Last night the McCrarey’s invaded Puddlin’ Duck for some darts.  Brother Keith (visiting from California) and my son Kevin joined me in the weekly competition, with daughter-in-law Lauren and Jee Yeun handling the cheerleading duties.  Who’d a thunk that you’d find so many McCrarey’s in an Irish pub of all places?

Now, Keith and Kevin hadn’t played in a dart tourney before and by virtue of the vagaries of the blind draw format wound up being teammates.  And they defied odds by winning their first match in a hard fought battle.  Kevin seems to have a natural knack for hitting the double out and that served him well.

Of course, they advanced to meet me and my partner Pat in the next round and we showed them no mercy.  Darts does not recognize family blood after all.

It was a good night for this McCrarey though as I achieved tournament victory for the first time here in South Carolina.

Nothin’ is finer than winning in Carolina, to coin a phrase.

Anyway, we all had a great time and I expect Kevin may become a regular participant.  And no doubt he’s going to be beating me with regularity before too long.  He didn’t say it, but his face said “payback is hell”.

Let the darts fly!

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Another night, another darts venue.  State Street Pub in West Columbia has a Thursday tourney.  It’s about forty minutes from where I’m staying, but what are you gonna do?

So, I arrived early and was underwhelmed at first.  It was like Friends Bar in Itaewon, with somewhat better lighting.  In other words a bit of a dive and not too clean.

When the darters started showing up it made me feel a tad old.  They all appeared to be 20- somethings.  I guess I was old in Korea too, I just never felt that way.  At least not too often.

Anyway, everyone turned out to be very friendly and made us feel genuinely welcome.  And I wound up having a great time.  My game was only so-so, but truth be told, that’s usually the case, so what the hell.

Interesting format–one leg of cricket in the winners bracket, one leg of 301 (SIDO) in the losers bracket.  It keeps things moving pretty fast and even with 20 or so playing there wasn’t much waiting time.

There were some quality players present, (at least the ones who beat me of course!).  A group had come in from Aiken, SC to play and I got invited out for the Friday tourney at the VFW.  I might venture out there one of these days, but given the distance (a good hour from here) I’d probably want to book a room for the night.

So, it is good to be out and good to be playing again.

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Things seem really different around here in the absence of mom’s presence.  I’m equally torn between relief that her suffering is over and enormous sadness that the life she loved so much is gone.  But I guess that’s really the way it works out for most people, isn’t it?

She wants to be buried next to her mother in Goltry, Oklahoma.  It’s a tad over 1100 miles from here and I’m in the mood for a road trip.  So I’ll be hitting the Interstate on Friday.

Last night I played darts for the first time since I’ve been “home”.  Found a nice little Irish pub with three boards named The Puddlin’ Duck.  I joined the “league” which amounts to a weekly blind draw double elimination tourney.  There were fourteen of us throwing tonight and I felt warmly welcomed.  So, I’ve got Wednesdays covered at least.

Played so bad though even Jee Yeun was embarrassed for me.  I overheard her telling my new mates that I really wasn’t that bad.  Well, not to make excuses but it has been awhile since I’ve thrown and it being a new venue surrounded by strangers and all it’s understandable I’d be off my game.  Right?  Right?

Anyway, it will be better.  It’s got to get better.

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It was a dart playing weekend.  Regular Friday night tourney at Dolce, the end of season banquet/tourney on Saturday.  And yesterday 12 of us bussed on down to Songtan to take on the local dart community at Xenis Bar.

We split into three groups of four: our elite “A” division players (Alistair, Paul, Sammy and Chris), other “A”s and high “B”s (Tom, Jonas, Mario and me) and a “C” team of Tom, Sean, Jeremy, and Mike.

We had a great time although some of their games weren’t that familiar (call cricket, 301 DIDO).  We got along well with our rivals and drank us some beers.  Made it home last night around 10, but I’m still beat.

Actually I was beat yesterday.  Our elite guys got crushed, we took the middle team to a match deciding team game before losing.  The bright spot was the 9-8 victory of our “C” team.  All is not lost however because the rematch in Seoul is coming up this Sunday at Dolce Vita.  We are down 9 legs but feel confident we will do some ass kicking on our home turf.

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Here’s a photo of where I’m heading out to soon for some Friday night darts–Pub Dolce Vita.

Wish you were here.

