New identity for Chester Exiles dartists

By Chester City Exiles on Oct 20, 10 04:56 PM in

Gillingham, Bolton Wanderers, Southampton, Burnley, Exeter City - sound familiar? They are the teams coming between the Chester Exiles darts team and promotion to the next rung of the darting ladder.

Yes, the overlords of the darts league run by the Association of Provincial Football Supporters' Clubs in London, allowed the newly-named Chester Exiles darts team to keep their place in Division Three for season 2010-11, despite their new identity.

Of course, we'd already retained our home venue for the season - allowing us to play at The City Retreat pub, London. We thought about re-branding that as well, but the brewery owners wouldn't wear the idea of their hostelry being re-named The Retreat.

So it was a proud moment when we played our first home game of the season last night - allowing us to chalk CFC on the scoreboard, instead of CCFC.

Our first opponents were Gillingham and we marked the start of our season with a treble 20 first dart thrown by our own Steve Catherall. Our pride was almost fit to burst at that stage.

Unfortunately it was a slow decline from there, as our opponents reached an unassailable lead of six with five matches still to play. We perhaps let our concentration drop, with our 'catch-up' chat of "who had seen the six against Trafford; who was going to Lairds and how would we get tickets?" This is an exciting time to be a Chester fan, and who can blame us for being distracted?

It seemed a world away from Gillingham's talk of their forthcoming L2 match against Torquay. But we wouldn't swap it for anything.

We eventually lost 7 v 4, including the all-important final beer leg - where the losers buys the opponents a round of drinks. But we walked out of the City Retreat with our heads held high. We may be more than 200 miles from Chester, but we're all still on a buzz down here...