Never underestimate heart

I would like to thank the individual who wrote the column about randomly shooting well during less stressful situations.

My teammates and I entered our playoff match as a fifth place finisher and we competed against a second place team. The week before the playoff, we openly discussed the fact that we would show class to our opponent if we were to lose, and that we would return the following season, and strive for continuous improvement.

In a nutshell, we routed the opponent in 80 minutes, and as a team, we shot eight rating points above our team cap; although the opponent was complimentary towards our feat, their friends glared at us and shook their heads in disgust as I walked outdoors to phone in the result.

Now, I have two strong opinions to convey.

No. 1: Counting every round of darts thrown is a mistake. Once a game reaches an out, it is easy to become complacent. As a result, the game stretches out an extra four to five rounds, and the statistics drop drastically.

No. 2: The sense of entitlement attitude. Many higher-rated players feel taken whenever the lower-rated catch fire. The playoff system is similar to the NCAA basketball conference championships – if you win on this or that particular day, you go dancing! My teammates and I would have finished with two extra rating points apiece if we were to count the out rounds. Anyway, I have no apologies towards those who underestimate another team's heart when there is something on the line!

Grant Gilliam