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A Load Of Bull

On the 4rth night of the televised Holsten Premier League Darts Raymond Van Barneveld (For more on Barneveld Click Here) scored a magnificent 170 finish which won him £1,000 for just those 3 darts. Our very own Will Hall has also managed a 170 check out in the past and I also believe he had a 170 start some time ago. I did not see Will's start, but some years ago whilst playing in the local Weston Darts League I saw Chris Seaward, who was playing at the Greyhound in Colton, start on 170. This was the one and only time I have actually seen it done in 30 years of playing darts.

A 170 start is of course the highest possible when you start with a double. One point worth thinking about is that you have to leave 170 in a game before you actually get a shot at it and that is not going to happen all that often. If you start on a bull, you can, if you are so inclined, have a shot at the 170 start every game that you play, so in theory you should see a lot more 170 starts than finishes, but in practice not many people try a Bull start. In my opinion if you do it is showing either over confidence in your abilities, a touch of arrogance or is even a little insulting to your opponent in suggesting that you think you have time to mess about because they are not very good players. Having said that I did once start a match on the bull, but it was not intended.

Many years ago I played a match in a pub that had a low ceiling. Some players can cope with this if they are the type that throws their darts very hard but if they are like me and lob their darts, the darts follow a curved flight path and invariably hit the ceiling. In fact I remember in this particular pub it was such a problem that the darts were making holes in the ceiling as it was hit that much. So the landlord fixed some tiles on the ceiling to prevent the darts from sticking in. I always used to throw for double 20 to start then and on one occasion I remember throwing my first dart which hit the ceiling tiles, bounced off and landed in the board in the bull which gave me a very acceptable start as the game was any double start. The landlord still remembers it to this day but thankfully the board has been moved to another room now.