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Thursday September 20th 2012

Controversy rules as the 2012-13 St. Albans district Darts league season kicked off last Thursday for the Rose & Crown. Drawn away to the White Lion “b” for the first week of the campaign the Rose had the bare minimum of six players (or seven if you include the self-styled “Director of Darts”) needed now that the league had voted on a new format of 3 doubles and 6 singles. Club secretary John Goode however had other ideas and was insistent that the format was amended to only include 5 singles thus enabling the draw. This did not go down well with the home team and set the scene for the remainder of the evening with the home team’s skipper feeling particularly disgruntled. Discussion followed debate and the situation was given hope of avoiding the decent into a mockery when John gave in and called “Foggy”. Two minutes later “Foggy” confirmed what everyone else in the pub already knew and that six singles were to be played.   The Rose quickly raced into a 3-0 lead, I say quickly, each going the full three legs with the home side wasting opportunities to reverse the score. They didn’t have to wait long however before chalking up their first legs of the season as they took the spoils of the first two singles. By this stage the clock was ticking and it was gone 11 o’clock and concerns were raised as to the format greatly lengthening the evening, concerns that were well founded as the last Dart rattled in to double eight securing a 7-2 victory and two points for the visitors at 23:50.

Thursday September 27th 2012

With the weather on the turn and the chilly evenings starting to take effect winter league darts made a welcome return to the Rose & Crown last night. The car park was still a squeeze and took John a couple of goes to fit his car snugly in its place, helped largely by the rear sensors and the guidance of “DD”. As we turned out of the car park and onto the street the sun was in its last throes casting the centuries old tavern in its warm glow. The smokers as if caught in time were still huddled around the door as they had been since the smoking ban was introduced some four or five years earlier. Inside the fires still burned, their warmth only interrupted as the unwary patrons upon their exit left the door agape. To all intense and purposes it was a typical scene that was being played out at all manner of village pubs up and down the country. But something was different, something had changed. It was five minutes to eight and not a dart player in sight. Where once you would expect “Ming” to be scrapping for yet another fifty pence piece over a game of tactics with possibly eight or nine fellow dart players, there was only silence. Where once Neil would whine like a baby and throw his darts to floor as if toys from a pram lamenting that “stupid game”, the floor was bare. Where once these finely “tuned athletes” strained every sinew hurling their precisely engineered barrels of wolfram at the board hoping and praying at all costs it wouldn’t be a brush and cost them a pound, the board was just pierced by stark white light from the ceiling mounted spots above. It’s now five minutes past eight and the darts players are in attendance all lining up meaninglessly awaiting their turn to thrust the cold wolfram into the Stark new board. Once the atmosphere here would crackle with electricity as “Scotty” picked the teams that would do battle and we can still hear the phrase “I’ll play with Tom” echo around the once nicotine stained walls even today. But this is 2012 and “Scotty” is not here, at least not yet and nor is the spark that would once ignite the fire for that early evening competition. This is where the true darts were played. Tactics. We may have taken points from the “Inn on the Green” we may have heroically gone to London Road with just six players and come back victorious, we may have even beaten the Crooked Billet into submission but this nothing to winning 50p off Scotty but instead now each takes their turn not even registering as they strike the board.   The visitors are here now, Townsend Tennis and bowls club, familiar foes and bristling with a mix of youth and experience but lacking their talisman Barry Curran a semi nomadic team that have made their way around St. Albans before settling down.   It’s leg ‘n’ leg in the first and the tension now is starting to rise Kevin wants 21 but leaves Ian 3. Townsend fluff their lines and Ian bags the first game.   Paul and Neil up next and before we know what’s happening Townsend are a leg to the good. A good solid start in the second leg aided by the oppositions inability to start and they claw it back to leg ‘n’ leg. Again the tension can be felt all around the room and all that can be heard is “DD” chattering inanely. Third leg and it’s nip ‘n’ tuck all the way down then one, double one and the Rose are two nil up.   Dave and Skip take to the board but don’t have enough to contain the opposition and its 2-1   The singles start and “Big Ron” gets the Rose off to a flyer, but wait where is the third tray of sandwiches without “Scotty” here the whole place is in turmoil not only can no one keep “DD” but the third tray of sandwiches has gone missing. Hurry back Tony.   So at 3-1 and the missing sandwiches now making their appearance can Neil the “Dude” Crosby extend the lead. After losing the first leg Neil hits straight back clinching a tension filled second leg but old demons come back to haunt him and he surrenders the initiative and Townsend pull it back to 3-2 Ian and John then fall short and the Rose find themselves 3-4 down. Paul squares the match at 4-4 and in times gone by would have earned them a valuable point but the new format mean a sixth singles and Kevin finds himself no match for his youthful counterpart and Townsend take the spoils.  

Challenge Cup 2nd Round Away to Waverley Club 11.12.08

With sickness kicking in once more for the unfortunate Rose & Crown the account of tonight's match has kindly been written by John Goode.

