After a several-month hiatus following the board being out of commission (see this post) Sam and I returned to the Post Office Tavern to check the board’s status. We were delighted to see a shiny new cupboard with a brand new board in it. This was a much needed upgrade, the old board was definitely worse for wear, with the central part of the spider not even touching the sisal and some quite wonky looking arms. Darts being back on the menu in the Post Office Tavern is a huge boon as it’s a great pub. Not least because it serves Bass, gravity poured from the cask in a room behind the bar.

The new board is a Harrows Official Competition. This is an entry level board which can be picked up quite cheaply. However, it felt great to play on, with darts landing with satisfying thuds. The only issue is the thicker wires and addition of staples compared to a bladed board. Bounce outs were a theme of the evening, however, I think the beds are less obstructed than the board John Lowe hit the first televised 9-darter on so no excuses. The new cupboard is also nice, made of something sturdier than the usual chipboard that’s not far off cardboard. However, it made a loud bang if you were unlucky enough to miss the board when aiming at a double, which happens more often than I’d like to admit. The public shaming of everyone knowing you missed the board is quite a good feedback mechanism for improving your aim. Some of the numbers are hard to see where they overlap with the bold Harrows text. I’ve played enough darts that I can switch to aiming at a number without thinking about it, but it could be annoying for very casual players having a game of round the clock. As we are fairly regular visitors to the Post Office Tavern it will be interesting to see how the board wears over time, although I’m not sure how much use it gets. I’ve only bumped into one other group of players in more than 10 visits.

The oche does leave something to be desired. It was previously a complete strip of tape. However, at some point in the hiatus between boards this was largely removed from the floor, leaving only a small patch to align to. Also, on measuring it was ~10cm too long, but I think that’s close enough. The low ceiling is harder to fix. For someone as small as me it’s not really a problem, even with my looping throw. However, taller players could be put off by fears of clipping the ceiling when aiming at tops. You also have to throw between a pair of rotatable ceiling lights, which were clipped a few times by errant darts. The oche is in the back end of the pub, which is normally empty compared to the frequently full main section. This is handy, both because it’s less embarrassing to spend hours in the madhouse and because it leaves enough room to manoeuvre, at least when there are only two of you.

For scoring there are chalkboards on the cupboard doors. We only had one game using old-school chalking as we were mostly testing Sam’s web-app developed specifically for our scoring needs, the official Orange Lad Pocket Scoreboard™. This proved to be exactly what we were after when alternatives aren’t available, with only a few minor UI improvements to be made. The one game we had on the chalkboard was a game of doubles against some lads who fancied a quick throw. It was a very average game until one of them checked out 95 with T19 D19, which I don’t think any of us expected but I had to take my hat off to him.

Speaking of remarkable checkouts, I had to include Sam’s finest moment on any dartboard, checking out 69 on the bull on the previous board in the Post Office Tavern. I am incredibly happy that there is a dartboard back in action there, and I want to give it a higher rating than it’s got because I love playing there so much. However, to retain my reviewing integrity, I have to admit that it’s not a perfect set-up, even though I wouldn’t change a thing. Even the wire board lends it an old-school feel that I enjoy.