In the spirit of the Olympics, we wanted to try to do something athletic for this week’s Go Try It. And since this is the Insider, we specifically sought a sport that could be played at night and in a bar. This would also be in keeping with the week’s theme, so it’s like a double-whammy.
We ended up at Area 23, signing up for a darts tournament. The tournaments are held every Thursday night starting about 7, and there’s a $10 buy in.
This was my first darts tournament, and I was somewhat intimidated – I play darts probably once every other month or so, not all the time like everyone else there.
The summer is apparently a slow time of year for the darts tourneys, so there ended up being only four participants. This meant that instead of randomly chosen pairs, it would be a head-to-head round robin, meaning everybody plays everybody else once and whoever has the most wins is the champ.
On nights with a lot more entrants, the winner takes home a cash prize. On quieter nights like this one, you play for fun and take home some nice door prizes.
The competition for this tournament was stiff: two of the three other players are members of the Pub Dart League of Concord, which is a real thing. These two had their own high-end darts and dart sharpeners – those are real things, too!
The tournament begins by drawing a poker chip from a bowl. Each chip has a number, and these numbers are used to determine who plays who in the first round.
The game is cricket and the object is fairly simple: Hit numbers 15 through 20, plus the bulls-eye, three times each. The first one to do that wins. There’s also a points element: If you “close out” a space (hit it three times), you can keep hitting that space and earn points in the value of that space. So if you’ve closed out your 20s but your opponent hasn’t, you can go for 20 to add 20 points to your score.
My first opponent was an Area 23 darts tourney regular but not a league player. I felt this would be my best chance for a win.
After struggling a bit early, I eventually found my rhythm and got to the point where the first one to hit two bulls-eyes would win.
Call it beginner’s luck, but after missing regular spaces for about 20 minutes, I nailed two bulls in a span of about two minutes, clinching the match.
It was a relief to the other two players, who finished about a half hour before we did. They had to sit and wait for us non-pros to hit our marks.
Once that was over with, I faced Jasmine. She works at Area 23 and is one of the league players.
Despite the disadvantage, I held my own the whole way until the very end, when she went on a bulls-eye hitting spree to close out the game.
My final match was my quickest. They call him Pete, but it might as well be Pistol Pete – this guy should be in the Olympics (do they have darts yet?).
I hit a few spaces early, but he was hitting multiple spaces every turn. His grouping would make sharpshooters jealous.
What a sportsman, though. He was full of encouraging words, tips, and quick and accurate math (think fast – what’s 17 times 6?). It really made the demolishing an enjoyable experience – as was the whole tourney.
Plus, I walked out of there with a bottle of wine and a Coozy, so it felt like a win.
