Cricket: The Book of Tony

As I prepared to write an in-depth article about the game of cricket, I thought it would be the opportune time to reread the seminal written work on the game. It is interesting to think about it this way, but Tony Payne’s Thermonuclear Cricket series from the original printed Bull's-Eye News periodical was foundational. It was really the first time a top American player had put pen to paper in a mass-produced, instructional way. The writing is clear with a conversational yet educated voice that makes the work very approachable.

I had read most of Tony's cricket articles along my darts journey. I have been playing long enough that I experienced it in print, but I also had friends copy and scan a few of them over the years and pass them around electronically. Alas, when I searched my hard drive they were gone. The realization overcame me that I had lost them in an old computer. 

In my head I said, “No sweat, I’ll just find them online.” To my surprise, Bull's-Eye News no longer had any presence – online or otherwise. In doing a Google search, I found a bunch of broken links on Reddit that used to connect to digital copies of a handful of the Thermonuclear Cricket articles. No more. Besides that, there were mentions of the articles on Tony’s Wikipedia page and a few brief mentions of the series on other websites, but that was it. I grew curious. 

How could such a good piece of instructional writing be so hard to find? I started reaching out across the country to people I know and respect as fans, collectors, historians, organizers, and players to see who might have the actual issues of the cricket articles. Source after source, I started to put pieces of the story and puzzle together. This was more involved and far more interesting than I could have imagined.

Here are a few facts:

I decided to find my way to the author himself and to my delight, after reaching out via common friends, he was happy to talk to me.

For those unfamiliar with Tony Payne, he was a top American darts player from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s, appearing in seven BDO World Championships and one PDC World Championship. There aren’t many American players around who got to square off against Phil Taylor and Eric Bristow. Tony is one of them.

The following is not a reprint of his original works. It is a digest of my conversation with him and an homage to his willingness to share, with some distilled thoughts of my own on cricket strategy.

“I started playing darts in Bowling Green – rough community – bars with bikers. Part of how I started thinking about playing some of these guys was in finding a way to point them without them getting bent out of shape. They never minded pointing me,” Tony told me.

Interesting. Tough guys in rough bars getting bothered by getting pointed. (Some things never change.) Thermonuclear Cricket prescribes getting the most value for your darts while advancing the game when you can. Imagine that. The strategy was seemingly born out of the desire to misdirect players by pointing them without exactly making them feel like they were getting pointed.

“Thermonuclear Cricket was not originally the title of the article. But after the first two, the title they had wasn’t working. In talking about it, I said, ‘I play like I'm gonna drop a thermonuclear explosion on that guy.’ And it stuck.”

“I always loved cricket because you must interact with your opponent in a way you don’t in 501."

“Something I learned from Bristow: ’get your opponent a little bit excited before you play’. And that’s what you can do during a match while playing cricket." 

How you approach a cricket leg can certainly get your opponent “excited” by one definition or another. 

If one would listen to the masses of newer cricket players trying to give a textbook description of how cricket is played (the rules/instructions), they would likely try to direct you to play the numbers in order, with or without chasing, from 20 down to the bull. Thermonuclear Cricket (a strategy) would be a way to learn how to win the game within the rules. Rules are maladaptive. Strategies can and should be adapted along the way. 

The great challenge for most players has been that the rules of the game are easy to understand and parroted by many. Strategies for winning are known by few and spoken by fewer. Too many players get stuck in thinking that the rules they were given were strict and complete. 

Depending on who first described the game to you, you might not have gotten a full enough picture. Sadly, those first impressions can get stuck in our minds as the way the game is played. In this regard, unlearning something old is just as important and must happen first before learning something new.

In an earlier Edge article, I spoke of the difference between cricket and 501 and the difference between a fight and a race… In a race (501), you simply have to cross the finish line before your opponent. In a fight (cricket), you have to defeat your opponent. That can be done in a few different ways, and they require fighting (points). Americans love cricket. Americans love conflict – or at least we are good at it. There are many ways to win a fight and many weapons to employ.

