Tired and half-shoeless

First 180 of October

Hit it during a cricket game against the bot. I then proceeded to lose the leg (after being 140 points up). So it goes, Kurt, so it goes.

I shouldn't have been playing. I'm tired. And you shouldn't play darts when you're tired. But a 180 is a 180, and it's the first 180 I've hit for a while where the dartitis didn't kick in after the first two T20s.

 

98/50

The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had to Swallow)*

I don't make a habit of posting partial results and/or breakdown of a First to a 100 game, but I thought it was worthwhile this time to both illustrate my recent dip in form (with an added sprinkle of ongoing dartitis), and my (possible) recovery.

I'm still 5 points down in my '01 averages but I'm a bit more hopeful today than I was 3 or 4 days ago. I'll take it.

01-10 (3-7)

11-20 (0-10)

21-30 (1-9)

31-40 (1-9)

41-50 (4-6) 

51-60 (4-6)

61-70 (1-9)

71-80 (4-6)

81-90 (7-3)

91-100 (5-5) 

101-110 (7-3)

*Yes, I was listening to The Jam today whilst playing cricket. This brilliant compilation. 

Carry on with your woes

Missed about 4 or 5 180s before this one, The Dartitis is really playing up at the moment. 

Same situation every time: I hit the first two T20s and then my arm cannot release the third dart. I then jerk my arm in a semi-farcical fashion for about 30 seconds before I can eventually throw the dart. It usually lands low in either the 1 or the 5 bed. On this occasion it miraculously landed in the T20.

What with the League up and running, I can't swear off practicing but for the foreseeable future I'm just going to throw in the apartment. No playing - and losing - to the Dart App in the apartment. Just throw darts at the board to try and get some sort of rhythm back.

97/50

The Invisible Fan

Posted 31st May (3.11 am)

Trying to stay awake through the night so I can do the laundry super-early. (It's a NYC thing.) Decided to try and rush through a backlog of old(ish) 180s. Reading up on Elvis Costello and his falling out with the Attraction, Bruce Thomas. Maybe I should read Bruce Thomas's autobiography? Maybe I should just read  . . . period.

Realising I don't listen to as much Costello as I should. Maybe it's the voice. Saturation can be too much, but I always return to him 'cos he is such a brilliant songwriter. The above 'The Invisible Fan' is a play on 'The Invisible Man' from the Punch The Clock album. One of his early albums which don't get that much love. Probably seen as too poppy, too mainstream. I like it.

74/50

Addendum.

I should have mentioned that the 180 is a Brooklyn Bar 180 from a practice session before the final league match of the season. All round it was a bit of a nightmare, though it hasn't hit home yet as such. We lost 14-13 on the night. Going into the final of the cricket singles match of the night, it was 13-13 against our fellow bar mates (a proper Darts derby), and I lost to AB. No excuses at my end. I had the upper hand for most of the match and AB clawed it back brilliantly on the bullseyes (in local parlance, "the corks"). The victory would have been nice. We've been a bastard losing streak for the second half of the season, with a final league record of 3-7. 

On a personal performance note, I also lost out to the All Stars first place. It would have been the second season in a row. (Still waiting on the T-shirt lads.) Going into the final round of the season, I was still leading the stats by about 47 points but I wasn't feeling confident. The eventual winner, EB, had been clawing back the points in the recent weeks and by the end of the night I kind of guessed that I hadn't scored enough points on the night to retain the top spot.

The funny thing is that, days later, I'm still more gutted about losing that Cricket singles match. Go figure.

Where were you last night?

Another league defeat last night. That's three defeats in a row now. Losing one of our best players to a broken hand and the new format have not helped us. It also didn't help that I was standing in the wrong part of the oche for the first half of last night. My fault as it was my decision. 

I did end up salvaging something by hitting a Round of 9 in my cricket singles match in the final round. My first ever R9 in a league match. (I hit a 180 in a league match a few years ago.) I nearly hit a second R9 a couple of minutes later but the third dart deflected in the T3. (I was going for 3 T17s.)

Anyway, back to this morning's 132 checkout. The second time I've hit the Bull, Bull, D16 checkout, and this time my dartitis was giving me gip.

181 - 180 = BUST

Yes, I meant it . . . and, no, I'm not apologising. 

It's a game against a bot, for fucks sake. What, will Russ Bray judge me from inside my phone? I can live with that. I'm not playing well right now. I can't put my figure on what's happening. Of course, Dartitis is always hovering in the background but it's not just that. Something else is going on. So, when the occasion arose to hit a 180 . . . a 180 which would bust my 501 game? I went for it.

51/50

#GettingOldGoingDownhill

The good news is that I just hit my 50th 180 of 2026.

The bad news is that this time last year I'd hit 117.

I think I only hit this one 'cos I didn't realise I was throwing for one. There's something to be said for darkened rooms on a weekday morning.

50/50

False witness

False witness? False dawn? False representation? Who the hell knows.

All I do know is that once the actual league match started, I put in my worst performance of the season. Totally blown away. No excuses. Okay, the dartitis played a part a couple of times during the course of the night but I should be used to that by now. That's not the reason why I played so bad. 

A strange (long) night all round. You'll need to wait for the biopic for more details. It'll be in there somewhere . . . if only for some light relief.

Back to the drawing board.

49/50

Missed a trick . . . should have been lion flights and a unicorn board

As I write, professional Northerners are assaulting my ears.

Glad to get the 180. Trying to hit at least one a day. I mean, I'm always trying to hit 180s, but it's in my head now to up my frequency. This time last year I was on 108 180s. I'm not sure what's happened this year. Of course, there has been the recurrence of the dartitis  but I genuinely don't think I've fallen off that drastically in the first four months of the year. Maybe I was playing more darts last year? I find that hard to believe. I'll just monitor things to see what happens.

