9th October 2007 SIDL Weekly News
Welcome again to another issue of the SIDL newsletter.
This week, due to a delay of getting the info sent to me, this week’s newsletter
will be just a short one, but just enough to keep you all updated on what has been
going on this past week.
So week 9 was an eventful week of matches as we saw a few upsets, some very good
individual displays in both the league and the team KO competition.
So where to begin? Well lets start with the Gold
Label League this week and the game of the week
from this league, which was between
Latin Lovers and Drunk Under the Influence,
an intriguing match up this one between the top team and the 2nd from bottom of the league team. DUI so far this season,
have been unstoppable and prior to this match they had won all 6 of their opening
league matches where as, LL have been struggling to get their second win. Well this
match didn’t change anything for either team as far as the win lose status was concerned,
as DUI stormed to a 10 – 2 victory, but if Lucy, Jim B & Jim T (LL) had won
their 3rd
legs of their respective singles games, it could have been a different score line.
But as the result shows it was not to be. One thing of note that has been pointed
out by Jim B (LL) is that LL are still in the running for “Best Snacks of The Season”
award and this week they tried to distract their opposing team with sausage in batter
with Red Bean and Chilli dip, which I am led to believe was exceptional, however
it couldn’t have been that good Jim as the ploy didn’t work.
This result now means that DUI are now undefeated in 7 league games and are making
themselves the team to beat in this league and the question is “can anyone stop
them”? Well based on their present form it looks very unlikely that DUI will get
beaten, I have been known to put the jinks onto a team for saying that, but hey
they are not in the top league yet!!!
No high finishes or 180’s in this match but there were 10 tons for each team from
which, both Jesse (LL) and Mark M (DUI) both scored 4 tons each.
The second match of the evening was between The
Big V and
JC Darts 2nd and 4th place teams respectively from week 8 and would there be
a change this week? Well yes and no because TBV remains in 2nd place but JCD moved up the table one place and within 2
points of TBV after a thrilling 7 – 5 victory. JCD romped into a 4 – 1 lead after
the doubles and it looked as if they were going to walk away with an easy win, but
they started to struggle a bit in the singles, but Nash & Matt (JCD) made sure
of a least one point from this match with their wins, leaving Ben & Conrad (TBV)
and Andy & Emile (JCD) to fight it out for the remaining singles. Ben got TBV
back to 5 – 6 with a good win over Andy. Then Emile with the same gusto as the French
rugby team stepped up to take the final singles game and guaranteeing them the win.
This match some may say could have or even should have been a draw, but regardless
of what people say, it just wasn’t a draw, so live with it!!
A total of 23 tons thrown this week, with the best tons scorer coming by the way
of JCD, was Matt with a total of 6 tons scored. No high finishes or 180’s this week,
but it seems as if they were not needed in this tense match up.
The third match between The Dream Team
and No Star
Where just didn’t happen, as NSW forfeited the
match, due to a lack of team players. Now I am unsure of how many players turned
up for NSW, but remember guys and girls 4 players is enough to make a team to be
able to win the match and also you can get your tons and/or high finishes credited
to you, where as by not playing, the only ones who benefit are the opposing team
and the remainder of the Gold Label League could lose out. So don’t give up so easily
guys and girls, This league is getting quite condensed from 2nd place down to 5th, with only 4 points separating all 4 teams, but with DUI
6 points clear of 2nd place and with a game in hand, it is starting to look a
bit ominous for those behind them
Now onto the Blue Label League where some may say that this league is where the big guns
are plying their trade, well that maybe so but as the saying goes, “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” and for the following game there was never a truer word
spoken as Ice Blue
and Really Rottens
went to the ochy and battle commenced as last
seasons league champions, who were presently in 5th place in the league and who were trying to get back into
winning ways against the team that were flying high at the top of this seasons table.
The match started very well for RR as they took both of the triples games, then
in the doubles IB fought back wining the first pairing 2 – 0, the second pairing
also went the way of IB, but it took until the 3rd leg for the result to be confirmed and even Roger (RR) couldn’t
pull the usual rabbit out of the hat to win this one. The 3rd pairing went the way of RR with a comfortable 2 – 0 win,
making the score 2 – 3 going into the singles. Now this should sort the men from
the boys. Rick (IB) defeated Kenny (RR) 2 – 0, Guppy (RR) defeated Rod (IB) 2 –
0, Alex (RR) defeated KK (IB) also 2 – 0, and Roger (RR) defeated Johnny (IB) 2
– 1, making the score 3 – 6 in favour of RR. So with 2 more singles to play could
IB recover a point from this match? Tony (IB) defeated Jeff (RR) 2 – 0 and then
Lars (RR) & Dung (IB) fought out the final singles match in a three leg thriller
in which, Lars came out on top 2 – 1 giving RR a well deserved victory on the night,
with only the team game to play, which IB won making the score 5 – 7 to RR. This
result was not only a good result for RR it was also a good result for teams directly
below IB in the table as IB now sit on top of the table but only on the sets for
and against % and RR move up to 4th place only 3 points behind IB in the table. This match had
quite an eventful evening as two 180”s were scored by KK (IB) and Guppy (RR). Rick
(IB) scored the highest tons total with 7 from a nights total of 34 tons and with
Lars (RR) checking out with a finish of 91, it made the night a very enjoyable one
for team RR.
