My Return

Morning all.

After a long lay off due to personal issues I am officially back and looking forward to 2012. Now I have been throwing again for about a month and am getting a little bit of form back.

On the 17th December I am entering a local open to see what I need to improve on before I hit 2012 running.

I will keep you updated

See you at the Oche!
El Gringo

Hard Graft Begins

OK so I have got some my form back now and am playing some nice darts.

Now I need to push forward and get my career going so the plan is simple. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

Im going to aim to do 3-4 hours per day every day. i want to work on my scoring and finishing as well as match practice.

My routine at home will be...

Session 1

1. Round the board on doubles
2. Finishes 50-100
3. 2 darts at treble 20 1 dart at a double (30 mins of this see what number I get to)
4. Finishes 100-120
5. 1 Game of 501 best of 11 against comp level 7

Session 2

1. 30 mins throwing at treble 20
2. 1000 points on 20s (if i hit a single 5 or 1 then my score goes to zero)
3. 30 mins of throwing two darts at 20 then my last dart at 19. (cover practice)
4. 1 Game of 701 best of 11 against comp level 7

Both sessions will start with a 15 min warm up.

I feel this will really improve my form and on top of this I will be playing league darts on a wednesday and superleague darts on a sunday on those days i will do a single session incorperating both scoring and finishing,..

Match Day Session.

1. Round the board on doubles
2. Finishes 60-120
3. 30 Mins throwing at treble twenty with my last dart at 19
4. 1 game of 501 best of 11 against level 7 comp.

I will keep you all updated to how this goes. This will start tommorrow and I will document my progress.

See you at the Oche!

 El Gringo

Here they are

Here they are guys my weapons of mass tungsten destruction lol...

These little beauties have got my form back in order and even allowed me to hit this little beauty of an out whilst my opponent was sat on 32...

All in all im very very happy with these darts.

See you at the oche

 El Gringo

Its finally over.

I am so happy at the moment its untrue.

Yesterday was actually the Winmau Professional County Playoffs not the Masters Playoffs.

I got there and there was a fantastic field most notable was Tony "The Lion" Randle. I started practicing and everything was flying in I was feeling confident and comfortable.

In my first game I met Neil Clarke and we had a great game I Hit a nice 128 to take the first and he took the 2nd with a nice 84 out I then took the next two legs to progress into the 2nd Round. I was so happy it was untrue My form was back and I was winning in a county competition.

In the 2nd round I met Paul Ramsden who was on fire. I gave him a decent game and managed to pinch a leg but his scoring was unbelievable hitting 3 180's and a 174 aswell as more 140s than i could count over the 4 legs we played he won 3-1 but I was so happy I was playing well.

Maybe next year the Lakeside will beckon my name
you at the Oche! El Gringo

Well Well Well

Could it be. I practiced today with the new set up and oh my god talk about complete change. I was Scoring well and Finishing well. Although Im only back to around 75% of what i know i can produce it still feels amazing.

Hit a few 180s and this cracker of a 108 with my opponent sitting on tops...

I have the Winmau World Masters County Playoffs tommorrow lets hope i throw as well then..



See you at the Oche!
 El Gringo

Could It be

Ok I fiddled about with my set up yesterday and have reverted back to my 26g darts that i first used. I did this to try and break the slump.

Well I threw today and they were flying straighter and better than my darts have been for a while. My scoring was better and i had some cracking finishes. I have locked all my other darts away and am going to play through this slump (which I hope is nearly over).

Ill post a pic of my new setup later.

See you at the Oche!

 El Gringo

My Intro

See you at the Oche! El Gringo

Well The Slump Continues

 Right last night saw my appearance in my usual Wednesday night leisure league. This is where I started playing competitively and all the lads in the league are great.

Now this league is a nice standard but one that I should dominate yet I have only won one game all season and last night was no exception it took 7-8 darts to hit a double to start then apart from a 140 I hit nothing with any conviction.

