Cabinets Shipping - Silver Bullet
To begin with, the dart cabinets have started rolling off of the workbenches, and have begun to make their way to their new owners. So, if you’ve been waiting for your dart cabinet to arrive, the days are upon us, and it should be at your door shortly.
Silver Bullet 16th Annual
Over the weekend I had the chance to attend the 16th annual running of the Silver Bullet dart tournament. It’s great to see that the tournament scene is healthy enough to support an event for that long of a time. Sixteen years ago Ross Perot was running for president, and they were shooting darts at the Sivler Bullet tourney.
There were some big names in attendance, including Darrin Young and the ever-accurate Mark Wuerstle. Well, it being the finals, it makes sense that some great darts were being shot. In the end, the tournament boiled down to Dorko’s vs the Raven’s Nest.
The Raven’s Nest took first place . . .
The picture was from a cell phone, so it’s a little fuzzy. Still, it’s great to have a snapshot. A couple of the faces in the scene are probably very familiar to tournament shooters with Mark Wuerstle on the left and Keith Bauer on the right.
Taking second place were Joe Swatsky, Kirk Wimble, and Ed Dormer from Dorko’s Cafe.
Classic American Dart Cabinets
There is more than usual to report in the world of American Style darting. First off, the big dart tournament of the year, the PA State Dart tournament finished, with Haganey’s Aces #2 taking the title!
I’ve updated the PA State Dart Tournament page, so you can go visit and see who was involved and how everyone else who made it to the Finals fared.
The other big tournament of the year - Nationals - also concluded. The National dart tournament has a set of different classes that shooters are grouped into according to their averages. There are A, B, and C divisions for teams, and this year there was a Singles tournament that had 4 divisions. I’ve updated the National American Dart Tournament page to show the winners of these events.
Now, onto something that I’ve been getting a lot of emails about recently . . . those Green Dart Cabinets that hold an American dart board. We’ve all seen them in bars everywhere, and depeding on your age, they have the ability to bring back some memories.
They are a pretty unique item. No one shows up to work every Monday and starts making these cabinets. Instead, they are created during one of what I think are two production runs throughout the year. So basically, they clear the workbenches and say “We’re going to make cabinets today fellas”, and then that’s what they do.
And when they’re done, those are the cabinets that will be sold for the next few months. When they sell out, there are no more until the next production run.
Here’s the big news . . .
They are doing a production run at the start of April, so now is the time to speak up if you’re interested in owning one of these pieces!!!
They come in the traditional Green, and the “modern” Oak color. The cost is $149 + shipping (they ship out of Philadelphia, and so far the charges have been coming in at $25).
If you’re interested in one, we’ll be taking orders that will be fulfilled during this next production run, so we have until probably the first week of April to get them submitted. You can order from the Classic American Dart Cabinet page (near the bottom), or by emailing me at “webmaster AT americanstyledarts.com”.
Widdy-Apex-Darto Sampler Packs
Phil Taylor’s tip about experimenting to find the right dart equipment for you struck a chord. How is the average darter going to try out Darto darts, Widdy’s and Apex darts to see which one fits him best?
You can buy a dozen of each type of dart, but that’s just shouldn’t be the best solution available! A better way would to buy a box of a dozen darts that contained a few Apex, and few Widdys and a few Dartos.
Now, you can. We’ve put together a dart “sampler pack”.
It includes Four Widdy’s, Four Apex darts, and Four Dartos. So, you can test out each manufacturer, and decide which one is best for you. And if a dart gets burred during testing, that’s ok, you’ll have a backup in the box. (Considering we only throw three darts at an inning, but there are four darts from each maker in the box).
I know, there are only three of each in the picture, but you’ll get four of each when you order.
They are available through our Dart Catalog Page.
I think this is also a great solution for home dart setups, bars and taverns who have demand for different style darts, gifts for darters when you’re not sure which brand to buy, and people just setting up a dartboard for the first time.
Dart Throwing Tips
stumbling through youtube today, i came across a video from “the Mirror” in the UK. it was Phil “The Power” Taylor’s Top 5 Tips to Darts Success. and i thought, hey, that’s pretty cool. considering he’s probably the best dart player on the face of the planet.
turns out a bit of it is tongue in cheek. and, even though the announcer speaks English, his accent is so thick i did a lot of rewinding to figure out what he was saying during the first 30 seconds. Phil on the other hand, speaks clearly enough for my ears.
anyway, here’s the video . . .