The second match of the night in this league was between
3 In a Bed and
Mabuhay Latino’s a top of the table match between
3rd
and 2nd
respectively. This, unknown to ML, could be a chance to go top of the table if they
could get an emphatic win here. Well things started very well for ML as they jumped
to a 1 – 4 lead going into the singles and if they could win the remaining games,
they could go top today. Well both Negi and Justin (3IAB) put paid to that possibility
straight away with both of them winning their singles, but that was the only high
point for 3IAB as ML’s Ronald, Mario, Odie & Boyet all won their singles games,
albeit over 3 legs each, in matches that could have gone either way, but ML held
out for the win and even the team game win by 3IAB couldn’t dampen the spirit within
ML’s team. This result now puts ML on equal points with IB at the top of the table,
which is very impressive indeed considering that this is their first season in the
top flight and what is even more impressive is that they have stuck to their guns
and maintained a complete Philippine darts team. Well done guys and keep up the
good work, but there could be a sting in this tale as ML last season who were running
away with the former Black League title, suddenly lost their way for a few weeks
and allowed the teams below them to start catching up, will the same thing happen
to them this season? Well only time will tell. A total of 34 tons were scored in
this match, which was the best tons score of the night as far as the league games
went and with a total of 5 tons each, both Negi (3IAB) and Ness (ML) were the best
tons scores in this match. No high finish or 180’s tonight, but I am sure that ML
will not be worrying about that.
The third match of this week between Cyclo Schizo’s and Vasconians was another forfeit
match this week as Vas were unable to put a team together, giving CS a 12 – 0 victory,
again guys and girls a team can be made up of 4 players and those 4 players theoretically
can win 7 – 5. So don’t just give in, go for it, well ok in the case of Vas I can
understand why they didn’t fancy their chances with only 4 players, but the point
is that Vas have 1 point and remain at the foot of the table and CS have closed
the gap to 5th
place to just 3 points.
Well that is just about all for the league news this week, but a mention must go
to the leaders of the 180 table at the moment, where we now have 5 players all with
two 180’s each, and they are Rick (IB), Alan (TUG1), Guppy & Tom (RR) and JC
(JCD).
No change at the top of the high finish table as Matt (JCD) remains on top with
his fantastic checkout of 158. There is also a special mention this week for the
first player of the season to score 100 tons and that honour goes to Rick (IB)
On to the SIDL Team Knock Out Competition where the 2nd leg of the match between
TUG-1 and
The Mad House. The first match between these
two was a 6 – 3 win for TUG-1 and they were looking to get themselves into the next
round, but TMH are sometimes a bit of an unknown when it comes to cup matches and
after this match they probably feel that they don’t want to be known, as TUG-1 won
this match fairly easily 7 – 2 giving them a 13 – 5 aggregate score. The match was
an entertaining match, if you were playing for TUG-1 that is, where TUG-1 took the
first 3 singles very comfortably indeed as Tom, Lee & Sinh wiped the floor with
the TMH players David, Tom & Stephen. During the night, Tom (TUG-1) was on fire
as he clocked up 12 tons from a total of 30 tons. Impressive darts Tom. The doubles
matches were very tight games as all 3 Matches went to three legs each, but TMH
could only manage 1 win as Colin and Andrew (TMH) took the win, and the pairings
of Tom & Chris and Alan & Paddy (TUG-1) took the other doubles games. The
final three single matches were up next and Alan (TUG-1) dominated his match against
Andrew (TMH) with a 3 – 0 win, Colin (TMH) and Paddy (TUG-1) went at it all the
way to the 5th
leg where Paddy managed to check out first, some may say fortunately, but hey a
win is a win and there are no place for losers in this competition and the final
game between Bob (TUG-1) and Stuart (TMH) was won by Stuart after another 5 leg
thriller, which Bob will feel a little unlucky about losing, but take nothing away
from Stuart. This result means that TMH are definitely out of the competition for
this season as their losing record is not as good as Vasconians who so far, are
still in with a shout of getting through to the next round.
TUG-1 advance to the next round where they will meet *^#&@, surprise I am not
telling you. During this match, there were three high finishes from Alan (TUG-1)
with checkouts of 84 & 88 and with a checkout of 83 was Sinh (TUG-1).
A big thank you to Shadow Bar for hosting the Team KO match this week.
Well that is it for this week, hope you enjoy the read.
Good luck to all darters this week and remember...
Keep on darting
Marc Armstrong is a freelance writer, and darter in The SIDL. Marc has helped manage The SIDL for a number of years in numerous capacities and his contributions are greatly appreciated. He resides in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.