Cricket is an awesome game that is much more gilded to the stronger strategic player who is willing to fight. If you play in a bar where you get to choose the game to stay on the board and you are the weaker player, 501 is your safer bet to retain the board.

When I work with players on cricket, I ask them: Is your opponent (me) better, equal, or lesser than you? Then I ask them: how many points is enough of a lead to have? Like in any fight, there is risk involved. You must assess the risk situationally. I often guide players: WHEN IN DOUBT – POINT. 

For those unfamiliar with the term, chasing is used to describe shooting at a number that has already been closed ahead of you, whether with equal points or in a point deficit. This is where some less experienced players get stuck with the instructions versus strategy. The only players that successfully chase in cricket are much stronger players messing around with much weaker players because nothing is on the line. They are bored and wanting to give a sporting chance for the giggles. That is it. 

In other words, 95% of you have no reason to chase, ever. Just don’t do it. 

There have been too many players that have tried to argue that racing a game of cricket against a much stronger player is the only way to win, arguing that they would not be able to deal with as many R5 and R7 marks. I argue that the only way the lesser player has a chance in cricket is if the stronger player is having a bad day and the lesser player is having a good day. I have played these games and run the data. Many stronger players have. The lesser player wins when these games are drawn out and the stronger player is underperforming. 

Again, this is situational and these situations happen to the best of the best. No one can win them all but in cricket the stronger, smarter player prevails more often than not.

Unfortunately less resilient, less knowledgeable players will complain or get pouty somewhere along the way while getting beaten in cricket. Here are some things to remember:

A fair but incomplete comment I have heard a few times from readers of Thermonuclear Cricket is that it is “only for elite players”. Had you only read a few articles along the way, I can understand why one might think that. After all, Tony was an elite national player. But there were other shooters on his level who didn’t take the time to write down what they do for the sake of other players, and his target audience was not the players on his level. 

It might be more correct to say that some of the execution may be a few steps ahead of the new or lower level players, but his logic is quite sound. Why wouldn’t a player like to understand the high level ethos from a top player? He wasn’t writing it to keep it a secret. He didn’t hold on to his philosophy. He articulated it for all rather succinctly.

I am not a pious man, but I greatly respect all religious writings for having stood the test of time, especially before the printing press was invented. Many of these stories got passed on through word-of-mouth interpretations and sermonizing. I recognize that many of those that taught me cricket (directly and indirectly) were doing just that – sharing their own words or twist. That is how all great works carry on: through the proselytizing by those who believe in it.

Tony understood that not everyone was a true believer in his playing day. “The response the articles got was mostly positive, although not everyone agreed. Even a partner and I had a disagreement once, until he recognized we kept coming in the money.” The money was better back then too.

If Tony’s gift to us was the first written gospel of cricket, allow my sermon here to be my understanding and take, as I pass  on the knowledge of his work. As all teachers and preachers do, the imparting of the lesson is seldom verbatim. Much gets lost to time, colloquial meanings, interpretation, translation, revision/reprinting, and sadly transmutation. The great thing is, his writings are only figuratively buried in the Ark of Covenant – they can be found with some furtive sleuthing. 

I for one have found the Ark, but I wish not have my face burn off by opening the lid and inviting the wrath of copyright issues.

Tony said, “The Golden Age of darts (in America) in my opinion has been forgotten.” To an extent I agree, although I might argue more specifically that it can’t be remembered because it wasn’t well documented. Past the people who lived it, their stories left unrecorded get passed on as legendary folklorish happenings for a couple of generations before fading away. 

I refuse to let the great works of our predecessors to be laid to waste like they didn’t exist. (It is also why I print out all of my own articles, just in case someone wants to hit the “OFF” button on the internet one day.) If the stories and the literature of yesteryear are lost to the scrap heap in life’s logistics, the wisdom of our forerunners turns into new, hard luck lessons of future generations. I told Tony that my aim for the article was to ensure that his great work about the game of cricket did not die off.

I highly recommend you finding Tony's original series of Thermonuclear Cricket articles to continue your journey into learning cricket strategy.