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In dart action last night, the Take it Easy boys from Dolce Vita put a hurtin’ on our neighbor bar Bless U 22-3.  The consensus was it was the most dominating victory in the long and illustrious his of TIE.

I’m sure the Sultans will be gunning for us when we next meet a Bless U as we definitely stung their pride a bit.  Especially because they played well enough to win quite a few of those legs but didn’t possess that intangible some call luck.

Duke had a great 2 week run in his return to the team.  I believe he had a 9-0 night in fact.  He’ll be on an airplane back to the States next Monday, but we still have the big birthday party/tourney coming up this Saturday…

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A great time at Dolce Vita for Friday night darts last night.

I threw a ton-80, a 98-out, and an improbable double-17 double-15 combo to close out a one point victory in cricket.
Plus, I hit the early bird out jackpot by throwing a 24 out.  Good for a cool W114,000.

Go figure the odds of ME having a night like that.

Anyway, it is those occasional (and all too rare) moments of brilliance that keeps me coming back for more.

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Had a happy reunion with one of my dart mentors last night, Mike “Petro” Petrocelli.  As former President of the Seoul International Dart league he really helped make darts in Itaewon what it is today.  It was great to see him again, even if it was only for a one night stand.   He brought along a pretty good dart game as well, which was to be expected.

We were all happy to welcome Dave New back to Dolce Vita as well.  He’ll be here for the next three weeks or so and we are looking forward to as many nights of darts and beer as can be managed.

Speaking of which, Petro bought a keg for all the darters who turned out to get reacquainted.  And naturally, a blind draw doubles tournament broke out.  Had some interesting pairs drawn.  Alastair and Sammy, two excellent darters from the UK; two more outstanding players in Tom Randolph and Petro; and Dave New had me to carry.

We had some great games, but in the end Dave and I made it through the winners bracket.  Tom and Petro had a hard fought match with Alastair and Sammy for the right to play us for the championship.  And the boys from the mother country prevailed.

In the end it came down to a classic well played game of cricket with strategic pointing in a seesaw battle that ulitmately resulted in a win for Dave and me.  Damn, it was like old times, meaning fun times at the oche.

Next up, The Duke and lovely Ji Young are coming to town.  It’s shaping up to be a hot August!

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Opening night of the new dart season kicked off last night.  It was good to be playing again and especially nice to rejoin my old team Take It Easy.  Although we were defeated by 3 Alley Pub 16-9, it was a fun and competitive evening.  It’s been awhile since I could say that.

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Open air darts that is.  Spent some pleasant hours yesterday at the Blue Boar Inn chucking darts in the upstairs open air dart bar.  The temp was hotter than my darts, which actually doesn’t say much because the same statement would be true if it were December in Alaska.  But actually I played alright.

The proprietor of the Blue Boar is Jimmy Dale, who is known around town as Harry the Horse.  You can read his monthly newsletter here if you are so inclined.  Great guy and enjoys the game of darts.  Even invited me to play on his team.  Which I might consider if I’m willing to make a weekly trip down from Subic.  We’ll see…

Jimmy and his upstairs open air dart bar at the Blue Boar…

We played a nice 9 leg set (cricket, 301 DIDO, and 501) of which I managed to eek out a 5-4 victory.  Then he called in an Aussie teammate who put a pretty good ass-whuppin on me.  I had a great time though.

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Played in the Dolce tourney last night and actually had fun.  I guess throwing half way decent contributed to my joy.  That and winning (a first and a second place finish).

On the long plane ride back from Hawaii I decided it was time to get back to basics and try to relearn all that I’ve apparently forgotten about the game.  Actually, I am committed to going out and practicing again on a regular basis.  That and pull my head out of my ass and start throwing with some confidence.  Although the two might be related.

I’m hoping to rejoin Take it Easy for the upcoming season.  Kind of back to the future as that is where it all began for me.  And since my time in Korea is rapidly drawing to a close, it makes sense for things to end with Take it Easy.  I’ve always been fond of the symmetry of bookends.

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Well, I’m taking a self-imposed break from darting.  I ain’t sure what the hell is going on, so I need to take some time and get my head right.  At this point I’ve lost all confidence in my game and I’m not doing myself or my teammates any favors.

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Rubbies achieved our first victory of the season tonight against Jagernutz from Sam Ryan’s, 20-17.

