We are going to start in the area of scorekeeping. We will be goving over this section for a couple of weeks.

Let's start with Section 3.5. subsections 1 to 4 (for those keeping track at home).

B. Chalker’s Responsibilities

1) The chalker’s function is to keep score. Engaging in other activities while chalking is not allowed. Chalkers are to face the dartboard, keep movements to a minimum and be considerate of the thrower.

2) A chalker must not distract the player at the hockey. A chalker may not stare at the shooter, lean in to check the score between darts thrown, or speak without being requested to do so.

3) A chalker may not in any way advise the thrower on outs, shot choice or strategy. When asked, a chalker may advise the thrower as to points scored and points remaining only. Such information is not official and the player acts upon it at his/her own risk.

4) It is permissible for other players or spectators to advise the thrower, upon request, during the match.

There are a lot of complaints coming about in scorekeeper behavior lately.

When keeping score one shouldn't be moving more then needed that means no leaning, no turning around to look at the shooter, and no dancing (yes, we had a protest on this). Try not to take up items that will become a distraction like cell phones, pagers, Blackberries, etc. I know some people (me included) can't get thru chalking a game with out a beverage, limit your drinking to between turns.

Don't carry on conversation with shooters or other spectators.

One of the big ones item number 3. Do not tell the shooters what or how to shoot. And, you can announce what is scored and what remains ONLY when asked.

Not to over simplify, but basically it boils down to what we were all taught as kids... stand still and only speak when spoken to.

We'll continue our discussion of Chalking with Section 3.C. subsections 1 to 5

3.C. Scoring the Throw

1) To score, a dart must remain in the dartboard for 5 seconds after the player’s last dart has been thrown.

2) The point of the dart must be in contact with the bristle portion of the dartboard in order to score.

3) In “-01”, scores thrown are listed in the inner columns, scores remaining in the outer columns. In Cricket the number of hits registered are recorded in the inner columns next to the relevant number, points scored in the outer columns.

4) The thrower must verify the score with the chalker before removing their darts from the dartboard. If any darts are removed and a disagreement arises as to score, the chalker’s decision must stand. Darts may not be touched by anyone (including the chalker) prior to the chalker’s decision as to score.

5) In “01” games, arithmetical errors in a team’s/player’s score must stand as written unless corrected before that team’s/player’s next throw begins. In “cricket”, any errors must stand as written unless corrected before the opponent’s next throw begins. In the interest of sportsmanship, errors found later in the game may be corrected by agreement of the captains.

Most of this is pretty straight forward. There are few common errors by chalkers here.

When 01 scores are written, they should not be in one column look like one big ongoing subtraction problem.

Chalkers shouldn't touch the darts in play ever.

Fortunately, we are all pretty good about making allowences for correcting scorekeeper errors.

The rule I have decided to hightlight next has to do with

adding players to one's team. I always get a lot of questions of people

asking how they can add a player, when does the added player become

eligible, or why do I have to mail in an add? Here is what Section 2.A.1-4

in the rules say:

A. Adding New Players to a Roster (new players may not be added after Week

11)

1) The team captain must mail notice to the GVDA post office box giving the

new player’s full name, address and phone number together with full payment

of dues (if necessary). It is the captain’s responsibility to make sure the

league receives the notice.

2) The postmark date on this notice determines eligibility. Postage meter

dates are not acceptable. If no postmark exists, eligibility will be

determined from the date the notice was received by the league.

3) New players become eligible one week (7 days) after the postmark date.

No exceptions will be made.

4) No players may be added after Week 11 or transfer after week 9. Summer

rosters are frozen after Week 4.

Let's start with mailing the notice. In the sign-up packet every year the

captains get a sheet of drop/add forms with three copies of the form to add

or drop players with on it. This sheet is also on the website in the

documents section. Simple form to fill out, but I have gotten adds written

on cocktail napkins.

The postmark is the key. We don't add players by phone, email, face to face

conversation, or fax. We need to have the postmark. No postmark = no date of

eligibility.

Making sure you have the add postmarked a week before you need to play the

person you adding is your best bet. With several post offices in the area

offering later hours, you can usually get something postmarked as late

9:00pm on a tuesday if you want.

I know we were discussing membership rules, but with the Antonnetta's issue

I thought we should take a moment to look over those rules.

Rule 5.C.6 says...

Any team forfeiting 2 consecutive matches or 3 matches in a season is

dropped from the league and replaced with a bye. All matches played by the

dropped team are removed from the standings. If a team is dropped or quits

the league after midseason only matches played after midseason are removed.

Pretty straight forward rule, not much to mess with here. In Antonnetta's

case we could have bounced them in week 5, but as board we really don't like

bye weeks and we tried to give them every chance to contact us for help,

alas they failed to respond. If you are having problems getting your team to

matches, don't be afraid to call us for help.

We are going to look at the big one that we

have had a rash of violations of lately.

Section 7. Reporting results

A. Calling In the Score

1)Failure to report the score within the time period specified by the Board

will result in the loss of all points for the week.

2)Captains are responsible for calling in only their own team’s score by

division, team name and number and points won.

3)In the case of a forfeited match, please report the result as “8 points

won by forfeit” or “10 points won by forfeit.” (Metro)

There have been a number of teams not calling their scores in and some of

them have been big wins. Please remember to call in your score. Even as

scorekeeper I have to phone in my score everyweek. If you aren't on the

tape - you don't get points.

