How I Got into Darts: Chapter 6: My First Team - and it doesn't go well!
Like with anything in my life I have a ‘dive straight in’ nature and go at everything a million miles per hour, and sometimes it can lead to making mistakes.
Whats it they say? you have to learn to walk before you can run??, with me it shouldn't have been learn to crawl before you enter the 100m sprint!
My first darts tournament should have taught me a lesson about my lack of readiness for competitive darts however it hadn’t and despite only having been playing for a few months, an average around about 40 (per 3 darts) and constantly changing my setup I elected to join a team down the road from me.
It was January 2014 and the darts league mid-season and I should have waited, practised and got better. I didn’t though and elected to dive in with the team who were currently undefeated and top of league in division 2.
The pub was called the Seagull and these guys took their darts seriously. Very seriously! I was given a few trial matches and incredibly I won all 3 matches, including taking out their top player who was 9-1 that season with double tops. I was elated, however (and I have no idea why) I elected to change darts from 25g Barney’s to 26g Whitlock’s when I should have stayed with what was winning.
I was undoubtedly the architect of my own downfall in many respects and this in some ways is down to my lack of darting guidance. I had a set of darts I was scoring well with and winning with (admittedly for a short space of time) and yet I decided to change (this would become a recurrent theme with me).
Not long after joining, I was unfortunately involved in a small traffic incident whereby when stationary, a woman drove into the back of me, damaging my car and writing hers off. I sustained whiplash and shoulder issues, which unbeknown to me would affect my darts.
Initially things started off well and my new team mates were receptive and friendly. The ex –Captain said I was very talented, threw a great dart and had the potential to be ‘very good’. This was from a guy who had been playing for 30+ years and was well respected. I was beating my fellow darts players regularly and was assured that I would get a run in the singles matches.
Unfortunately things quickly deteriorated and I have to hold my hands up as to why things didn’t work out. At the time I was convinced that I should be selected for the singles matches, however on reflection this was ego and attitude talking. I was a newbie who had joined an established team that was top of the league, undefeated and winning it without losing a game was their priority. Why would they risk that??
Looking back now I was nowhere near ready, and was changing darts weekly, which to my teammates probably caused concern as it effected my performance and I hadn’t yet established my alcohol to performance ratio (e.g. how much is too much).
I guess they were too nice to be patronising and guide me (which is what I probably needed) and the problem is you don’t know what you don’t know, and I didn’t know a lot!
It was only 4 or 5 weeks in when I in-effect sealed my fate and eventual departure from the team. It was a mid-week cup match and I text the Captain and asked if I was definitely needed that night as I was at work and this would involve a 60 mile round trip for me. I was told definitely yes and then made the trip. Upon arrival I was told that I wasn’t needed as someone (who I hadn’t seen in the last few weeks) had turned up. I was then unceremoniously dropped to doubles again. I will admit I was livid and I copped the needle and let my thoughts be known very publicly. I was then given a lesson on darts etiquette where basically the ex -captain (and founder of the team) said it was outrageous that I had ‘demanded’ to be played, that no one is guaranteed a match and that in 30 years he’d never heard anything like it.
Ok, I will admit I made a bad decision here to get annoyed, I wasn’t ready for singles competitions and should have bided my time however I felt ‘wronged’, not that I hadn’t played but that I had been given a wasted journey and dropped for someone who turned up sporadically and I don’t/didn’t have the personality for letting that ‘go’.
I have to admit that they would have been within their rights to ask me not to come back, as they’d only known me a few weeks however they didn’t, although the relationship was never the same after.
Well, after that I continued to play in their doubles however my attitude wasn’t the best and I was continually switching darts and after I overheard a conversation between the captain and a player about my standing in the team, I made my mind up.
We sat down and had a discussion and though they were happy for me to stay and learn which was nice of them, I thought I was better than what I was and wanted/needed to play regularly which I wasn’t going to get (at least that season).
I left on good terms however internally i was left fuming and was unhappy as in my opinion I had been wronged which wasn’t the case.
The lesson learned here is that in darts you can’t expect anything to be handed to you, especially when joining a completely new bunch of people and that kicking off isn’t the way to go, certainly not publicly, and without the darting ability to match the argument behind it.
It was probably a case of wrong time and wrong fit, but I’ll put my hands up on this one!
