Last night marked the end of my debut season for my darts team, Lickey End Social Club B. Although our position in the league, second from bottom, looks a bit shit, the context of it actually means it’s not all as bad as it looks. In fact there have been many positives.
Bromsgrove Darts League is actually split into two leagues. Summer and Winter. The Summer League is split into three divisions. All new teams, as we were, start at the bottom in Div 3 as you would expect.
However, the top 3 teams in Div 3 were all of a far higher standard and should really be in Div 1 or 2 based on their abilities. The winners of our division, for example, won the whole Winter league last season. With a bunch of county standard players amongst them their 14 from 14 win rate was unsurprising. South Redditch and Batchley Aces were not too far off them either hence the gaping 3 match win hole between 3rd and 4th.
Take the Top 3 away and you see a much more evenly matched division where we were capable of beating any of them on our day. We went really close with Blackwell but unfortunately we lost to them last week which cost us their place.
I really enjoyed playing in a team. It’s obviously frustrating at times if you or others in your team have an off-night, some matches were lost by such small margins and you can only do your best in the moment. That’s darts. Everyone else is out of your control. It’s easy to take it too seriously too but I kept reminding myself I do it for fun and despite some late Monday nights way past my bedtime it was a gas. I’ve met some great people this season and enjoyed playing at venues I’d never been to before.
I learnt a lot too. Playing players of higher standard is a must to improve and the contrast of practice vs the nerves of competition was an eye opener, something I learnt to deal with. Weirdly I found riding my bike on a Monday was detrimental. Just tiredness I think. My darts math have improved from just forcing myself to chalk games and I can remember a lot more outshots now aswell. All small wins.
Overall, a great experience and a massive thanks to the Lickey End Social Club for hosting us plus a well done to our A Team in Div 2.
It’s the league single and doubles tournament in the next couple of weeks then after a very brief break we are straight into the Winter League for some 301 double-start.
If you fancy playing with us or joining the social club, we always need extra players and members, just get in touch.