Darts & Cards
Category Life in Cape BretonAdmittedly if you are looking for night-time entertainment in the winter there is little to none to recommend in Cape Breton. Once tourist season is over, most of the hotels and restaurants close down and the few that extend their season are closed by the first of January. This time of year going out to dinner is pretty much limited to the couple of fast food restaurants and pubs in Port Hawkesbury, or an hour and a half drive to the Sydney area.
So what do Cape Bretoner's do for entertainment? There are of course the winter sports for either watching or participation, although this mild snowless winter has not presented many opportunities. While we have seen the ice fisherman out on the lake in droves at some particularly popular spots, the ice has only formed in our cove in the last week and I would be hesitant to go out on it yet. The prediction for the weekend is for temperatures again in the low 50s, so I suspect that the couple inches of snow we got last weekend will disappear and the cove will likely thaw. Gone are the days the old timers talk about when you could not only skate or ski across the lake, but drive cars and trucks 20 or 30 miles across to the other side of the lake on ice that was 4 or 5 feet thick.
There are three indoor activities that provide most Cape Bretoners with entertainment during these months. The first is the always popular "visiting" that will get a separate blog entry at some point, followed by weekly card games, and the darts league. Card games are a long standing tradition, they run year round, in our village every Friday night, and the dedicated can find a game within a half hour drive practically every night of the week. I tried cards a few times last year and found them not my cup of tea. The social part was certainly interesting, but the game of choice is called "45s" which I think is only played here and requires luck rather than skill to win. Each location has 10 or 12 tables set up for two teams of two players. Each table plays three games, and the winner then advances to the next table until 20 games have been played. At the end of the night prizes are awarded to the top 3 finishers and the bottom finisher. Adding to the popularity of the games is the growing pot of money that is accumulated each week from a portion of the entrance fee. At the end of the night a dozen of so numbers are pulled and if any team has won the corresponding games they get the pot. This is rarer occurrence than it first would appear, and most locations advertise the pot as somewhere in the $500-$1000 range. In an area where $15-$20 an hour is considered a good wage, there is a lot of appeal to winning this pot.
The other big draw between September and April is the local darts league. This is certainly more to my liking. Darts were a passing fancy during my boat building career many years ago, and while I hadn't picked up a dart in 25 years, I at least had a bit of experience before I joined. Most people's perception of darts involves a smoky bar and a couple of regulars taking a break from billiards to throw at a board hung on the wall in a dark corner. In Cape Breton, darts (and cards) are typically played at the community centers (which are the equivalent of the grange buildings in the states) and are equipped with 6 or 7 boards, long tables and electronic scoring systems. Each league consists of ten to twelve three player teams. Every week in round robin fashion two teams play each other a set of nine to twelve games of "501". Each team starts with 501 points and each score reduces the count down to an eventual zero to win. That in itself would be fairly easy, but the challenge is starting and finishing each game. In order for a team to begin scoring points, they have to "double in" by hitting one of the small outside bands on the outer edge of the dart board. Finishing is even more difficult since you have to "double out" with the exact score. So if your score has reached 32, you have to hit a double 16 to win. Of course if you hit the 8 when aiming at the double 16, your score is now 24 and you need to aim at the double 12 to win. Besides keeping score of which team wins each game, statistics are kept on each player and are carefully scrutinized each week to determine who has the highest per dart average score, the highest finish, the highest start etc. As far as I can tell it's all done by hand, so I expect to produce a computerized version in the off season. I'm already working on the algorithms to use to pick next year's teams for our local league as the objective is to have the teams as evenly matched as possible.
