Valmar Club November 15th

The skip had yet to arrive but it seems no one had told the incumbents of the Valmar dart team who seemed to have tossed away the wolfram in favour of lignum vitae and natural gut.

The tradition of the spit and sawdust venues that darts grew up in has long since departed and been replaced by stark lifeless establishments with a client base that has about as much interest in darts as a lesbian tennis coach has in coaching tennis.

This nomadic team of working class dart players who have inhabited more hostelries than a McMullens drayman now find themselves sandwiched between the "white tops" of crown green bowling and the middle classed, middle aged, middle of the road, Townsend Bowls and Tennis Club and it seems to be rubbing off.

It has to be said that they are certainly lacking one or two players, the loss in recent years of Steve Curran must have been a massive blow and of course John Cole who remains seriously ill has hit them hard. With that said there is still enough talent on show to remind all of those days when they were undefeatable.

With three straight wins behind them the Rose and Crown had nothing to fear and were quickly into their stride, the wolfram was hitting it's target with consummate ease, for the Valmar however things were very different, and it was as if the lignum vitae that they had chosen as there weapon of choice had been replaced with the heaviest of lead weights. The lead weights fell short of their targets and so to did any chance the Valmar had of earning anything from this one sided encounter.

Chris Wilson and Neil Crosby chalked up the first and were soon followed by Tom Wilson and Tony Scott. The performance of the evening must go to John Goode (ably assisted by Paul Mullins) who swept aside his hapless opponents with relative ease in a show of darts that belied his years. The only blip for the visitors came as Skipper Alan Turner was forced to partner the Director of Darts (Alan Hulks) a change that was forced upon him due to the injury of Carl Bolding who was suffering from another bout of "Postman's Wallet".

Trailing 3-1 after the doubles the Valmar found themselves staring down the barrel, only Barry Curran really offered any resistance as he hauled them back to 2-3 with a victory over the in-form Chris Wilson. But by this stage their hand had been forced and their trump card had been played. This being said there was no answer to the consistent accuracy of Tom Wilson or the steely grit and determination of Tony Scott as the Rose and Crown wrapped up a good nights work running out 5-3 winners. In truth it could have been worse for the hosts and a 6-2 scoreline would not have flattered the visitors and they will look back and rue the chances missed by an out of sorts Neil Crosby.