DARTS NEWS - SEASON 1990/1991
THE SULSESC darts team was formed in 1990 when we joined forces with Aberdeen London Supporters’ Club to enter the APFSCIL eight-a-side league.
The idea of a combined team was mooted because neither ourselves, nor Aberdeen, were confident of scraping together eight players on a regular basis to fulfil a full season of league fixtures.
A plan was hatched for both clubs to provide four players each for the team to test the water and see how things went – and so the ‘Scabbies’, as the team was nicknamed, came into being.
The first-ever match was a home game against Blackburn Rovers, which was played in The Wheatsheaf in Rathbone Place. Inevitably, it resulted in a 6-7 defeat.
Our first win was not long in coming, however, as just over a fortnight later we travelled to the Greyhound in Victoria and opened our account with an 8-5 win over Carlisle United.
Hopes of a first-ever home win were dashed by Ipswich in The Wheatsheaf on November 13, the last match played there before a switch of venue to what became our traditional home for many years thereafter, the Bricklayers Arms in Gresse Street.
The first home match played in the Brickies was a 4-9 defeat at the hands of Middlesbrough and it was not until the final match of the season against Carlisle that a home win was eventually recorded – at the fifth attempt!
Steve Sumner and Ian Young were both ever-presents in the inaugural season, while Chris Vaughan topped the averages on 51.60, the only player to get over the 50-point mark.
Young was comfortably the team’s best finisher, with 19 winning doubles, but Andy Skeels recorded the highest check-out of 101.