Chapter 5: Realisation
When you watch darts on Television the majority of the
match is usually spent with watching the professionals attempt to smash the
treble 20 to the infamous “180!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” by the match
caller. Of course not even the
professionals can hit perfect 180’s every time however each match usually
features several. At the time of this book the official highest amount was a
staggering 21 hit by Dutchman Raymond Van Barneveld against Phil Taylor in his
2007 PDC world championship final win.
The most combined 180’s in a match was in the 2013 PDC Grandslam of
Darts between Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis which produced an incredible 32 and in
my opinion was the greatest display of darts power scoring in darts history
(certainly televised) and the highest recorded average was Michael Van Gerwen
(MVG)’s ridiculous 121.86 in his 6-0 routing of Steve Beaton in a 2012 PDC
Championship League darts match.
Now the professionals make it look easy however the
reality unless your incredibly gifted, it’s hard enough to hit 60 regularly
when under pressure let alone 100s and when you move down to pub level,
especially the lower leagues the 180 occurrences are rare, and the average 3
dart average can be in the 30’s or under.
For example, in my first full year of league play in 2014
(excluding 2 external tournaments), which spanned the summer league and a
portion of winter league I played 33 matches which encompassed 84 legs. During this time only 1 player hit a 180
against me, no one hit the next highest 177 (t20,20,d19) , no one hit a 9
darter (finishing a game of 501 in 9 darts, the perfect game), and no one hit a maximum checkout of 170
(t20,t20, bull). In-fact my Captain at Al’s Bar Kevin had been playing league
darts for 33 years, and had never hit a 180 in a competitive league match. Incredible given that he was far from a poor
player and would consistently get at least a few 100+ scores in his matches.
Furthermore after chatting with players over time it was not uncommon for some
players to highlight that they’d never even hit one even in practice, even
after years of playing.
Does this mean that the matches were any less exciting,
and some were not good quality? Of course not it’s just not world class
standard and anyone who goes to a pub on a Monday night expecting to see 110
averages, 9 darters and multiple 180s are in for a shock. In my league they don’t even record the
averages (maybe that’s a good thing). Of course there are 2 sides to every
story, part of the reason for a lack of 180’s is down to the fact that most
single matches are comprised of best of
3 legs however the standard is of course far lower.
This is ‘honest’ darts at its grass roots level and over
the seasons you meet all kinds, and you hear all sorts of stories. Inevitably
there is always one player with a
massive ego sporting a set of £80 Phil Taylor darts that brags about the 9
darters (finishing a game of 501 in 9 darts, the perfect game) he’s hitting every
day in practice and then proceeds to ‘power’ score 26 as he loses 2-0 and doesn’t
get to a finish. Every 26 is usually met with a look of confusion and a shake
of the head as if it’s a complete shock and unexpected. The excuses then
follow. The air conditioning, a shoulder injury, the dog dying when he was 7,
anything to excuse the shock of not hitting back to back 9 darters, this
usually occurs every time you see him play and you never do see him hit that
perfect game.
What I am trying to get to is that unless you are very
lucky very few new dart players hit a 180 early on, and sometimes it can be a
long time coming. I was fortunate in that I hit one about 3 months after I
started in practice. It is an incredible
feeling when it happens and for the novice/lower league player remains the
mecca of darting accomplishment. I think
it is important when you play to forget about what you see on television. These
players are professionals and this is their job and as such you shouldn’t judge
your skills against those who are in effect paid to do it and can spend 5-8
hours a day practising. If you do it can
become an exercise in frustration which will actually make that 180 harder to
hit. The trick is to capitalise on it,
and not hit a total score 26, 3, 15 or 7 with your next 3 darts as you often
see happen (or happens to you), and to enjoy it. Oh and it gets a BIG cheer
from everyone in the vicinity when you do, which for about 5 seconds makes you
feel like a superstar.
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