A Fun Knock Out

In one of the Leagues that I regularly play, the League secretary suggested that we might play a Knock Out on “Irish Boards,” where the boards were turned upside down. When we actually came to play on the night and turned the boards upside down, we found that it obviously made the Twenties where the threes are normally and transferred the numbers from the left to the right and vice versa. It also had a strange effect on some of the actual numbers. I spotted that the 19’s became 61 and thought that treble 61 would make a good score, but one of my friends spotted a couple of others with an 81 and then potential 91. Just to make the point in practice he hit 7 X 91’s (2 Trebles and a single) which would have been a few too many, even in a game of 501 with a score of 637 with three darts! Another player, being a bit of a smart arse, said he was going to play on the one that stayed the same, which was of course the bull. However the Secretary spoiled the fun a little by saying that the numbers would be scored as normal if any body could read the two’s and fives, sixes and nines, etc upside down and back to front!

When the first game was about to start and my friend was going to mark, his wife told him that, with the twenties at the bottom, he had to mark from the bottom of the scoreboard upwards as well!

It was amazing to see that even with the numbers in some very strange positions several players had no trouble hitting some good scores. It was a bit of a shame that it was a poor turnout really, but those who played enjoyed the night and some were even calling for the rules to be made a regular feature! The comment was made, “Imagine trying to play these rules after a few pints!” Many times during the games players struggled to actually find the numbers that they wanted, to leave the right score and others decided to try and leave the double that was now in the place of their favourite finish. For some players the complexities of this tactic proved too much, so they just tried to leave a double, any double, because as my friend said, "They are all the same size."

One of the better players was asked which board he wanted to play on, to which he replied, “The one downstairs where the twenty is still at the top!” Having said that he was the favourite and did go on to win the craziest knock out that was ever played in the league.