A Tight Grouping
Published: Apr 8, 2006
BRANDON - Consider it the Fellowship of the Flights.
A band of lads and lassies popping down to the pub on Monday nights in search of the perfect toss - of darts that is.
It isn't a scene from British television or Andy Capp.
Welcome to the Brandon Area Darts Association, a league of about 80 members on 13 teams representing six local bars and pubs.
"It is a place for the novice looking for a social night out, as well as the quality darter looking for some serious competition," Tony Graf, association president, said during a league competition at the Irish Fox & Hounds pub Monday night.
Steven Glass puts the attraction in more worldly terms.
"You get to play a lot of darts, meet a lot of people and see different bars," he said.
The league has been playing since 1991.
"It is like poor man's golf. It is you against the course," said Frank Doherty, who drives from Tampa to be part of Irish Fox & Hounds Liquid Accuracy, one of the pub's four teams.
"Perfection is very hard to obtain, but it is obtainable. Some nights you can feel you are just about there."
Doherty and his teammates are in the league's top A division. The seven-member B division is for fledgling flickers.
Tony Delgado, a six-year veteran, said people can always pick out the neophytes by the way they chuck the darts.
"The newbie's all want to do the baseball throw," he said.
Instead of rearing back, Graf said, a more proper launch is having the elbow parallel to the floor and moving only the forearm - more of a flit than a throw.
Delgado joined the league after watching others play. He said was going through a divorce when a friend took him to the Irish Fox & Hounds. "He said I had to get out of the house," Delgado said.
The pair became regulars at the pub's pool table. But when the owners ousted pool to make room for another dart room, they were forced to switch sports.
"I liked the place, and what else was there to do other than drinking - play darts," Delgado said.
Delgado has progressed to the A division and is now the league's statistician.
"I like the camaraderie," he said. "It is like a good group of friends getting together."
Bryan Schnitzler of Valrico came to the sport by a similar path.
"I stopped in on a night off, got a beer and started playing," he said. "I learned about the league from the other players," he said. "It is really word-of-mouth."
The field of play is the same worldwide.
Players stand 7 feet, 9 1/4 inches from the face of the dart board. The center of the board's bull's eye is 5 feet, 8 inches from the floor.
But that doesn't mean a team can't have a home pub advantage.
"Each setup is different," Glass said. "The light is different, the amount of room is different. Each pub has its own challenges."
He should know. He plays in three weekly leagues. A resident of St. Petersburg who works in Tampa, Glass said a friend talked him into playing in the Brandon association.
"You get to meet a lot of different personalities, but everyone is nice. Everyone is friendly," he said.
League members don't rely on pub-provided darts. They carry their own in well-equipped cases.
Inside Delgado's are two three-dart sets - his game darts and a spare set, "should someone need to borrow some," he said.
There are spare tips and spare flights - the feathers at the back end of a dart that keeps it flying straight.
Game darts are made from a tungsten-nickel alloy. The flights are plastic or, in very rare cases, cloth. Graf said a set runs between $12 and $100.
Some teams even design and buy their own shirts. Graf's Liquid Accuracy team wears red shirts with black collars, black dartboard on the back and the player's name printed in black over the front pocket.
"It helps team unity," said Schnitzler. "And you get another shirt."
The league plays two game variations in singles and doubles matches. A playing season lasts 25 weeks. The spring season is under way, and the fall season will begin July 24.
O'Brien's Irish Pub's team, Electric Mayhem, lost Monday. But team member Karen Dippold downplays any rivalries between pubs.
"It is a fun excuse to come out on a Monday night," she said. "Plus, you get a free beer."