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Some Funny Knock Outs.

The one league that I play in has been run under the present league secretary for some years now, but he still comes up with new ideas to keep the occasional Charity type Knock Outs a bit of fun.

Earlier in the year he sounded out the league with an idea for a “Fun,” way to play a competition, suggesting that a knock out could be run where players play with their opponents darts instead of their own. Initially the idea sounded great, but then upon reflection my thoughts were that players would have several ways to “Cheat,” Firstly they could put broken, or loose stems in their darts before the match. Likewise flights could be tampered with and loose points could make darts impossible for their opponents to play with. For the more inventive they could turn up with a set of “Miniature,” darts that I have seen players messing about with in the past. Having played with these extremely lightweight, 3 inch long darts many years in the past I know that they are ridiculously hard to throw and if you do, you can barely see them in the board as they are that small. One or two players have sets of  “6 inch nail,” darts that you can buy, which again are difficult to throw. Over 30 years ago I threw real 6 inch nails without any flights at all and if I turned up with those I would be guaranteed to win, because whatever darts my opponent swapped with me I would have to play better with theirs, than they would with my nails! After these and more comments had found their way back to the League Secretary the idea was quietly dropped, or so we all thought until the end of the season.

A Knock Out was to be held and players turned up not knowing it was to be anything out of the ordinary with nobody really sure what the format was going to be as usual. The Secretary called for players to register and announced the format – Players to play with their opponents darts. Keeping the format quiet until the night meant that nobody really had chance to sabotage their own darts and cheat which resulted in a great nights darts that produced some fun games and astounding playing given the circumstances. After all every player insists that they can only play with their own darts that have to be just so. Admittedly some players really struggled to even get them on the board at times, but then other players quickly got used to their opponents darts after a warm up and then played as if it was a normal game

Some years ago the same League Secretary came up with another crazy idea for a Knock Out in which games were played on boards that were turned upside down! See Link To Article.

He hasn’t arranged any really crazy team Knock Outs, but a regular team Knock Out with a difference was introduced to the league a few years ago and that involved a Handicap system. The Knock Out is played at the end of the season after the final league places have been settled and the teams all know their positions. The team in top position starts on 501 as normal, but with the team in second place every player has a 20 point head start. The players in the team ranked third start with a 40 point lead from 461 and so it goes on down the table to the bottom placed team who have a very good handicap start! Teams and players keep their handicaps, regardless of which teams they play, all throughout the competition. This is one Knock Out where the bottom placed teams usually do very well with the top teams struggling against their opponents and their (up to) 300 points start!

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