An Unfortunate Decision

(This is a re-write of an old article that I wrote for a darts league some years ago.)

We are all aware of the problems that the late arrival of a whole team can cause, but the late arrival of individual players can lead to even more unpleasantness as just one game won, or lost, can dramatically change the result of a match. It can always be argued that an alternative player may have given the same result, but of course that is not the thought uppermost in the minds of an opposition team when they have just seen victory snatched from under their noses. Perhaps even worse is when a player arrives late, after the draw has been made and a players name is changed to accommodate the late arrivee. 

This happened one Monday, in November, some years ago when I was very late getting to the away match at the nights venue. The first game was over and their young star player who was on next had started throwing up on the oche for the second game. His opponent, had also started throwing up but he was in the toilets! Consequently, our captain then asked if he could substitute me under the circumstances and while they were about it could they change another player for his son as well, because no one new that the father was in the pub at the time of the draw. I must point out that he had been in the pub for hours before the match as he had been doing some jobs for the Landlord, but at the time of the draw no one knew where he was. The home team captain agreed and the match continued. 

Unfortunately for the home team our substitute player won his game against his opponent and surprisingly I won my game against their young star. We also won our doubles game which we played together. This meant that we won the match. If neither of us had played it could well have been a different result and one, or two of the other teams players were not best pleased.

A few days after the match, I spoke to the League Secretary and he said that if the draw has been made and the players names have been written down on the match sheet they should not be changed. However, if both captains agree to a change under special circumstances, then that is up to them and there should be no “Sour Grapes,” with no recriminations and nothing said afterwards. Normally a minor substitution would not have changed the result so much, but as I say it was unfortunate for the home team. It does serve as a warning though to other Captains and teams though!