Mercifully Badger showed up which just made 8 players.
Myself, David Noble, DD and Scotty went directly to Waverley as the last two had just got back from Heathrow after their Portugese golfing break, and David had collected them from the airport (at 1730!).
Although I recognised most of the Waverley players, I don't know their names, so this report will be a bit lacking in that respect!
Our first pair were the "tactical" DD and Alan Turner. Unfortunately DD's head was still somewhere between Lisbon and Heathrow, and they lost in straight legs, admittedly to reasonably good players. One down.
Next was myself and Wavy Davy. I wasn't as good as I should have been, and David wasn't as good as I should have been either. We lost 2:1. Two down.
Third pair was Scotty and Kevin. After a shaky start, losing the first leg, (with Kev struggling as he'd left his darts at home) he borrowed a lighter set (mine!) and things improved. They managed to win 2:1. Waverley 2, R & C 1.
Finally, The Dude and Badger. They won in straight legs (I think) with the Badger doing some great finishing. That man is proving a great asset to us! So, after a dodgy start it was 2 - 2 after the doubles.
In the singles we started with Kevin, who was back on form with my spare set of darts. He won 2:0 I think, with a final flourish (if that's the word)... requiring 55, he went for 15 and got 2; then went for 17 and got 3, leaving 50! There was a pause while we all offered a silent prayer, then BOSH, a bullseye! Wav 2, R & C 3.
Next, The Dude, who won, despite moaning that he was playing rubbish! Wav 2, R & C 4.
Finally, I went on and managed to win the first leg despite my opponent beng on 40 before I got a double start (Singles were 301).I lost the second leg, but managed to win the third. That made it Wav 2, R & C 5, and as it was gone 11pm we called it a night.

Sandridge Rovers (away 04.12.08)

It was another week of despair for The Rose & Crown as they crashed to yet another humiliating defeat, this time 5-3 at the hands of struggling Sandridge Rovers.

Having lost 6-2 in their previous two encounters and being continually plagued by injury and illness, the sparkle that was all so evident after brilliant performances against The Crooked Billet and The Inn on The Green was no where to be seen. The impetus had gone and along with it the confidence and the enthusiasm, replaced by a nervousness and edginess that would have a stadium full of Arsenal supporters salivating at the prospect of humiliating yet another unfortunate underachiever. But Sandridge Football Club was no place for jeering supporters. The harrowing sound of whistles and boos sent down to greet such individuals could not be heard on this cold (for some people) winters night. Instead the only audible sound to greet the players of The Rose & Crown was the eerie silence that trailed in the wake of a certain Grim Reaper as he scythed his way through the team.
This was the evening the lid was firmly nailed down on a plain and simple wooden casket that contained not that of the lifeless body of the Rose & Crown dart team or indeed the shiny tungsten barrels that they plied their trade with, This was the evening the notion of darts, the mere idea of darts, the pure thought of darts died for the Rose and Crown and there in lieth it’s soul.

For this we offer a small prayer.

Our Father who art made of tungsten,
Taylor be thy name.
Thy dart team come,
And victories won,
In St.Albans as well as in Harpenden
Give us this day our full team of eight.
And forgive us our missed doubles,
As we forgive those who miss doubles against us!
And lead us not into the second division,
But deliver us from relegation.
For thine is the dartboard, “The Power” and the oche.
For ever and ever. Amen

Townsend Bowls Club (away) 28.11.08

After a weeks rest from the Hurley burly of the league, the Rose and Crown resumed their campaign with a tough encounter away to Townsend Tennis and Bowls club. The visitors have in recent times enjoyed some success against the former league champions, but the early season promise that saw the Rose & Crown competing for top slot has disappeared under a blanket of illness and injury. This perhaps was about as weak a performance as the visitors have produced in recent years and against a side that had to concede a game for not having the required amount of players, leaving unbeaten pairing John Goode and Paul Mullins on the sidelines.
The visitors looked a shadow of what they were early on in the season and the home side were quick to capitalize and were the much happier side having gone into the singles at two apiece, despite having to concede the final encounter. But this was only the start of the Rose and Crowns problems. Neil "The Dude" Crosby was woefully out of sorts as was "veteran" Tony Scott and each went down meekly both unable to recapture some of that early season promise. Paul Mullins so often this season able to produce the darts when in mattered fell short having had three darts to try and keep the visitors in the encounter and when Kevin Woods too succumbed the visitor's misery was complete.

A black day for The Rose Crown.

Evergreens (away 13.11.08)

New Greens Club, typical of so many clubs in the aera, dying institutions that have been, over the years pillaged by many management committee's who's legacies are reduced memberships, 1980's furniture and the obligatory cheesey disco every Saturday night. The fruit machines still rattle but not nearly as much as they used to, on line gambling has seen to that, these establishments simply can not cope with change and the very people who have the power to change, have been living in their own little bubble for the last 25 years, always sitting in the same seat, with the same friends, in fact all that has changed is their hair colour and waistline.
So you could be forgiven for thinking that the dart team would be very much along the same lines.
For a number of years now the Evergreen's have been niggling away at the mid-lower end of the table. They are a team of wily characters who, on their day are more than a match for anyone in the division and were indeed more than a match for the depleted Rose & Crown, who found their backs to the wall before even the first dart was thrown in anger. Injury this week took its toll, as once again Carl Bolding was unavailable for selection. But perhaps more surprisingly the late withdrawal of Paul Mullins due to illness was a big blow to the Rose & Crown. Mullins has been ever-present this season and his partnership with John Goode is still unbeaten and would surely be missed against the Evergreen's.
The early exchanges went as skipper Alan Turner would have predicted in so much as the Rose & Crown found themselves 1-0 down, the skipper once again partnering the Director of Darts who was unable to repeat last weeks heroics, the pair eventually slipping to an inevitable defeat.
But this has all been part of the master plan in recent weeks, so when the "Dude" and stand-in player "Badger" levelled the scoreline it was looking very much like another day at the office for the skipper and his team. But the next four games yielded nothing for the visitors and the Evergreen's had gained what was for them a first league win and a rather comfortable one at that, only Tony Scott was able to find a way though in what was a consolation only as the Rose & Crown crashed to a 6-2 defeat, their heaviest of the season.