The Royal British Legion have a very active and successful darts team headed up by Paul Brett. The team competes in the Stowmarket & District winter darts league and the matches take place on Thursday nights from September through to May. The minimum number of players required for the league is 7 and the team are lucky enough to have 14 signed on for this season.

The current team was started in 2012 following on from a team that had been in the RBL for a number of years. From the original team there are 2 members who are still playing - the Captain, Paul Brett and the Vice-Captain, Rick Hearn.  The following season Paul's son, Oli Brett and Jamie Mayhew joined and both still play for the team. The following members soon joined - Jon Aves, Matt and Aaron Gould, Joel Bamsey (better known as Taff), plus Duncan & Craig Pettit and together they became a formidable squad. At that point the team had 3 father and son combinations which always made for great team camaraderie.

Last season they had 2 new players join the squad - Paul Woods and Kevin Leathers.  These 2 guys made a significant difference and the team had their best season ever - Division 2 runners up, winning promotion to the First Division and winners of the Division 2 Doubles competition plus runners up in 2 other competitions.  Paul also had a great season defending and retaining his Division 2 Captain’s trophy. The trophies they have won are on display on the top shelf behind the Legions bar - it’s quite a collection.

For the current season the team have recruited another 3 players - Paul Wade and his Partner Fiona Payne, plus the new bar steward, Wayne, who plays for them during home games.

This season in the top flight has not been easy for the squad as the step up in quality of players in Division 1 is significant. Added to that work and family commitments for some of the players have resulted in the squad not being able to field their strongest team on a weekly basis. They realise that they have some work to do to remain in the top flight next season, however, their position is not as precarious as some of the teams in the Division and they are determined to do everything they can.

The picture above shows last year’s team with their haul of trophies, from the left – J. Bamsey, R. Hearn, P. Brett, O. Brett,

J. Aves and J. Mayhew

COME TO THE CLUB AND SUPPORT THE TEAM AND IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PLAYING COME ALONG AND SPEAK TO PAUL