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Back In The Madhouse

Double one in a game of darts has a special phrase or nickname that is commonly used to refer to it when a player is unfortunate enough to find himself left on it in a game. It should not be any more difficult to hit than any other as it is exactly the same size as the rest, but when you get to it there is nowhere else to go because you can't split it. Very often a player will throw only one dart each throw, hit a big one and have to wait for his next throw before having another try. This can get very frustrating and will often drive the most match hardened player into severe embarrassment or even screaming fits. Hence, when a player has Double One left, he is said to be in the "Madhouse." All skill and ability seems to leave players when they have that fateful double left in a game. It is quite reasonable to expect an average pub player to hit his finishing double in maybe between 1 and 6 darts, but this is not the case when attempting double one. In at least 3 doubles games of 501, double start, I have seen one pair of players who were on double one to finish, before the other pair had hit their starting double, then go on to lose.

This Wednesday was just one of those nights that we all seem to have where everything goes wrong. Before the match I played a few legs and left myself on double one. I said, "I'm in the Madhouse." Then added, "I've been there many times before!" Glancing round the rest of my team I noticed that one of the players had one of those T Shirts with jokey slogans printed on. His read, "Psychiatric Ward." "Look," I exclaimed, "He's got one of my old T Shirts on!" There was some laughter and the player in question said that it was his favourite T Shirt and he hadn't thought about me when he put it on for the evening. I did wonder about that, but my newly adopted team are slowly getting used to me and accepting my background.

The banter reminded me of one of my little "Holidays" at the local institution some years ago. It had been early in the evening on the ward when one of the male nurses, trying to cheer me up, asked if I would like to stroll over to the sports and social club in the grounds where we could have a pint. I asked if they had a dart board and was told that they did. They even had a darts team in the local league. "Great," I said, "Perhaps I could sign up and play regularly for them while I was inside."
The reply was, "Not really, because I could only play home games, and then only when a member of staff was free to accompany me and wanted a pint!"
"Of course," I said, "I didn't think." like most players I am never very fond of being "In The Madhouse!"