1. Always Have the Right Gear - which makes sense, especially for English darters where every part of the dart seems to be customisable. the flights, the weights, the barrel shapes, and on and on.
on the American side, the choices are really limited to whether you want to use Widdy’s, Darto’s, or Apex darts. Phil says that it’s all “experimental really”, so experiment with the different darts that are available, and find the one that suits you!
and “equipment” doesn’t end with the dart itself, it also extends to the clothes you wear. i know that some players simply won’t wear sleeved shirts. they cut the sleeves off completely. other won’t wear long sleeves. it doesn’t matter what you prefer, but it might be worth paying attention to for a moment to see if your choice of shirts for the evening has a little something to do with your dart game.
Phil mentions shoes as well. i suppose anything you could wear that might make you more comfortable and stable at the line is worth thinking about.
2. Play the Name Game - ok, this made me chuckle. but, english darts is not the team game that american darts are. i see this in the bar pretty often when a newcomer wants to join in the dart games and someone says, “get team, we’ll shoot” and he looks at them like “what the hell are you talking about, a team?”.
heh, looking through our scoresheets though, it does seem like a lot of shooters have a nickname: Cookie, Biggie, Mutzy, Z, Zig, Trout, Muff, Mall, Zippy, Fatty, Pizza, and the list goes on.
3. Take a Stand - as in “how to stand at the oche” (rhymes with “hockey”).
- put your foot sideways
- lean in
- aim your dart “a little bit like aiming a gun” (he seems to be shy saying that, which makes me chuckle as well. i suppose he’s not from hunting country 
)
- pull back and fire
he doesn’t say much about a “follow through”
4. How to Throw - couldn’t make out all the words, but he says he gets his thoughts directly in line with whatever he’s aiming at. imagine there’s a plum(?) line that comes right across the floor. that’s where he stands, and keep everything level.
5. Feel the Pressure - he says it’s “not easy”.
Well - for better or worse, those are the words from the man himself!
Nationals Prequalifier Results - Online High Score
last week there was a prequalifying event for Nationals held in Emmaus. Games were shot in both the “B” division (which has a 3-man cap of 110 pts) and the “C” division (which has a cap of 90pts per 3-man team).
Winners emerging from the “B” division include 2 teams from Dorko’s Cafe:
1st - Dorko’s II (Dennis Conti, Young Joe Zavarik, Nate Dobek)
2nd - Emmaus Fire Co. #1
3rd - BVFHA
4th - Dorko’s I (Corey Hepler, Doug Troutman, Damien Zigler)
in the “C” division, the following teams are moving on to seeded position in Nationals:
1st - Pine Grove VFW
2nd - Fountain Hill Hose Company
3rd - Emaus Fire Company #3
4th - Coopersburg Fire Company
there are several other pre-qualifiers for Nationals coming up, including Saturday February 2nd in Northhampton PA.
ONLINE DARTS GAME
i received a screenshot from Clyde Myers who tied the best score ever by shooting a 78!!! Congratulations go out to Clyde!
New High Scores - Functional Scoresheets
Those are the two new additions to American Style Darts.com. If you visit the Score Sheets page, you’ll notice two new Excel files added towards the bottom. Those are “automated” scoresheets where scorekeepers only have to enter the value of the last dart shooter’s inning score. All of the addition will be taken care of by the computer.
While taking a laptop into a smokey barroom is a less practical way to keep score than say, the trusty old pencil and paper routine, this is a project that just begged for some attention. And so, it’s now available thanks to Frank Petruskevich. Who knows, building on something like this, twenty years from now our kids could be inputting dart scores on their cell phones and have up-to-the-minute data for their dart league or tournament! We could even have real-time internet reporting from events like States and Nationals someday 
Also, Christian Warren sent in a score for our online game that currently ranks as the second best game ever scored with a 74. Anyone scoring a 65 or better qualifies for posting amoung the high scorers, so keep those screenshots coming in!
Rotating a Stubborn Dartboard
We have a board at the bar that needed to be rotated. Unfortunately, this particular board wins the “most stubborn dartboard of the year” award, and despite our best efforts, it didn’t budge.