If you think you called in and didn't get points, call us and let us know.

We can track every incoming call we get now. We'll look it up for you.

If you aren't calling in an effort to tank your season results to move to a

lower division next season, forget it. We look at the unreported points too.

PLEASE MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO CALL YOUR SCORE IN BY 7:00PM ON WEDNESDAY!!

Playoff Seeding, Tie Breakers and who gets to play at home...

Section 3 - Division champions, playoffs & special scheduling

A. Season Champions:

1) The team accumulating the most points during the regular season takes 1st place in their division. The team accumulating the second most

points takes 2nd place, etc. The top four teams advance to the playoffs, 4th playing at 1st, 3rd playing at 2nd. The winners meet in a final

match at the home of the higher-placed team.

B. Ties

1) If 2 teams tie for a playoff position the tie is broken as follows: a) the better head-to-head record between the tied teams; b) the better

home record of the tied teams; c) winner of a match

2) If 3 teams tie for a playoff position the tie is broken as follows: a) the best head-to-head record among the tied teams; b) the best home

record among the tied teams; c) match play (team 1 v team 2, team 2 v team 3, & team 3 v team 1) with the team winning the most points

taking the position, second most points the next position, etc.

3) If 4 teams tie for a playoff position the tie is broken as follows: a) the best head-to-head record among the tied teams; b) the best home

record among the tied teams; c) match play (team 1 v team 2 & team 3 v team 4), the winners to play for top 2 spots, losers play for next 2

spots.

4) The scheduling of tie-breaking matches will be determined by the GVDA.

There isn't much to this, but there are some minor issues to discuss. When we look at head to head records and home records, this were failing to call in points during the season really bite you in the butt. Say two teams are tied, they split evenly during the season, so their head to head records are tied, but one team forgot to call in the score from a home match, they will more than likely lose that playoff spot because of it.

When it comes to scheduling tie-breaker matches , we really like to have those done over the weekend between the season and playoffs, so everybody can know where they need for Tuesday by Monday evening.

Now, for those of you in taverns with two teams, but only one board and both teams qualify for home playoff matches. There is no written rule to govern this, but the guideline the Board uses to handle this is the team that has been at the bar the longest and continuous time gets the home field. Here are a couple of examples.

You have a metro team that has been playing out a tavern for a year, but the same tavern has a 2A team that has been playing there for 4 years. The 2A will get home field.

-Or-

You have a team that takes every other season off. They will lose out to a team that plays every season.

There is also a way around this. We have had teams who after a couple of times getting caught up in this mess just started alternating each year who got home field. This is fine by us too. Just let us when you phone in your scores for the last week of the season. 

This one goes out by special request, but the match that generated this

request wasn't the only match the problem came up in this week. This all

about what happens once the names of the players have been put up.

Section 5.D.4 states:

4) Once the players’ names have been exchanged, no substitutions are

permitted and no other players may use the matchboard.

In two different matches this week, a team has changed their mind about who

was going to be shooting a game. For one team the decision was made by the

captain who was unaware his player had to leave. I can let that one go (as a

matter of fact I did, because it happened in my match). The other match is

where the serious problems happened. The captain of the home team wasn't

around, one of the members of his team announced who was playing. The

visiting team put their player. The shooters proceeded to warm up and the

visiting player shot for cork. At this time, the home captain came in and

changed up he had playing the match.

The moral of the story folks? A - Captains, you can't change the name of the

shooter so get it right the first time. B - If you are going to act for your

captain and name a shooter, make sure you get it right. C - If someone other

And since it has been a little while I going to pitch a double header on the

Rule of the Week,

The first one goes out by request.

It was called into question whether or not a player can practice on another

board while shooting a match. The answer according to the rule book is a

very clear "YES".

Rule 5.D.4 states:

Once the players’ names have been exchanged, no substitutions are permitted

and no other players may use the matchboard. Only 9 warm-up darts are

allowed to each player. Practice on other boards before during and after the

game is permitted as long as it is not a distraction).

So basically, as long as you aren't making a pest of yourself you can shoot

the match on one board and practice to your hearts content on another. If

the opposing player finds it distracting please stop.

Ok, on to the second one.

This comes out of midseasons. There was an issue with a player during his

turn stepping across the line after his first dart to see what was scored.

The opposing player said since he carried his other darts across the line

his turn was over.

Here is what the rules say.

Rule 4.A.2 - Any dart that leaves either of the player’s hands and touches

any part of the playing area beyond the hockey (i.e., between the hockey and

the dartboard) is considered thrown. Darts which touch the floor behind or

land straddling the hockey are considered dropped and may be

picked up and thrown during that player’s turn (a dart bouncing off or

falling out of the dartboard cannot be rethrown).

Rule 4.A.3 - Any dart that bounces back off the board, backer, wall,

chalker, or any anything beyond the hockey cannot be caught and rethrown.

Since the darts were neither thrown nor dropped over the line, and since the

player had no intention of throwing them from an illegal position across the

line (please see my previous dissertation on that subject), the player

committed no foul. The player could have easily asked the chalker to tell

him what was scored and saved themselves a lot of unnecessary movement, but

still it was legal.