Our writer contributor James Streetfield believes, like us, that walking the walk on the oche can be a serious aid to writing about. He plays, like thousands of others in his local venue, the Sunbury Royal British Legion Club.
With that in mind we’re launching his ad hoc Vaulter’s View Diary of competing for please and trying to improve via the ADC’s Vault system:
After a disappointing showing at Bradmoor Farm for the South East and London Regional Final, I went into the first Vault of 19.0 wanting one thing above all, a clean start.
Vault 19.0 lands after the traditional three-week break between series, which usually means one of two things. Either you come back sharp, or you spend the first leg finding your feet again. This time it was a bit of both.
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I started well. A pair of 70 average, 2-0 wins got my night off to the perfect start. But keeping that level up proved harder than starting it/ by the time I was through the group stage, albeit without having dropped a leg, the scoring had dipped and it was in the game that decided it, that things briefly went sideways.
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My opponent was sat on 71, I was on 80 having hit a maximum to keep myself in the leg. He hit a single 6, treble 15 and double 5, scoring 61, and the marker, working off Dartsatlas, called it as the match there and then.
And that was that. Once it’s logged as the match on Dartsatlas, it’s in. There’s no going back and unpicking it afterwards, whatever the arithmetic actually said. It’s the sort of moment that reminds you software is only as good as the person reading it off the screen, and that there’s no safety net once the result’s been entered.
In the wake of the moment, I was evidently disappointed. Who knows, that 80 may have gone. But as I headed home, I took some solace in my performance. With an average just short of 80 over four legs, with a couple of maximums thrown in for good measure, I took more than enough positivity back with me.
A quarter-final finish, in the end, felt like a fair reflection of the week. Not the return I’d hoped for after Bradmoor Farm, but a step back into the rhythm of competitive play after the break will serve me nothing but well heading into whatever is next.
Images: James Streetfield / ADC