A couple of observations about the players and the game - while male players certainly outnumber female players, there is at least one female player on each team and several of the team captains are women. The age of the players varies widely, the youngest that I know of is 23 years old and the oldest player, a woman, is 85 years old (and one of the most consistent scorers). The one thing that most strikes me most about the games is the civility with which they are conducted. When I joined the league and showed up for the first game, I was prepared for plenty of good natured ribbing and "trash talk" which would have been the norm at similar activities in the US. I'm occasionally known for a sharp tongue so I approached the game with a whole repertoire of readily available quips but also a commitment to keep things in check as I realize that some people get hurt feeling over this activity and as the new guy I didn't want to ruffle any feathers. What I found was completely the opposite. There is a small amount of ribbing but never anything that could be construed in any way as mean spirited. In fact every player no matter how poorly they throw is encouraged. This happens each turn, and no one every comes back to the table after their turn with out being congratulated and encouraged by the other members of the team. Invariably a good throw elicits congratulations and hand slaps from members of both teams. When I have remarked on this behavior a few times I have received puzzled stares - it's pretty clear that no one thinks this is the least bit unusual and can't conceive of playing any other way. Did I mention that these are not "dry" events either. A good many of the players bring along a couple of beers or a pint of rum, and there is usually a good bit of alcohol and good cheer. While people take the games very seriously there is never a cross word and I have never seen or heard a player berated for poor performance. Quite a pleasant change!
The other big draw between September and April is the local darts league. This is certainly more to my liking. Darts were a passing fancy during my boat building career many years ago, and while I hadn't picked up a dart in 25 years, I at least had a bit of experience before I joined. Most people's perception of darts involves a smoky bar and a couple of regulars taking a break from billiards to throw at a board hung on the wall in a dark corner. In Cape Breton, darts (and cards) are typically played at the community centers (which are the equivalent of the grange buildings in the states) and are equipped with 6 or 7 boards, long tables and electronic scoring systems. Each league consists of ten to twelve three player teams. Every week in round robin fashion two teams play each other a set of nine to twelve games of "501". Each team starts with 501 points and each score reduces the count down to an eventual zero to win. That in itself would be fairly easy, but the challenge is starting and finishing each game. In order for a team to begin scoring points, they have to "double in" by hitting one of the small outside bands on the outer edge of the dart board. Finishing is even more difficult since you have to "double out" with the exact score. So if your score has reached 32, you have to hit a double 16 to win. Of course if you hit the 8 when aiming at the double 16, your score is now 24 and you need to aim at the double 12 to win. Besides keeping score of which team wins each game, statistics are kept on each player and are carefully scrutinized each week to determine who has the highest per dart average score, the highest finish, the highest start etc. As far as I can tell it's all done by hand, so I expect to produce a computerized version in the off season. I'm already working on the algorithms to use to pick next year's teams for our local league as the objective is to have the teams as evenly matched as possible.
A couple of observations about the players and the game - while male players certainly outnumber female players, there is at least one female player on each team and several of the team captains are women. The age of the players varies widely, the youngest that I know of is 23 years old and the oldest player, a woman, is 85 years old (and one of the most consistent scorers). The one thing that most strikes me most about the games is the civility with which they are conducted. When I joined the league and showed up for the first game, I was prepared for plenty of good natured ribbing and "trash talk" which would have been the norm at similar activities in the US. I'm occasionally known for a sharp tongue so I approached the game with a whole repertoire of readily available quips but also a commitment to keep things in check as I realize that some people get hurt feeling over this activity and as the new guy I didn't want to ruffle any feathers. What I found was completely the opposite. There is a small amount of ribbing but never anything that could be construed in any way as mean spirited. In fact every player no matter how poorly they throw is encouraged. This happens each turn, and no one every comes back to the table after their turn with out being congratulated and encouraged by the other members of the team. Invariably a good throw elicits congratulations and hand slaps from members of both teams. When I have remarked on this behavior a few times I have received puzzled stares - it's pretty clear that no one thinks this is the least bit unusual and can't conceive of playing any other way. Did I mention that these are not "dry" events either. A good many of the players bring along a couple of beers or a pint of rum, and there is usually a good bit of alcohol and good cheer. While people take the games very seriously there is never a cross word and I have never seen or heard a player berated for poor performance. Quite a pleasant change!