I've never done a blog before so I have no idea what I SHOULD be writing about. With that in mind I will write about darts.

I don't play darts. It's not that I don't like the game, quite the opposite. I quite enjoy it. My problem is that when I throw, it needs to be in an empty room. Anyone being so foolish as to enter the room when I have darts in my hand is risking life and limb. The only safe place to be is right in front of the dartboard.

That being said, when my hubby joined the Eton Ex-Serviceman's Club darts team, I turned down their kind request for me to join as well. They persisted, having no clue what they were asking, so I gave them a demonstration. After the first well placed dart, which stuck in a chair perilously close to the team captain's family jewels, they withdrew their request. However, they did offer me the position of Darts Groupie, a safer alternative. I jumped at the opportunity. This position allows me to be loud, whooping it up and cheering the team on. The main perk, though, is that I get my drinks for free. Some members of other teams refer to what I do as being nothing more than a glorified cheerleader, but I take umbrage at that. There is nary a pom-pom in sight and I do NOT wear short skirts and tight sweaters (perish the thought !!). Personally, I think they're just jealous because they don't have any groupies of their own. Last season there were two of us, but my pal LuLu joined the team as an alternate this year, so I am holding down the fort on my own. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Last night was the first match of the new season and we were playing a new team in our division. For the most part they seemed a nice bunch. I suppose I should preface this by saying that there are two types of league players. There are those who play league darts because, first, it is fun. Second, and most important, being in a league has the additional bonus of letting you socialize and go to other pubs/clubs on your away games. Away games are a happy experience which allow you to meet new people, see the inside of places you've only ever seen from the outside before and then come home and moan about how expensive a pint is there compared to your own club/pub. The second type of league player is the one to whom the game is everything. Winning is everything. You know the type. The socializing and meeting new people is unimportant. Our team is made up of people who are the first, fun type. Oh we have a couple or three players who beat themselves up, after the other team has gone home, if they feel they haven't played their best game... regardless if we've won or lost. But mostly we just have fun. Don't get me wrong, we have a pretty good team in the league standings.

Now, back to the new team we played last night. They were, for the most part, a nice bunch. I say for the most part because their captain was one of the second type of players. The game is everything to this guy and he was not a happy bunny last night as the Eton Ex-Serviceman's were giving them a right hiding. In the pairs it was us 3 - them 1. In the fours (four of theirs against four of ours) we'd nailed them 2 - 0. Ultimately the final score was us 11 them 2.

By the time the singles came along and it was his turn, they'd managed to claw back one leg out of the eight to be played. He was up against our best lady player, Nats, and he fancied himself the easy winner. Nats was not on her best form and he kept lowering his score, at one point by almost 150 over her. But in darts the name of the game is the 'finish'. For those of you who don't know, in darts you start with a score (it varies depending on whether you are playing singles, doubles or fours, the more players the higher starting score) and the points you rack up are deducted from your score until somebody reduces theirs to zero. The catch is, your final dart has to be in a 'double', that narrow, outer band on the darts board. For example, if you come up and what you or your team has left is 20, you can't just hit the 20 or a multiple combination of points that equals 20. You could, on your first dart, hit the outside narrow band on the 10 ... double 10 = 20 and you'd 'finish' to win. Or, you could make 20 with a combination of points, but it would only count if the final dart was in a double spot. An example of that would be 3 + 7 + double 5 = 20. Well Mr. Serious Darts Player was down to less than 20, and Nats still had 150 to go...but he just couldn't 'finish', that double kept eluding him. Nats kept pecking away at her score in the meanwhile. Finally Nats had one dart left, 24 to go. She paused, psyching herself up for a double 12. One of the players from the other team hollered out "Twenty-four", apparently thinking she was having trouble with her maths and trying to figure out what she had left. Damned if she didn't hit that double 12. Well, Mr. Other Team Captain went ballistic, directing a tirade at our team captain. "It's against the rules to have help like that ! If she can't add she needs to learn how !" "Pardon?", a couple of our guys said... "It was your team member that hollered out and, besides, Nats didn't ask anything.. she didn't say a word." Well he was having none of it, just kept ranting on how his team had been penalized twice before for something like that. No matter that it wasn't our team that had done anything wrong, he just wanted a rant because he'd been beaten. He kept on and the debate turned into an argument. Soon there were voices from the sidelines, mine included. Then Nats had had enough, she stood up and got in his face. Though she remained calm she let him know in no uncertain terms that she'd said not a word and she'd won fair and square. At that point my hubby, who along with our captain was one of the main participants in this verbal melee, stuck out his hand and said, "Look, mate, enough said, no hard feelings, let's just shake." This fellow wouldn't, he just carried on moaning. After a bit, Steve stuck out his hand again and said much the same. This time the fellow gave him some lip and still wouldn't shake. I could see my normally peaceful hubby getting very angry, now, and I could tell by the look on his face that he would like nothing better than to deck this guy. But he didn't, age and experience got the better of the youthful, primal urge to deal physically with a jerk. Instead he leaned back against the bar and let our captain and Nats continue to have a go. Finally, Steve put out his hand a third time and I think his tone and manner suggested to this idiot that the wise thing to do would be to shake hands. He did, grudgingly. Whether this fellow realizes it or not, all he's done is damage his own credibility. One of his team, who was playing his first game for them, muttered to us that this may be the first and the LAST game he plays for them. Two of his other players stayed behind til closing having a natter with us and, as they are locals, I shouldn't be surprised to see them jump ship. We may have just acquired some new alternates.

Lordy how I do waffle on. I suppose that the point I am trying to make is that if, in your leisure time, you play games, participate in a sport, compete in any manner... it truly isn't the winning that's important, it's how you play. If you play your best and enjoy yourself, win or lose, you are ahead of the game. When you take it so seriously, as the afore mentioned opposing team captain so obviously does, you might as well be stuck in rush hour traffic for all the enjoyment you are going to get out the game. In this world of hustle and bustle and work and long commutes, why make your precious well earned time off as stressful as your work a day week? That just doesn't compute in my book.

The End. If you've gotten this far, my hat is off to you. You earn a gold star for perserverance.