Exeter College Darts

Nobody really hates St Peter's. In fact, we quite like them, although we'd like them more if they would beat Queens or New now and then. Instead, they insist on running us close every match, and they somehow managed to do the same here despite fielding some astoundingly bad players. Think of Gonzo, who throws his darts like torpedoes but with the accuracy of scud missiles. Or there's that bloke who looks about 15 ("Darts are sharp! They're not a child's plaything!" as Fads informed him every time he stepped up for another woefully inaccurate set). So it's even more annoying when these two win both legs.

Anyway, I'll stop sounding pissed off about a victory because there was some good darts. Captain Drews started her reign in style by losing the toss, so they've got the darts. Stevenson steps up at 1 after the long-awaited and widely celebrated retirement of the Damage. There's no Phil The Power these days, so he plays their only good player, Lyons ... doesn't get down quite as quickly, but leaves double 9. Toying with his opponent ... 14, 2, double 1.

But then Clifford played shit at 2. One-all. It's a good thing we had the prodigal dartsman Barkworth back in the side ... two-one. Then up steps Fads. He'd been asking to drop down the order, but with about 30 darts at a double, surely a man of his experience must take the leg ... and the no. Despite the "ready ... aim ... fire!" darts style of Gonzo, he somehow managed to hit his double quickly having been 250 behind. Poor : 2-2.

At this point, someone informed me that Spurs v Chelsea was on the screen in the corner of the bar, and the massive hammering Chelsea took distracted me from the next couple of legs. This was unfortunate, as we had to get a doubles match in early, and I missed Stevenson hitting a 180 at the start of his leg with Clifford. Still, we've seen them before. He obviously likes their board.

Then Matt Locke puts us 4-2 up, before Killingley decides to follow Fads's lead. 1000 darts at a double only to be beaten by a fresh faced schoolboy ... disappointing. 4-3, but it really should be 6-1.

As the match drew on, things got a bit rowdier, climaxing when Fads seemed hell-bent on starting a fight with some random punter who wandered in, didn't care about darts and told him to shut up. Luckily, the look of evident insanity in Fads's eyes made him back down - Fads was so sober that he asked afterwards, "did we win that match, then?" ...

And fortunately, we did. Stephany won at 8 to keep us in the lead, but with Fads off form in the doubles, it ended up 6-5 (no, I can't remember who won which leg). So somehow, we end up having to win the last leg for the match. Barkworth and Killingley stepped up ... JK said after the match that he was never going to hit the winning double. So it's a good job we had Barkworth back in the side and back doing the business. Slightly half-heartedly, we lifted him into the air in triumph. We'd still got plenty to smile about - just the one loss this season, and there was still the rest of the evening to spend getting battered.

And apparently, there's a game on next week.

Queens (a). MUST TAKE THIS OUT.

Gray