Darts at the Brooke
For the past six years, a certain section of the membership (misspent youth?) at Carisbrooke Tennis Club has been grabbed by the darts bug.
After an increasing number of social practice sessions blossomed into a small cottage darts industry at The Brooke, a dozen or so members decided to take the plunge and enter league play in 2013/14 – and the Carisbrooke Aces were born.
Not just a tennis club with a bar
With nicknames such as The Postman, Air Miles (three-time club champ), The Tower, and Tilt, they have really got into the PDC spirit of things and the sound of tungsten on sisal fibres is now a common noise at Carisbrooke.
Our tennis club’s team plays in the Leicester city-based Friday Nights Darts league, as chronicled in the excellent 50 Years of Friday Night Darts book by author David Kirby in 2013.
After a finding-their-feet initial season in 2013/14, the Aces managed a creditable third-place finish in the Friday league in 2014/15, their highest finish to date.
Last season (2016/17) saw the club earn their first silverware, with a runners-up finish in the Derek Tate Trophy cup competition.
Club Champs
The first three years of the club’s annual tournament saw an American Revolution in the ranks of Carisbrooke’s darts squad.
Terrific tungsten thrower Eden Moe, from near Boston, MA, has proved time and again why the Bruce Springsteen classic Born in the USA is the team’s unofficial anthem after winning the Aces’ club tournament three times in succession since it debuted in 2013/14.
The Tony Jessop Trophy – named in honour of Carisbrooke darts stalwart Paul Jessop’s late father, Tony, who was a keen arrowsman – has now become a regular fixture during the turn of the year at The Brooke. It spans December and January, much like the big PDC world championships, but all similarities end there.
Handy note to our Friday night darts opponents
For the Aces’ opponents, here’s a handy map (below) for finding the club – we play our matches in the clubhouse which can be found by following the footpath around the strange bubble-like structure at the front of the car park. We have a very reasonably-priced licensed bar and plenty of room for all those WAG darts supporters.