So, I got out the trusty hammer, and did a little operating. Basically, I banged out the inner section of the board, rotated it, and popped it back into place. So, if you’ve never rotated a dartboard and wonder what I mean by that when I mention it, I ran the camcorder while I operated. The video is available here, and on YouTube (it might be the first video on there dealing with American Darts)
I think the first thing you’ll notice is that the board is in pretty bad shape. But, once the video was done I checked the other side, and it’s in much better condition. In fact, I expect it will last the better part (if not all of) the Spring season.
The board being rotated is a Widdy Tournament board. If you have a cheaper wooden board, like say, one of the boards with a 20-inning scoring section on one side, and a “baseball scene” on the other, you won’t be able to rotate it.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I did manage to get it all done without waking up the wife.
Belgian Darts - Vogelpiks - Wooden Darts
I’ve surfed the net looking at various dart sites long enough that when I come across something totally new, it makes my day. And, that happened just the other night.
I’m aware of several different variations of the wooden dart/wood board dart game pairing. For instance, there’s DartBall and the previously mentioned Troy darts.
I recently found a new one (new to me that is), and it seems like the European version of American darts.
It’s called “Vogelpiks”, and it’s a dart game from Belgium.
Vogelpik “Darts”:
The darts are very similar to american darts in that they are hand-crafted from wood, use feather flights, have a steel tip and a lead weight. They use several woods: cherry, walnut, and birch. The flights come in different styles as well. They can be rounded or snipped like a darto/apex dart.
The board is made from . . . you guessed it . . . the endgrain pieces of basswood. It the same material as our American style wooden tournament boards. The layout on the board is insanely simple. There is a “bullseye”, or what we’d call the cork in the center of the board. It’s surrounded by 6 circlular bands or red/white/black. Here’s a pict:
Rules and Gameplay:
First, the distances for hanging the board, and the throw line:
Hang the Board with the cork 62 inches above the floor. That’s a mere 1 inch shorter than an American board, compared to a pub board that is mounted 68 inches above the floor.
The Throw Line should be 72 inches from the front of the board. That’s awefully short compared to other dart games. It comes in at 6 ft, compared to over 7 feet for both American and English darts.
Now, on to the gameplay.
- Players throw four darts per turn at the center of the dartboard.
- Each player gets five turns per game.
- Toe the line, stepping over the line results in a loss of score for that dart.
- Players wait until the score is called to remove darts. If they fail to do so, there is no recourse for an incorrectly called score.
- If the game ends in a tie, players shoot extra rounds of four darts each to break the tie.
Scoring:
The scoring is simple. Each ring has an associated point value.
- The cork/bullseye is worth 50 pts.
- The red ring that surrounds it is worth 25 pts.
- The white ring surrounding that is worth 20 pts.
- The black ring scores 15 pts.
- The outer white ring scores 10 pts.
- The outermost red ring scores 5 pts.
History of Vogelpiks:
“It was very popular in Flanders around the time of 1792, and seems to have originated from the archery skills of the Middle Ages. “VOGELPIK” is the early version of the modern game of Belgian darts. It consisted of a stuffed bird hung by a wire from the ceiling, and in its bill a needle in the horizontal position was attached. The player would balance the wire and try to spear a wooden board that was hung on the wall.”
I read that and re-read that, and I still can’t envision it all. I do think that it adds some background to why there’d be a picture of a Vogelpik board hanging inside a bird cage on the internet though.
I think it’s great to find wooden darts making their way to the States in another form.
Resources:
Standard Target and Dart Co.
Vogelpiks.com
New High Scores
just a heads up that two new players joined the High Score Honor Roll for our web-based American Darts game.
Bob Marinelli managed to hit a 66, and 13 year-old Chris Becker broke the 70 mark.
Congrats guys!
Hear Ye, Hear Ye !!! We Now Have a Blog !!
Welcome, this is the first post on the new blog section of our American Darts website. I wanted to have a page where I could post up news, answer emails and letters, and make use of ‘rss’ to announce tournaments and perhaps some tournament recaps.
If you don’t know what Rss is, don’t fret. Go to Google Reader and they’ll let you know how easy it can be to find out about changes and news here at American Style Darts.
