HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Simon Hickie wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2018 4:03 pm

slinger wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2018 3:07 pm John Lowe, a.k.a. Old Stoneface, was my darts hero. I played with the same flights, same weight short tungsten barrels, copied the throw albeit left-handed, was never much good. Developed my own style of throw and got much much better. And that throw is what earned me the nickname, from all those years ago, of Slinger.

I was also a big John Lowe fan in the old days. However up in Derbyshire he is not that well thought of and allegedly was always happy to take advantage of some poor punter when challenged for money. I always liked the look of his darts, but eventually settled on a 27g Maureen Flowers design. My father threw with 39g brass darts, but at 5' 3" he tended to stay towards the bottom of the board.

Learning down in Kent was a trial too: throwing off 8 ft 6 in with double in and out and no busts.

I'd heard that about Lowe, it was his concentration that I liked. No playing to the gallery, just darts.

The toe-line on our Oche (I am in Kent) was always 7 ft 9 1⁄4 in with the bullseye set at 5 ft 8 in from the floor. We only used 'double in, double out' for practice sessions and friendly games in the pub, otherwise it was always straight in, double out and we played the bust rule too. Sounds like you were in a different part of Kent to me.

A mate and I used to play, for about a year, with 10 gram brass pencil darts (he started out with 20 gm brass darts and then I upped, or downed, the ante) for fun. The problem was you could only use them on really good boards or they wouldn't hit hard enough to stick in. Shame, I think we hit more maximums with them between us than any other darts. The other problem was you could only get real feathered flights for them. It was always back to the "proper" darts for matches though.

John Lowe was a boring fart

I was on the south coast in the Hythe area, learning in the early 70s. Things may have changed since then. Yes I did have a set of 12 gram jobs, but as you suggest, you really had to give them some welly on poorer boards. My throwing style is more Steve Beaton - loop them in, so needing a heavier dart. Sciatica in my right leg means I haven't played for ages. Our table football machine had to go too for the same reason - a pity as I love a good game of 'rods', but bending over the table is a real back killer.

I played darts for my university in and around the Potteries and maintain to this day that we and the chess team I played for did far more engaging with the local community than all the 'Christian' bodies put together.

Now there's an idea - equipment bake-off plus darts match. I'm sure I could load up on enough painkillers to come out of retirement. And yes, I still have the 27g tungstens plus some spare sets if we did such a thing at my place.

Bake-off plus darts plus table football. A brilliant idea. I’ll bag Deeper by Delerious as my walk-on tune.