I really need to break this slump now and Im going to have a little tinker with my setup later and see if i can get back to the bare basics of the game and sort my form out. As the great Mr Taylor says form is temporary so I know i will bounce back just a case of putting things right

See you at the Oche!
 El Gringo

All Change.

Right received a parcel yesterday inside were my shiny new 21g Terry "the bull" Jenkins darts.

Now these are 3  grams lighter than I am used to and are smooth darts not at all grippy.

I have to say Im very impressed they are easy to throw and suit my throw to the ground. I had a busy day yesterday so only practiced for like 15 mins and managed to hit 2 180s so was pleased.

I look forward to getting a full session in with them today maybe this is the change that I needed to get my darts back on track.

See you at the Oche!
 El Gringo

Well its back to basics

Good Morning.

Well I have been in a slump for a while now so have decided to get back to basics to rectify this problem so for the rest of this week at least I will be doing the following on practice...

• 30 mins throwing at treble twenty, treble 19 and treble 18.
• Finishes 50-80
• Round the board on doubles
• 1 game of 501 against No1 level 5

This should hopefully get my confidence back and get my darts back on track.

See you at the Oche!

El Gringo

Last Nights Matchplay

Well what can i say last night had it all, Upsets, Classics, and a 9 Darter.

Well let me start at the begging with the Raging Bull vs The Bronzed Adonis. Steve played some excellent darts and although he managed to bust his 52 out he played steady and got the win. The Bull never really got going as Steve was formidable.

Next up was Van Da Voort vs Tabern. A very scrappy match where both Players struggled with form but Vincent rolled over the line a deserved winner.

Well what can I say about the Lewis vs Painter Game. Lewis played some great darts but painter was unbelievable unfortunatly he bottled three darts a tops to win the match and Ade took him to 9 all. It was then a scrap with Lewis pouncing on Painters poor finishing.

And Part vs Webster saw Parts first televised 9 Darter which was Immense and Webby found his form and deserved the win. Credit to Part though he never let up even when he was loosing heavily.

See yo at the Oche!

A couple of Highlights from Practice earlier

Right here is a couple of images from a warm up game with a friend earlier...

and I hit this while he was on dbl 16 a nice 80 after a poor first dart...

See you at the oche!

Back in action

Hi all

Well basically I'm going to get this blog up and running now and start posting regularly.

I lost in the first round of the international open but played well and had a fantastic weekend away with the wife so it was a great experience.

Recently I have been going through a slump but I am going to work harder and get back to basics until I get through this slump.

See you at the Oche.

El Gringo

Whats in a name

Right Guys the nickname "El Gringo" Comes from the fact that I have a handlebar moustache lol. Just kind of got stuck with it.

Anyway now for my practice routine...

• 5 Mins Warm Up
• 1 game of 501 best of 7 (against NO1 level 6)
• Round the board on doubles
• Outshots 80-100
• 1 Game of 501 best of 9 (against NO1 level 7)

This is what i will follow every night for the next two weeks.

Wish me Luck

Nathan "El Gringo" Clarke

Introduction

Right i have decided to blog my journey as I try to make it as a darts professional.

I have been playing darts seriously for about 3 years now and have greatly improved. I started off playing for a local pub on a Wednesday and quickly established myself as not only the top player in the team but one of the top players in the league.

Earlier this year I made the step up and started to play Super League Darts. The step up in quality was amazing and soon realised I had alot of work to do. I won my last game 3-0 after some heavy defeats but I felt I had always played well.

So I have decided that over the next 12-18 months I'm going to concentrate on darts and see how far I can get. So in two weeks I go to Brean Sands to play in the BDO International Open.

Im going to use the International Open as a benchmark of what I need to work on to make it. Then my aim is to play County A Darts so will concentrate on that goal.

All in all in practice I play well but get nervous against opponents so need to work on that aspect of the game. be prepared to see me at alot of local opens over the coming months as I work on my nerves.

Anyway this is it for my first post I will aim to post at least once a day and will be honest and open in all that I do.

Thanks for now

Nathan "El Gringo" Clarke