The new season of the South Kensington Academic Darts League (SKADL) got underway last night with the top three teams from last year playing each other in the opening match.
Last year's winning team and third place teams, the Holland Club and the Royal College of Music, have merged this year due to lack of players on each side to form a combined Holland Club/RCM team, who are now the red hot favourites to win SKADL this season.
In a thrilling match, however, they were pushed all the way by a valiant performance from the RCSA side including the first ever competitive score of 180 by a member of the Club. This was achieved at the start of one of the doubles games by Rob Park. The RCSA had many chances and took some of them such that at stages in the match they were 3-1 and 5-3 up with chances to win the match.
The HC/RCM team fought back well, however, and the final result was Holland Club/RCM 6 RCSA 5. Nevertheless, considering the heavy defeats that the RCSA suffered against the Holland Club last year, this was a dramatic improvement and the team can feel proud of its achievements.