Exiles back on the road

Sorry, but the Exiles failed to get revenge on Gillingham for last Saturday's 2-0 home victory at the Priestfield Stadium.

The venue for the latest Gills v Chester clash was the oche of the City Retreat pub in the City of London and it was our opening Exiles darts game of the season. Gillingham were the obvious favourites, after being relegated from Division Two last season and having chalked up a 10-1 result in their first match of the 2008-9 campaign.

The Exiles darters went on to mirror the performance of the City team at Priestfield, with a scoreline that belied their workrate. The result of the match was 9-2 - but it was a score that flattered the Gills.

Actually, although we did our best to concentrate on our arrows, some of us were paying way too much attention to our mobile phones as our darts tie coincided with the Chester v Brentford match.

So the night was not without some cheer for the Exiles - especially as we heard Gillingham were losing 2-0 to Lincoln by the time we were celebrating Ryan Lowe's first goal.

I don't know if it was this news that gave the Gills darts players the inspiration they needed to secure their win. But by the time we heard Chester were 3-0 up and (hallelujah!) Wrexham were out of the FA Cup, our darts game was already lost.

As we looked out on the snow that was sticking on the central London streets for the first October day in 74 years we started planning our Exiles outing to Exeter on Saturday. It's funny how one result can suddenly make people feel like embarking on 400-mile round trips. Count me in!