Memories Of
Different Darts.
Recently I played a match at a local club where one of the opposing team brought out a set of "Nail darts." The match was just about to start, so although several of our lads were keen to have a chuck, they had to wait. Foolishly, I opened my gob and said how I used to throw 6 inch nails many years ago and recalled the following section from one of my darts books;-
"There were several exhibition matches
I played in after this and this was probably when I was at my peak. One other
game worth a mention was in a local pub. Again it was 1001 against someone who
was some international competition winner and I won. This time however his
exhibition partner played with 6 inch nails performing various trick shots. As
arrogant as ever I thought if I can beat your partner I can throw nails as well
as you. I armed myself with some sharpened nails and started practicing at home.
Within a few weeks I was not only getting them to stick in, but was achieving
some accuracy with them, so I took them down to my local pub and put on my own
exhibition.
It was the birthday of one of the lads I knew and he was a little intoxicated to say the least. If he had not been I doubt whether he would have been persuaded to stand sideways in front of the dartboard with a stick of chalk in his mouth. I knocked the chalk out of his mouth and coins from his fingers. Then I played a few regular games of 301 with the nails. Every body watching was impressed including the captain, but when he got closer to the board he saw the damage the thick rough points were doing to it and he banned me from playing with them on the board again."
The 6 "Nails" at the club were not
real nails, but looked like nails, ie; no flights, but they did have proper
darts points in them so there was little risk of them damaging the board. With
the first three nails I got two out of the three to stick in and then of course
it all went pear shaped and I could only get one out of three in. A couple of
the other lads had a go and didn't do very well either. Then the club player
brought out some "Mini" darts to show us. Again I didn't do too bad
and got two out of the three in the twenty and a five. With long forgotten
memories flooding back, I remembered how one player at the 
Plum
Pudding had brought in some "Mini" darts about 30 years ago, and those
were small. The combined barrel with a single molded stem and flight were little
more than the length of a thumbnail and they had a very short point. With red
flights, you could put three in the red treble twenty, (If you were very lucky)
and literally not be able to see the darts from the Oche.
Like every other kid I also tried throwing a knife when I was
younger. The only knife I ever possessed was a normal fold up penknife. With
practice I started to get that to stick in, but after the damage I had done with
the nails I used an ordinary piece of chipboard as a target instead of a softer
dartboard. Of course the constant impact on the hard chipboard soon separated
the cheap folding joint of the knife and ruined it. I thought I could throw
anything then, so believe this or not as you will, but again in my twenties, I
bought a handful of large fencing staples. After a week or two of practice I
actually started to get them to stick in the board, but never really achieved
much accuracy before leaving them alone, which is perhaps just as well when you
think about it. Imagine trying to play a game of darts with them bearing in mind
that they have TWO POINTS on each staple. How would the marker call those
scores?
Nowadays, it is all I can do to get three proper darts to stick in the board
somewhere close to where they should be, as I again proved on Monday night by
losing in fine style!