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.

Challenge Cup (Home) Colney Heath FC

Barack Obama becomes the first black president of the United States on November 4th 2008, relegating the lipstick and senility of the Republican campaign to the political wilderness for the next four years. But what next for the defeated candidates, well it’s rumoured that Sarah Palin will be putting the pain of defeat behind her by heading to the Canadian north for a spot of seal culling with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, “sounds like fun” she told a Canadian comedian masquerading as the French supremo, whilst John McCain, so often plagued with bouts of involuntary dementia that was previously considered a pre-requisite for the job will cast his vote next Tuesday urging all America to get behind presidential candidate Ronald Reagan !!

So the fireworks of the American Presidential campaign fizzle out, as do the fireworks that celebrated the 403rd anniversary of the gunpowder plot (an attempt by Guy Fawkes in his own words “to blow the Scotch beggars back to their own mountains”). The weather having put paid to many local displays when traditionally the English public take to their wellington boots and brave the elements, quite often up to their knees in muddy fields and gardens all over country just to celebrate the foiling of this daring plot and to welcome their Celtic cousins to England.

The fireworks did however burn brightly in the Rose & Crown this week as they enjoyed a week off from the rigors of the league and were able to turn their attention to the challenge cup, playing host to third division mid table side Colney Heath Football Club.
Some of the players seemed to be firing more than fireworks, “He Do Jog On” evicting the visitors from their original vantage point relegating them to a back table with views only of the outside door and the well trudged route to the toilet, not a dartboard in sight. While others seemed only to be firing blanks, “Sonic Beryl” about as exciting in the pre-match tactics as a guided tour of Stevenage on wet Tuesday night!!

Castigated last week for the inaccuracies in the reporting of the pairings and duly admonished, the administrator of the blog is taking no chances this week and fear of further reprisals in the future has prompted, that any reporting pertaining to names of players this week will feature as aliases. The administrator hopes that these issues will be resolved for next week.

They say it’s a sign of a good side when you can win when playing well below par. This was certainly the case tonight as the Rose & Crown ,flying high in the first division were taken right to the wire by third division mid-table side Colney heath Football Club in the first round of the challenge cup.
The early signs were good when the home side once again without key players took an early 1-0 lead when stand in player Mark and “A Lank Lush” played out a marathon first pairing before finally holding their nerve to clinch what was to become a priceless victory by two legs to one, putting the home side into unfamiliar territory after the first game of the evening.
“That Stony Con” and “I wonks Dove” who have had almost unparalleled success this season continued their impressive start with a not so impressive display that just about did enough to put the Rose & Crown into what should have been a comfortable position against their lower league rivals. But when “Natal Rerun” and the resurgent if erratic “Sonic Beryl” came back empty handed the visitors could sense a possible shock in the making.
“He Do Jog On” who earlier had assumed the role of bouncer having swiftly removed the visitors from their preferred spot in the bar, was unable to reproduce anywhere near the same fearless level of aggression on the dartboard, as he and “Pull a Muslin” just about limped to a 2-1 victory to restore the home side’s two game advantage.
Leading 3-1 going into the singles surely the Rose & Crown would close the game out swiftly, the visitors however had other ideas and those that were so impressive the week before when taking a point from league leaders the Crooked Billet just couldn’t reproduce the form or character to bring a swift conclusion to this 1st round cup tie. Both “I Wonk Doves” and “Sonic Beryl” looked just mere shadows of themselves from last week as their meek displays enabled the visitors to draw level at three a piece. The visitors were now beginning to believe that this could be their night, a true giant killing in the making, the home side in contrast had much to contemplate, the skipper was looking a worried man as the thought of another year in the challenge trophy looked a distinct possibility. “That Stony Con” a stalwart who’s career has spanned four decades was spurred on by the ignominy of such thoughts and was quick to restore the home sides lead with another solid performance, continuing a run of form that has helped propel his side to the higher reaches of the league table that were for so many years out of reach to the village side. Long time skipper “Natal Rerun” who so often overlooks himself for such games stepped forward to the oche for a rare singles appearance looking to finally seal what would have been hard fought victory, but the visitors had yet another surprise up their sleeve that sent this encounter right to the wire as “Natal Rerun” failed in his bid to secure a victory that would surelyhave gone down as a collectors item!!
The tension in the bar was boiling over, the visitors having arrived by the coach load to support their side in hope more than belief did now believe and dared to cross the boundary that was drawn up by “He Do Jog On” earlier in the night, who could now, only suck the night air in through his teeth and bare the defiance shown towards him. The bar now had become swollen with the influx of regulars who come rain or shine to sample the local ales, each one of them unwittingly drawn into the night’s action, embroiled just by their mere presence in this local village pub. Could “Pull a Muslin” handle the pressure and put the tension to the back of his mind and send the home side through to the second round?
An unimpressive first leg went the way of the home side, “Pull a Muslin” playing well below his usual standard just about doing enough but offering some hope to the visitors. The away support had now encroached into the playing area, the high pitched whistle of “He Do Jog On” as he continued sucking the cold night air through his teeth bemoaning the defiance shown by the visitors could be heard above all as the players took to the oche for the second leg. After a steady start to the leg “Pull a Muslin” was left with 212 he produced probably the best three darts of the night as each one glided with unerring accuracy into the treble twenty, the first maximum of the night. A maximum is not always considered the best throw of the night but in the context of this epic encounter it’s timing was perfection ,leaving “Pull a Muslin” with double sixteen to seal the victory. The opposition, much to the annoyance of “He Do Jog On” had now well and truly invaded the playing area and each one was eager to shake hands and congratulate their opponent. Two darts later the green bed that encircled the double sixteen was pierced and the home side, after giving all a shock finally came through to book their passage into the next round.

