Pedalling in the Pines

One of the best things in life is activity! Well that's my opinion and the old adage goes that every one gets a pet that looks like them. Well the dogs don't look like me as they have plenty of hair but they eat like me and they love the thrill of exercise like me so I suppose they are twinning my personality. Today was a good day as I pedalled along the Pine Breaks and the dogs ran alongside me their breathing coinciding with the pedal rhythm. I can control them now so they don't go belting off after the kangaroos, unless instructed to, and we can make great progress in an hour or so and come home together for breakfast. The sunlight dapples in the breaks and you can choose to be in shadow or sunlight depending on the orientation of the tracks and with autumn well advanced the sun is lower in the sky and the shadows are softer. A beautiful morning in a beautiful part of South Australia.
Then it was off to town with Nuran as she is sick of doing the shopping by herself and I have to be the chauffeur. It was a nice day for shopping , if there is such a thing, and the list was strictly adhered to so Nuran came back with some money and was well pleased with her efforts.
John volunteered to cook tea and his mince and spaghetti was very tasty with minimal washing up except for the shirts everyone wore. Funny how spaghetti always flicks sauce over your shirt no matter how careful you are.
Anyway Ron has phoned and will be up for darts tomorrow so I must go and practise my doubles!

From Hero to Zero

Monday is a great day for me as it's Darts Competition day and I dream of 180's and high pegs. I practice assiduously for the evening contest and go to town with high expectations. The last match was before Easter and I had played well even though the team had lost, being the one of only two winners on the night and high pegging an 86. So it was with high hopes I fronted at the Gambier Hotel for the game. The triples went well for scoring but missed a chance at a 103 peg by missing double top.Then in the next game I was given a chance at double top but I bombed out. Bugger 0-2. Mind you neither of my team mates pegged either.To my surprise I was in one of the double teams and guess what, missed double top in both games. Bugger 0-2. The rest of the teams were going as bad and we faced an uphill battle to win the match having to win 5 out of the six singles. I don't know if I was the sacrificial lamb but I drew their best player ex A grade blah blah.
He scored heavily and left me in his wake but I could see that he had left A grade because he couldn't peg for shit" Aha a chance and I was down to, guess what double top! Missed and he pegged after about nine darts at double 2. Never mind I was in this match. He outscored me again but at 46 I had a chance 6 double top..Six was alright but hit a 20 then a double 15 to bust.He missed. Right "Stuff the double top " I thought go ten, double 18 -I hit the treble ten "ah double 8 now there's a chance" first dart wired the next double 11! Stuff. Still the ex A grader kept missing until he got to double 1. Another chance.. try 14 double 16.. double 14 I hit and it all went pear shaped from there...bust. My opponent did a first dart peg at double 1, bloody ex A grader! 0-2 Bugger. Not a peg all night.Not a game all night. Luckily the rest of the team were a lot better and they all won their singles...and we won the match 6-5 , no thanks to me! I shall practice pegs all week now and hope I get a game next week!

Getting to the point

Now it occurred to me that I should try to put fresh points in my darts. I have had spare points for a couple of years and couldn't work out how to do it although a couple of people have told me it's easy using a vice and a flat bladed screw driver but my attempt at replacing the points with dad's old darts ended in disaster with a broken point and dads old darts rendered useless and in the bin as a result. I hadn't used dads old darts for a while though just thought I would experiment on them. I was browsing through a darts website looking for a new dart board when I came across a forum on re-tipping darts and this guy said that's its a breeze using a vice and a claw hammer. Ah Ha! So off I went to the shed . My vice is a cheap portable one that does the job when holding metal and hacksawing it but is not the best for holding a thin dart point and claw hammering the barrel. But Lo and behold I managed to remove the points on some old brass darts. Armed with the new knowledge I got my good set of darts and removed the points. What a breeze! I put in the new longer points and went off to practise. But the new points were so long and sharp that when I held the darts in my hand I pierced my palms and they also flew in the board differently kicking the dart up at an angle. Oh well the points in the old brass set were sharp and shorter so I took them out again and put them in the good set of darts... Perfect.!
Now the good spare set of darts, the ones I used before the ones use now, had blunt points so I thought I would put the longer points in them and see how they flew. It seems some darts are easy to re-point and some are harder and the perishing points wouldn't budge. Now re-pointing darts does not require brute force but a technique and the brute force I used bent the point and then broke it! Bugger! I use the good spare set when the good set of darts keeps finding the bloody one and not the 20 so I like having the former as a backup. I explained the technique to John but neither the technique or brute force would shift the broken point. It seemd the darts were heading into the same bin that was the final resting place of dads old darts. Then a brainwave... Freddy Ryan.
Freddie Ryan is or rather was, the top dart player in Tarpeena and it was he who once had mentioned to me that darts need re-pointing quite often to get the best out of them. Freddie would still be a top player if he played darts but the shift work he is on means that he cant play regularly so rather than be a bit player he retired. This is a player that used to write how many 180's a night he got in a diary as he couldn't remember the number of times in his head. Me I know how many 180's I get....none! And I am retired!
Anyway I phoned Fred and explained my problem. Your vice must be no good he said, diplomatically, bring the darts and points up and I'll have a look at them. So I cycled up to his place and left the darts with him telling him ,with no confidence , to chuck the bastards in the bin if he couldn't do anything with them. And went on for a ride.
When I got back not one hour later,Nuran told me Fred had phoned to say I could pick up the darts as he had done them! Five minutes to repair what had taken me two hours or so to wreck. It must be nice to have a good vice!
Anyway I am back to two good set of darts both with shiny new sharp points both flying perfectly. Now I don't know which one to use!
And I am in the market for a good vice... going to Ebay right after this!