Tuesday. Traditionally, the second night of the working week is the eve when darts fever grips the bars of Bangkok as measured arrows are thrown across town with vehemence and anguish in the Sukhumvit Fun League.
But the league isn’t the only place to find darts entertainment in the City of Angels. Tuesday the 8th September saw darters of a different breed congregate at the unofficial “Home of Social Darts” – New Cowboy Bar (or ‘NCB’) on Sukhumvit 22.
A bar that refuses the trappings, trial and tribulations (and not to mention politics) of a league or (any form of) organization whatsoever, NCB takes the game back to ‘grass roots’ level and lets the genuine joy of the occasion (i.e. beers and laughter) overcome all else.
And so it was on Tuesday just passed, as P’Tia welcomed long-time darts enthusiasts Johnny “The Jazz Man” Witkowski; CW “C-Dub” Williams; Aussie John “The Melbourne Mauler”; Kenny “Him” Illand; and Adam “The LadPrao Lobber” O’Keefe to join her in a thrilling evening of blind doubles 501.
The blind draw by Wilai paired teams as follows: Him & The Jazz Man in Team A; P’Tia (aka “The Boss”) & The LadPrao Lobber in Team B; and C-Dub & Melbourne Mauler in Team C. The Boss was replaced in Team B by new local resident Steve aka “Silent Assassin” upon his arrival, some 4 games in.
Beer flowed, jokes were told and darts sailed. Some hit the mark, some hit ‘a mark’. Occasionally the laughter turned to cheers and high-five’s when The Boss called out the sweet sounding words “one tonne!”, “one-hundred forty!” and, most satisfyingly of all “cheeeck!” – but those were merely the punctuation marks of a fine get-together over a few social game of arrows.
After 12 games the teams were irresistibly locked on 4 wins apiece, so 3 games to find a winner were decided, with A vs. B; B vs. C; and C vs. A as the running order.
In the opening game of the concluding round, Silent Assassin Steve quietly went about checking out a 16, casually working his way through a single 8, single 4 and double 2 to get Team B into the home stretch.
A win over the Melbourne Mauler and C-Dub in the next game would give LadPrao Lobber and the Silent Assassin an unassailable lead. Though this writer’s memory is somewhat blurred by enthusiastic enjoyment of the evening, I can recall many a good score notched by both sides – especially by Aussie John who gave frequent reminders that class is permanent. In a nail-biting finale it was a double 8 by Team B that claimed the win however, and left Team A and B playing for 2nd spot in the final game.
Just as all match-ups before, the last game produced more good darts than bad, with Team A taking the win in a close-fought battle to zero. Indeed, the blind draw produced 3 evenly matched teams for the night and nearly every game went down to the wire. Special thanks to P’Tia and the girls for scoring and being such generous hosts – as always!
No matter what your standard, if you enjoy throwing arrows, imbibing the odd beer and don’t take winning & losing too seriously, head on down to New Cowboy on Sukhumvit 22 tonight and join in the fun. From ‘absolute beginner’ to ‘forgotten more about darts than Bristow will ever know’, all are welcome at NCB.
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