Darting About

Was it withdrawal symptoms after such  a long time since we participated in our District’s sports competitions – darts section?  Was it a vain hope for personal glory?  Or just the desire to have a good time at the Pub?
Who knows what the motivation was, but twenty-two members of the Rotary Club of Billericay, friends and partners met at the Nags Head in Ramsden Heath on Thursday February 19 for a social evening together.

Our thanks to Roger Kettle and Brian Wellman for all their efforts in finding a location, negotiating the deal and arranging a great evening and great food.

Let the Competition Begin

So it was that we all assembled at the Nags Head on a cold winter’s evening, huddled round a roaring fire, and ordered our drinks at the bar.  Not many of the assembled group had their own darts so fortunately the Pub was able to provide some, and Roger, Brian, Phillip and David also brought darts along.

While some passed the time in conversation, the keen ones amongst us threw a few darts to start the evening off (No – I wasn’t amongst them – Editor).  How good were we?  Suffice it to say, that a family group sitting in the room behind the Darts board, speedily moved tables and away from danger when we started throwing darts!

After some practice, it was time for the real business of the evening to start, and Roger split us up into pairs and the competitions began.  Each member of a team throwing in turn and each team alternating.  Nearest the “bullseye” to start, and a double to win.

Not too difficult you may think, but ending on a double proved too difficult for some of the teams (confession – in our competition we had to give up, and we decided the winner would be the team whose aggregate of six darts was the highest score – editor).  It was very clear who had thrown darts before!  And who had not!

A Fine Repast

Roger and Brian had ordered a buffet which the landlords brought out and laid on a table, and most of us queued up like ladies and gentlemen to select a plate of food (Most of us!) and retired to tables to enjoy it.  There wasn’t much left when we had all eaten our fill.

Then time for some more pairs’ competitions before the last game of the night.  Founder member Ben Clarke, who couldn’t be with us that night, had made a generous donation and Roger used this to buy two bottles of wine from the Pub.  One bottle of wine was to be given as a prize for the person with the highest score from throwing three darts.

They were Robbed...

We all had a go, even your editor, who, as usual, had no real control of where his darts would end up.  To his great surprise his last dart ended up with a high “triple” and his score could not be beaten.  What an undeserving result - Peter won one of the bottles of wine, and the other went to Phillip Fletcher who had been the scorer for every game that evening, even when he was competing in one of the pairs…