wondering whether at 32 this was a waste of time, I elected to persevere (I don’t give up). Slowly after a few days as ironically my muscle mass reduced due to quitting bodybuilding, and trying intensely I started to see noticeable improvements and my form improved, as did my scores. Unfortunately my improvements coincided with the changing of darts (dart honeymoon period) and this unfortunately led to the mindset that there was a dart out there was a perfect dart for me. The search for the ‘perfect’ dart was now on, and I think I ignited a secret dart barrel addiction. Over the course of the coming weeks I would constantly purchase darts in the hope that I would find the magic dart that would have me throwing like Taylor. I was relentless in my chopping and changing and within a 3 month period I had added: Andy Fordham 22g, 24g, 26g Andy Hamilton 24g Mervyn King 24g Tony O’Shea 26g McKicks Premium Whites 24g Winmau Testament 26g Adrian Lewis zirconia grip 23g Phil Taylor phase 2 24g Sometimes they would only be used for 30 minutes or less before I was onto the next one. I had an issue. I could score high straight darts, but was useless on doubles, however with bullets I would score less than straights but get doubles. This to coin a phrase “did my head in” and I was literally living on Dartnutz.net, Ebay and Dartscorner.co.uk. Luckily sense was prevailing and I wasn’t buying new, and recycling them via ebay, however the truth of the matter is that in 4 months I had purchased over 15 sets. Even now I am still guilty of chasing the ‘next purchase’ One thing that was consistent was in practicing with an average of 1 hour per day being attempted (bare in mind have 3 teenagers, a wife, a 3 year old and a 2 month old and I can only imagine the progress I’d have made if I had just stuck with one set from the beginning). Progress has been occurring and now having decided to stick to Lowe style darts (my current testaments) , progress is starting to creep in and be consistent. Overall I am happy with my 4 months progress and I hope to make more progress with a full 12 months in 2014.I have picked up some decent wins against pub players and some ex league players, and have an offer to join the local pub team looming in January. There is also local darts group that runs monthly tournaments, and has a ranking system etc which I am going to enter. The standard will be fierce, however it will be a good experience and I am hoping to learn from it. Plans for 2014: qualify and win the BDO worlds…………..only kidding! Ideally due to my dart playing career being in its infancy I would just like to improve on 2013. If I could repress my urge to constantly switch darts, get my darts average to 58 p3d, score over 2 180’s and pick up even a 1st round win in the local tourneys that would be a good year for me.