Ice Blue @ Ice Blue [16/10/12]

Have Kevin and Jimish based their doubles performances around these two? – it seems likely.

Lost 9-3

We had shown some improvement the previous week against Da Vinci’s but all but the most optimistic Borracho was not expecting an early departure from Ice Blue, with our tails between our legs, after all they gained a comfortable victory against us earlier in the season and we were down to the bare bones for the second week in a row. Missing tonight were Colin,who needed to attend yet another high powered cocktail event, Thuy, Brownie and Steve ,who hopefully has gone home to Aus to sort his fat feet out.

Now I swore that I would not really mention the triples and just cut and paste “we were 2-0 down after the triples”, but this week we actually performed quite well and got even spoils. The first was close all the way, with Rick ensuring his three were always just in the lead. Jimish set up a double 12 finish but Pam and Jim T were unable to capitalize before Rick checked on madhouse. The second match was very similar and our three were up against a strong three from Ice Blue. Ben [who had returned to his usual punctuality habit – late] checked for us and we won our first triples in about 5 weeks!

Mr T was having an easy night on the selection front, with his hardest decisions on who to pair up for doubles. He put himself and JP up first and they got the tough and experienced pairing of Negi and Rick against them. The outcome was fairly predictable given the stats of the players involved and Negi claimed both checks to get a fairly comfortable win. The Abbot and Costello, the Morecombe and Wise and I would say the Laurel and Hardy , but I would end up being the fat one, of the Borrachos , Jimish and Kevin were paired up again. They played some solid darts [except when Kevin started taking an interest in Jimish’s darts] against Jesse and Ravi and all the legs were tight ,with Kevin getting our check and Jesse impressively getting both for Ice Blue. We had good chances in both the legs we lost but Jesse never hung around when it came to checking and that is the lesson we have painfully learnt this season in Division 1, where we might get three or four attempts to check in Div 2 ,here you get your chance and you must take it first time. Our final pairing was Pam and Ben and they tried their best to claw our way back in to the game but had a tough time against Ruud and Craig [2 checks] and fell to a 2-0 loss. 4-1 down but we were still strangely optimistic.

Ice Blue tend to play the same players in their singles and tonight was no different ,with all the familiar faces named in the six. We just put in the six we had.

JP was up against Rick ,who I imagine was still smarting from losing a leg to Belgian Kris from Sheridan’s last week. The first leg JP was trounced and despite an improvement in the second he could not stop the Teminator like Rick from completing a nice 2-0 win. JP’s night was not all a loss though as scored more tons tonight than he had through the whole of the season so far.

Rick Horton – is this what he is like underneath on darts night -I have my suspicions.

I had not seen Jesse play before but had been impressed by him in the doubles and he is right up there in the stats. Well, Jim T had pleasure of playing him and I cannot say I was jealous at all. ‘Jim T Darts’ had been missing so far tonight and he needed those triple 18’s to stop Jesse. Unfortunately for us he could not get enough of them and Jesse claimed a 2-0 win, making it 6-1.

Benny boy felt a little hurt by my comments on his performance last week , well no such problems this week my son ,you performed admirably. He faced Negi and in a cracking game claimed a 2-1 win to keep us in the game and kept his ever present record too.Nice Ben ,nice!

Jimish’s game against Zach was nearly a carbon copy of his game last week against Jake but it went against him this time. The first leg was close but a quick check by Zach took it and the second was the same but Jimish got the check first time. Zach dealt the killer blow in third with two tons and just as Jimish caught up, Zach got a madhouse finish to get the match 2-1 and a deserved win in terms of his third leg performance.

Freed from the shackles of his doubles partner Kevin turned in an excellent fighting performance against Craig. An extremely close match saw our ‘shining star’ get his third win on the bounce ,2-1,and after a dodgy start to the season he is back to his best again.

Ah Kevin I think you’ve made it – our little shining star of recent weeks! Well Done!

For the second week in a row Pam took on the anchor role, up against the Dutchman Ruud, who so far had had quite a quiet night, probably because of the logistics of trying to give all his team enough games. Pam wasn’t quite at her best and Ruud had too much for her to get a 2-0 win. I think Pam has had enough of this going 6^th malarkey and will be lobbying Jimish next week for a much earlier start.

So 8-3 going into the team game and although we were defeated, we’d seen some fight from the team that had been lacking in some previous weeks.

In the team game we managed to stay very close all the way through and both teams got down to double at roughly the same time ,however yet again luck deserted us and TJ got the check for Ice Blue.

So a 9-3 loss but not what I would class as a thrashing and in fact I reckon if we play with the same vigor in upcoming games we may well get some more points on the board. We will hopefully welcome back a few players next week for the hard game against Really Rottens .  As for Ice Blue,thank you guys for a thoroughly enjoyable game[ not sure about the pizza tho!] and we may not see you again for a while but  good luck to you in your search for the Div 1 title, I think it will be a close run thing.

This week’s Japanese proverb to my fellow Borrachos is:

naseba naru
nasaneba naranu nanigoto mo
naranu wa hito no nasanu nari keri

 

If you try, you may succeed.
If you don’t try, you will not succeed. This is true for of all things.
Not succeeding is the result of not trying.

Ah Grasshopper you have mighty words of wisdom!

Borrachos please listen to the words of wisdom that I give you! Jimish is becoming profound.

 

MVP : Kevin                                          OPP MVP : Jesse