And I only lost two legs!

But then, I only played three.

It’s all good.

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Dartaholics ripped us a new one tonight, 25-12.  But you know what?  I would rather be a loser than an asshole.  Congrats to the biggest assholes in the Seoul International Dart League.  You earned it!

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But we played better as a team.  Lost 20-17 to Cake Mix, but we are showing improvement each week.  We also welcomed Lucky Corpuz as the newest Rubbie…

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Blue Bulls put a hurtin’ on the Rubbies tonight 24-13.  Nothing to say other than I pretty much suck these days.  Buried within my pathetic performance I threw a ton-80, but I would have gladly traded that for winning some of the legs I frittered away.

Oh well.  It’s gotta get better.

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Well the first dart match of 2010 is history.  Shooters from Blue Frog inflicted a 26-11 spanking on our Rubbie hides.

We played better than the score.  Really, we did.

I was 4-8 on the night.  12 marks, including a 9-mark.  So, maybe I can take some encouragement from that.

I really just want to focus on having fun again.  Because to be honest, I didn’t feel much joy last season.

We’ll do better in the weeks ahead….

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Busy weekend, most of it revolving around darts.  Nice night at Dolce eeking out two first place finishes.  Saturday was the end of season tourney and I was not disappointed to walk away with 5th place money.

And we elected new officers for the Seoul International Dart League.  Lonnie returns as Secretary, Doug is the new VP and I’ll be taking the reigns as league president.

Lord help us.

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I guess you could call it that.  Had a fine traditional feast at Dolce Vita last night.  Thanks Jim and YJ!

We had 14 players in the dart tournament that followed dinner. The draw was nice in that the teams were pretty evenly matched (which does not always happen in a blind draw).  I teamed up with Ron and we wound up meeting Alistair and Matt for the championship.

Dolce features live music on Thursday nights and the tourney ran a little longer than expected.  So, by the time we started the finals the band (well, two guys on amplified acoustic guitars) was going full bore.  The dart boards in play are right next to the ‘bandstand’ as it were, so it was a lot louder than normal playing conditions.  And the place was packed with darters and music fans, with the music fans sometimes forgetting darts etiquette and walking through the game.  Suffice to say, appropriate levels of concentration was difficult.

Giving the environment (I really hate throwing while the band is playing if for no other reason than it seems rude and disrespectful somehow) I suggested that we call the tourney a draw and split the combined prize money of 160,000W equally.  Alistair wanted to play it out and so we that’s what we did.  And after a tremendous battle with some great darts on both sides, Ron and I prevailed.  Sweet.

It was a blessing to throw some decent darts for a change.  I had a real up and down season and somewhere along the way I’ve developed a flaw in my mechanics.  I really focused last night on reacquiring a smooth rhythm with a consistent release point.  For the most part I succeeded.  The challenge will be maintaining that week in and week out.

We shall see.

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Ok, time for an addition to the “dart bars of Itaewon” series.  Next up, Manila Bar.

Manila is in the second alley on the right walking up from Hamilton Hotel towards the Itaewon arch.  It is upstairs from Nana Bar.

Alright, let’s be honest about it.  I have a lot of affection for this bar.  Owners Jovie and Teddy always make sure their customers have a good time.  But, it is really unfair to call this a dart bar.  This photo was taken on a Saturday night, and they take down the board on weekends to facilitate a DJ/videoke/karaoke thing.  Which is nice by the way.

There is a second board behind the picture to the right, although I have never seen it in play.  The phantom board pictured above plays ok, but the oche is real close to the bar so it can at times be tight.

Now, this is the nice thing the bar offers.  A great place to sing if that is your thing, and Teddy is an excellent musician.  He will occasionally accompany you on the piano while you do a videoke song, and he also does some lounge singing, whic is quite pleasant.

This is the bar looking back from the dart board.  If it looks small, well, consider it cozy.  One of the smaller “legitmate” bars I’ve visited in Itaewon.  Doesn’t take much to fill it up, but again, a full bar is a fun bar, right?

Like I said, it is somewhat unfair to compare Manila Bar to some of the other dart venues in town.  Although the sport a team or two in the lower divisions, this really isn’t a real darts bar.  Fine for chucking a few with friends on a weeknight, but if you are a serious darter this is probably not where you go to play.  Great for good times otherwise though.  A “D” rating for darts.

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