Crooked Billet (home) 30.10.08

It’s been a week of shocks, an inch of snow covered the ground for less than 2 days, almost bringing the country to its knees once more, prompting the statisticians to rifle through the archives in search of yet more useless facts that can be coupled to the weatherman’s immortal line of “since records began”.
Harry Redknapp signs for Tottenham sending them on an unbeaten 3 match run prompting the statisticians once more to proclaim that it’s their longest unbeaten run since the early spring of 2008!!
Lewis Hamilton wins the F1 drivers championship by nothing more than a width of a tyre tread and the ECB pimp out the England cricket team to an American billionaire. Who like Jack the Ripper, slits the underbelly and lets the contents of English cricket spill out under the dim lights onto the half o’ dozen or so American TV sets who have tuned in thinking it’s John McCain's latest campaign ralley

Perhaps though, the most shocking of all events this week was the visit of league leaders The Crooked Billet to the darting outpost of the Rose & Crown in St. Michael’s.

The Crooked Billet had previously dropped only 4 games as they laid their title credentials on the line, sweeping aside all before them with the most consummate of ease. They must surely have fancied their chances of inflicting a heavy defeat upon one of their main title rivals after the Rose & Crown suffered the indignity of defeat against the leagues whipping boys (albeit with only 5 recognised players) the previous week.

The away side were soon into their stride, dispatching skipper Alan Turner and the “Director of Darts” in two straight legs to take an early lead but this is a situation the home side have found themselves in all of their previous contests this season. But when the pairings of Neil Crosby and Dave Noble and Tony Scott and Kevin Woods both came back empty handed without so much as a leg to show for it, the alarm bells started ringing and even the statisticians were struggling to dredge up comparable facts.

Trailing 3-0 John Goode and Paul Mullins (who themselves) are undefeated as a pairing this season) were faced with the task of at least getting the home side on the board and with it saving some face. Two legs later the Rose & Crown were back in it, Mullins and Goode coasting to victory offering a glimmer of hope in an otherwise black start to the evening going into the singles.
Special mention here must go to the refreshments; yet again Ruth has outdone all other venues with her culinary delights with not one venue getting even close in the tasting stakes. A wide range of fillings complimented by the freshest bread in the league make this one of the most eagerly awaited points of the evening.

Now, Neil “The Dude” Crosby from somewhere has acquired a different outlook on the game this season and his cool exterior most certainly is alien to not only those of the Rose & Crown, but indeed all that know him. His cool exterior though, only masks what is boiling away underneath ready to be unleashed and this was perhaps the “Dude’s” finest hour this season if not his finest game. For once Neil showed a maturity that most had thought long since extinct and whilst the BBC toiled with those overpaid egos that did their talking over the phone, Neil most certainly did his talking on the oche, the wolfram said it all for him, its own words as crude and vulgar to the visitors as those of a BBC prime time entertainer. The final shaft of tungsten unerringly made its way into the double and the home side were well and truly back in the match, one down with three to play.

For Woodsie, his debut season for the Rose & Crown has somewhat been a baptism of fire. But as each week passes the confidence grows and grows and the latest in the long line of darting progeny that have been born from the Rose & Crown’s “Youth Academy” (which in the past has produced such legends as John Goode ad the self styled “Director of Darts) sits on the edge of Rose and Crown greatness and but for one dart on Thursday would surely have achieved this status earlier than could ever have been expected as he pushed The Crooked Billets very own darting superstar Linda Searle all the way in a nail biting three leg contest that ultimately secured the visitors a point. But it was a gallant effort from the “youngster” and the contest could easily have gone his way and perhaps on another day would have done so.
Trailing 4-2 you may have thought that the Rose & Crown would have folded but there is a steely determination and a never say die attitude that has emerged in recent weeks epitomised no more so than by stalwart Tony Scott who, in is own words on Thursday night was not feeling the full schilling but apart from a request for a glass of water mid way through this no nonsense contest you would never have guessed. A picture of concentration and focus, Scotty delivered an almost faultless display that drew as many gasps from the crowd as the request for water did earlier. His hapless opponent could only look on despairingly as Scotty pulled the Rose & Crown back within striking distance, one down one to play.
The home side thus became the first team this season to take more than two games against the league leaders but they harboured much grander aspirations than this and a point from this encounter was well within their grasp.
Once again it was down to Paul Mullins, who along with everyone else (the Badger not included) was so disappointing the previous week, but Mullins was quick to put that disappointment behind him and emerged victorious in two straight legs to secure a deserved point for the home side.
So the visitors leave the picture postcard part of St. Albans their tail between their legs having dropped their first point of the season the inquests may well have started before they left but for the Rose & Crown can they keep on going upsetting the odds and mount a serious title challenge?