I had to quit practicing within minutes of the 180. I was totally gassed out. Anyone who tells you you can play decent darts even when you're tired is talking out of their arse. Mental and physical strength are both necessary to play decent darts.

43/50

Tasty . . . very, very tasty

Nope, 134 is not a personal high for a checkout but I was on a high after I hit it . . . especially as the D10 went in under the strain of the dreading-D.

I've got in my head now to use the 19s and 17s more for checkouts. It's not necessarily fancy-danning (if that's not a word, it should be) but more a case of relying on muscle memory 'cos of the Dartitis. That's why it made more sense going for two T19s, then going for the D20, as opposed to the more conventional route of T20, T14, D16. Too much switching around, too much chance of me getting inside my head.

I should stick to this outshot for future reference. Park it alongside 146 and 131. IYKYK.

Another shellacking: 88 - 100

Opponent: Computer Level 9

Date Started: 21st January 2026

Date Finished: 2nd February 2026

 

I'm a bit behind with my 2026DartsChallenge updates. Not much to report to be honest, a few 180s (far fewer than this time last year), me whining about my ongoing Dartitis and me suffering beatings at the hands of the Russ Bray Darts App (Level 9).

A few months back I was beating Level 9 quite regularly but I've fallen back again into consecutive defeats once again. I'm sure the Dartitis has played its part (yawn) but, more importantly, it's my piss poor attempts at doubling. I consistently outscore Level 9 - which wasn't always the case - but I can't finish a leg. I have to get my double success above 20% at least, if I'm going to start winning again. 

 

Ironically enough, I think I'm better at hitting doubles in league matches . . . but my mind might just be playing tricks on me.

 

It's probably the surname . . .

. . . they put two and two together and come up with a leprechaun with a set of darts in his hand. Maybe they think my dartitis is me doing the Riverdance?

That's the second time someone at the darts has assumed I'm Irish 'cos of my accent. I wouldn't mind but if you leant out my window and threw a soda bread onto the street there's a strong chance you hit an Irish-American. It turns out Irish-Americans can't fathom accents.

What can I do? Run up a makeshift kilt and wear it with a Tam o' shanter hat every time I walk out the door? With my varicose veins? I'd get sectioned. 

Backdoor and back-chatting . . .

Just trying to tidy up. I can't remember much about this 180, other than the fact that it occurred during a bout of dartitis. 

For some reason, I'm thinking about the league match played on the Monday night. We got battered 13-6. A bit of a bitter taste in the mouth about it as we were 5-0 down after the first round (hint, fucking, hint). I didn't cover myself in glory in later rounds. Words were exchanged.

205/50

The Return of the Unsunny Ds

. . . with a bastard vengeance.

I am genuinely perplexed to know what happened. It really cropped up again at the eve of Thanksgiving Luck of the Draw, but I attributed that to extreme tiredness. Christ, it only cropped up at 2am that night/morning. But last night was horrific. Is it the team? The division? The bar? The change in the weather? Did I burn down two orphanages in a previous life? All I know is that I have no idea what is going to happen tonight. It might be the mother of all nightmares.

I should, despite all that, be happy enough with my 204th 180 of 2025, but I'm sure you can understand my bittersweet misery.

204/50

Killing time after breakfast . . .

Monday morning . . . one teen already at school . . . one teen dreading going to school. It's a league night, and as the Dartitis is haunting me again, I'm not playing legs against the Russ Bray Darts App. Just throwing semi-randomly at the board to get my Dart muscle memory up and running again. I really fear the worst tonight. I won't know until I'm actually there whether the Dartitis has enveloped me again.

What a thing not to look forward to.

198/50

Midnight special

First ever 180 with the Designa Elite 95 V2 darts. I've had them for years, tried - and failed - to sell them years ago, and they've been lying around ever since. Picked them up - and others - 'cos I thought I could feel the Dartitis recurring again, and I thought if I just threw different darts it might help counteract that. I was wondering if they could work as my match darts but they might be a bit too thin, and susceptible to variations in flight when throwing them in a bar setting.

171/50

Misfire(scars)

Posted November 3rd, 9.45 AM.

Back in mid-August I took to digging out old darts lying around the apartment to throw at the board. I'm not really sure why. The Fall season was a few weeks away, and I was keeping my hand in with practice here and there. Was I getting a twitch of Dartitis? It's always a twitch away, tbh, and I think one of the contributory factors is that I get too comfortable, too lazy with my set up, my darts, etc, etc. Maybe picking up these old darts was one way of dealing with it? 

If I was picking them up in the hope that old darts could become new darts, I was seriously mistaken. I scored a couple of 180s with these Firescars but it was another false dawn. I thought these might work for me, took them along to a Luck of the Draw at a local bar, and I discovered that the humidity of the bar really messed with my ability to properly hold my darts. My grip went to pot, and I made the mistake of not having a spare set to hand. Lesson learned.

168/50

I'd actually . . .

. . . lost count of how many 180s I'd hit at this point.

A victim of my own success . . . and further proof of my ongoing brain fog. (Maybe I'll eventually forget I have Dartitis. That will be good.)

120/50

Work in a Joy Division song title

 . . . yeah, I'm babbling.

I actually busted out on 144. (That's becoming a bit of a habit. Choosing a 180 over an outshot.) I could say it was just about hitting the 180 but that would only be partially true. The dartitis kicked in when I thought about throwing for the D12. It's habit forming and it's killing me.

117/50

Absolute jammy bastard

No idea how I hit this one. Dartitis turned up to 11.

The dartitis is now ravaging my body parts at this point. My throwing arm is killing me, my back's out of whack and my left foot feels like someone took a sledgehammer to it. I think I need alcohol to both numb the physical pain and to shut out the mental anguish.

95/50