DM2006 Pt IV - Bang and its Gone!

Well as 2006 draws to a close so does this years Dartmaster competition. The final contest was excellently organised by Part III's winner - The Outdoor, with amazingly little hassle about dates. All participants duely made there way to the familiar territory of The Old Red Lion in Staines for the epic contest. The participants were

The Outdoor
The Thrill
CC
The Craziness
Sureshot
The Judge - for those not in attendance this is Martin 'The Judge' Dury whose new nickname was christened during the event

The format of choice for the days events was the old-school 2 round 501, home & away. The £5 in highest out contest was included but with an added twist from the outdoor that any out counted all the way down to 2.

Sureshot and the Judge started proceedings with Sureshot victorious and also starting the ball rolling with a 2 checkout that for a brief period was worth £30. The first half saw myself and Sureshot heading leading the pack while the Judge was staking his claim to the turd trophy. A couple of ok checkouts meant that the bar had risen from 2 to I think 66 but I don't have the results sheet to confirm this - think CC got itI i apologise for my poor statistical knowledge.

CC phone home

The second half saw more of the same at the start with the Judge striving to make sure he had a squidgy shit taking pride of place on his mantelpiece and Sureshot still claiming he hadn't touched a dart since the last DM of 2005. His protestations started to ring true as he was taken out of the running as the surging trio of the Craziness, Outdoor and CC notched up some victories. In fact it was CC vs Sureshot that saw the highlight of the knockout stage when CC checked out with a whopping 142 which unsurprisingly claimed the checkout pot. I myself suffered the bitter taste of defeat when a deserving Craziness punished my sloppy efforts at doubles and ruined a promising start which had seen me chuck in two 140's. Despite this loss I had made it into the final and my opposition had come down to a 3 horse race between Outdoorcrazinesses and CC. The final game of the second half saw CC 's bid for glory fail as Outdoor and Craziness drew level in front of him and a playoff was needed tseparatete them.

The 142 - a cut above the rest

A single game of 501 was the format chosen to decide the finalist and It was the Craziness who came out on top, the outdoors bid to retain the trophy had ended.

So it was over 5 hours since the start of the tournament we came to the final. It seemed only right that repeatat of the final that had started this years Dartmaster should end it. I was feeling quietly confident after the knockout stage but knew that I had to do better than the double 1 checkouts that had seen me win a fair few of my previous games. My opponent though had hit a rich vein of form thanks in no small part to his switch from the wife beater to the apple juice, giving him his legendary stomach snakebite!

The Snakebite takes effect

The first game saw myself take the advantage through some decent scoring and thankfullsome decentnt doubling. There was some controversy as the Judge and Sureshodecideded during the game that they needed to make a break for home and were deserting the finale. Now despite claims of travelling a long way home and they'd already been their 6 hours this gained little respect from the rest of us. none more so who blames the whole thing for his loss in the first game and had a Barryesque strop to go with it.

Quitter!!!!!!!!

With the quitters now gone both players could concentrate on game 2. this proved a completely different game as both of us matched scores and kept close until the doubles. In the end after both players had missed chances I slipped in a double 10 to claim Game 2 and the trophy!! hugs were exchanged in a totally non-gay and manly way and the victory photos taken. To top it off I had claimed 2 victories for the year and the trophy is mine forever!!!

The winner and his scowl of victory

The night didn't quite end there as CC genrously bought us all a pint and a sambuca chaser. Unfortunately for CC and me, after the outdoor left and we were all finishing our drinks the sambuca was mixing with The craziness's stomach snakebite to cause an angry reaction. the result of which was a five minute craziness tirade on how shit we all were at darts especially me and that any pub dart player would beat us all. in fairness, very true statements but the crazinees turned into the scariness for a brief period of time. Next time he's not allowed the sambuca!!!!!

The calm before the storm.............

Anyway thanks to all participants and the outdoor for organising. Next years tournanment should kick off around the end of Jan start of Feb. CC and I have already scoped out a possible twickenham venue. preliminary date options will be emialed next week. The 2007 trophy promises to be tacky as ever and I already have some ideas for its construction!

Till then Dm'ers

Bow down at my mightiness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Thrill