Last Wednesday, I went to Darts with my friend Kim and her team. Yes...there really is a dart league...actually several, with multiple divisions and everything. It's not easy...but it certainly is interesting.
Why isn't it easy? Have you ever thrown a dart? Hitting the board isn't easy. And hitting a specific number when you are aiming at it is practically impossible. AND they have a game called 301 where you have to subtract whatever you score from 301 down to zero. Subtracting double digits from triple digits is hard. And harder still when you have to do it in a blink of any eye between shooters. Kim is amazing at subtracting.
Why is it interesting? Let me count the ways:
1. The teams are quite diverse. There was the guy with the crazy Christopher-Lloyd-in-Back-to-the-Future hair. There was the guy with the soccer shirt and shorts on who looked like his other sport might be, um, soccer. There was the really tall guy who didn't seem to care if he won or lost. He just liked to be there. There was the well-dressed guy who looked like he just got off work at a bank who kicked the wall when his dart didn't hit the board, and later, just for balance, hit the wall with his fist when he didn't hit the number he was looking for.
2. Kim is like a rock star there. She has been playing darts for years. Her ex-husband plays...and is even sometimes on her team. Everyone knows her...plus, since she is in remission from her Stage 4 Inflammatory Breast Cancer...everyone wants to hug her. I was there, showing everyone pictures of her bald on my iPhone. Amelia, a girl we met there, borrowed Kim's fake boob and wore it around for a while.
3. There is serious Dart etiquette. Like, if you are the scorekeeper, you need to stand up near the scoreboard, not closer to the shooter where you could get in his peripheral vision. If you don't adhere to this etiquette, people can get really pissed off and pout for the rest of the night.
4. There are stories...oh, there are stories. And I'm new there, so everyone gets to tell me the stories everyone has heard a hundred times before. And they are still funny!
5. There was a guy there who was like a stoic robot for most of the night. When he was scorekeeping, he looked like on of those Indian chief statues except for the split second when he subtracted the two-digit number from the three-digit number and then returned to his pose.
6. Best line of the night...by the Indian chief to his team in a moment of unusual animation..."This isn't rocket surgery, you know!"
One of these days, I'm going to seriously practice at the Cantina and be able to play well enough to be on the Dart team. Not like Friday night when I had the advantage of a seven foot tall partner who needed only to lean forward and his dart was about three inches from the board. I think I hit a total of 3 points the whole game. But I have my professional coaches...Kim and Jim...and now I have a goal. Guess that dryer STILL isn't going to get unloaded.
Di
i have exactly 301-301 interest in darts, but i am SO glad you're writing this blog again! have missed it terribly..."who looked like he just got off work at a bank who kicked the wall when his dart didn't hit the board, and later, just for balance, hit the wall with his fist..."
snerk.
Posted by: amy | May 02, 2010 at 01:43 PM