the darts 'b' team by Colin s. drury

Colin Drury, a retired civil servant, was born in Bridgend and raised on licensed premises (which included ‘The Masons Arms’ (now demolished) in the Kenfig area of the town) and presumably he used that experience to bring some semblance of reality to his book The Darts ‘B’ Team.

Anyone who has played darts casually or in a friendly league will recognise members of the team that take centre oche in this book as people they have played with or against. Colin’s characters are a mishmash of oddities whose only task is to win one single match during the entire season to win a bet.  His story bends and weaves quite satisfactorily with the occasional hoary old joke thrown in for good (or perhaps bad) measure.

Sometimes I found myself wishing that the characters and the plot had been developed more (after all Colin has said that he started to write the book in 1964) and then he could have done away with the ‘Annexe – And for the Darts Anorak…’, which is more full of holes than a second-hand dartboard.

The trouble is that any number of anoraks (myself included) could point out any number or errors, perhaps the worst being that, according to Colin, ‘Rod McIntyre’ (aka ‘The Deadly Boomerang’) was a former ‘BDO World Champion’. No, Colin that was Tony David. Only the good Lord knows who McIntyre was/is.

But back to the story…

It’s a curate’s egg of a plot featuring a number of fascinating insights into local darts (including a hilarious outdoor aerobics session to improve the team’s fitness). As for the twist at the end … I should have seen it coming but (I have to admit it Colin) I didn’t.

The Darts ‘B’ Team has been ‘self-published’ by Colin through AuthorHouse UK Ltd., Milton Keynes and can be ordered via www.authorhouse.co.uk

Colin has informed me that The Darts ‘B’ Team is his first and last book…

Patrick Chaplin

© 2009 Patrick Chaplin

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