Rose & Crown v Evergreens October 11th 2012

After a run of 2 straight defeats the Rose & Crown were aiming to go into the two week break with a morale boosting victory against a depleated Evergreens side. Any thought of this however was dismantled and disappeared faster than Jimmy Savilles headstone. What looked liked a relatively straight forward two points turned into anything but as a disorganised Rose & Crown looked impotent and out of touch seemingly failing to come to terms with the new format against the visitors. The visitors who, lost their most inspirational player in Ashley Rudge at the Start of the season to the Mermaid, followed quickly by Jimmy Meryick at the 11th hour for personal reasons. It could be argued however that the Rose & Crown had lost their vice skipper and who for many throughout the darting world thought as their most influential player Tony Scott but what can't be argued is the devastating loss of Neil Crosby which has come as a hammerblow to the St. Michaels outfit this season. His replacement but a shadow of the former junior and St. Albans District Darts league Doubles champion. Where once a youthful but enigmatic Neil "The Dude" Crosby would stride out confidently muscling his way to the oche to take the all important first single, there is now only a balding, middle aged and predictable player with less enthusiasm to elbow his way to the front than a group of special needs children on a backstage visit to the BBC studios. In truth the blame for this dismal performance doesn't lay solely at Neil's feet and some of the senior players must shoulder some of the blame, Paul Mullins for failing to convert a one leg lead in the final doubles of the evening and the "Brothers Grimm" for a performance the Brothers Marx would surely gave been proud of as the Evergreens virtually laughed their way to the first doubles of the evening. Big Ron could only watch from the bar forced once again to sit out and endure at best this abject display that began to unfurl. The only bright spark coming when veterans Dave Noble and Skipper Alan Turner stole the second doubles of the evening honing their predatory instincts on the board like a Radio 1 DJ inside the confines of the children's ward of the local hospital. 2-1 down and the pivotal single fell to the person who was once Neil Crosby. Gone was the swagger, gone was the youthful exuberance, the boundless energy and the non stop insessant chatter, replaced by a now sullen look, receeding hairline and all the accuracy Of a West Yorkshire Police officers account of the Hillsborough disaster. Now 3-1 down the home side were facing an uphill battle to salvage anything from a game which on paper should surely have yielded two points and safe passage to mid table. If things could get any worse they were about to do so. Big Ron who must of been scratching his head for most of the season wandering what he'd done not to warrant a doubles so far was about to find out why. The usually dependable big Ron summed up the Rose & Crown this evening. An evening which lacked the electrically charged atmosphere which propelled the Rose to such famous victories in the past, an evening devoid of nouse and urgency, an evening filled with nothing but desperation and inacuracy. It was as if Big Ron had sucked in the amtmosphere and ambience and then let it manifest it's self painfully over two gruelling legs of darts. 4-1 down and Rose and Crown were all but done needing 4 of the last 5 legs to secure an unlikely victory. Hopes were raised momentarily as Ian defied his earlier doubles performance to secure a hard fought and unlikely victory against the conqueror of the previous undefeated pairing of Crosby and Mullins. Mullins further raised hopes in a comfortable 2 straight legs victory to bring the Rose back in to the game at 3-4. The mountain however, was still insurmountable and Kevin yet again tasked with reaching the summit came up short and handed the spoils to the overjoyed visitors. John Goode made the score respectable but in truth it was a dead rubber which only masked this most inadequate of performances.