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34 economist suntribune sports recreation thursday may 9 2002 dart technology advancing in leaps bounds player says from page 33 seems reasonable as one theory suggests offduty archers and soldiers in the middle ages passed downtime by throwing arrows into the side of ale kegs while knocking back a tall one eventually introducing a scoring sys tem rewarding the accuracy of throws and to keep things interesting if any of the many theories rooting the game in the middle ages are accepted then darts is indeed one of the older parlour games and despite some modifications the basic concept has remained constant no one is making apologies for the fact the sport is readily identifiable with the bar and pub crowd besides yet another theory puts the birthplace of the sport in british pubs of the 18th and 19th centuries no doubt as the meat and filler holding together barley sandwiches there is a lot of that but darts has really come up out of the basement conceded dressier its not just the poolhall setting any more youre see ing a lot families do it more frequently its a very sociable sport and one that is pretty easy to get the hang of quickly its the only sport in which you can go full out and not get hurt there is a certain mindset among darts peo ple it has its own little subculture its also a relatively inexpensive sport the beginner in many of us like ly recalls tossing a set of 5 darts at a paper or wooden board hanging on a basement wall judging by the briefcase of acces sories dressier has at the ready there are umpteen potential modifications that can be applied to a dart comprised of three or four separate pieces an optional flight protector flight the shaft and the barrel which is the business end of the dart most modifications are related to feel and touch by individual players and related to trajectory flight patterns shafts and throwing technique like golf dart technology has shot forth in leaps and bounds said dressier aurora resident gary glidden authored 180 tips for the dart nut a pocketsized guide to the finer points of the sport based on his own experi ences i guess part of the attraction is that its pretty casual theres no dress code you definitely dont need to put on a collar says glidden a former ontario juniors champion who aimed his book four years ago toward the novice player its very inexpensive and you can walk into a bar and play without having to pay for 18 holes or anything like that after a bit of a fade in popularity in the 1980s darts is on the rebound again noted glidden there are more people coming back to it he said i wouldnt say its booming but it did have a real down turn for a while id say its healthy except maybe for that little brother of yours who managed to get the point ouch carry a la we grow rge selection of calibre trees fancy topiaries alrg0 election of perennials annuals garden centre lid open 7 days a week 2 convenient locations 9053844247 1 q7 47 bqyviev ave si corner bayyiew elgin mills richne hill 9056402020 4431 stourfvillerd s side between kennedy klmccawan stouffville triple mix deliveries same day service major mackenzie staff photosmike barrett staff writer anne howland kicks it up a notch with her instructors katie dewan left keady hartley and sarah nelson during a clogging lesson at the thornton arena clogging tests reporters relationship with feet from page 33 willing dance partners feeling as if id never walked upright on earth i slapped one foot clumsily on the floor then waved it foolishly in the air try ing to remember what to do next and with which of my five feet come on tell them how happy you are to be here i hissed mentally at my cracked and dirty running shoes doubletoe step and the basic its not hard look at joan flipflop hop and a stumble my feet were a foreign entity way down there on the floor discouraged i sensed the curi ous glances of ms beatons dozen or so students busy donning their jingling shoes and forming two parallel lines with gende pity ms beaton seated me went to the front of the room and asked her beginner class pig- tailed children sleek young women and jovial middleaged adults to take the floor clogging can be performed to any music with a strong beat even hip hop and technopop ms beatons first selection was a moderately paced country tune dancing individually although couples can clog the dancers let their feet fly upper bodies erect eyes smiling the noise was fan tastic as they turned slid stepped and stomped to the music as l puzzled over how ms beaton taught with her back to the class i tuned in to the strange words she was shouting through her headset mike samantha she boomed wow i guess she can see what theyre up to simone oops another one in trouble cottoneyed joe surely not outhouse this was getting weird you put on these shoes and you go bananas you turn into a different person turns out clogging has a vocabulary of thousands of steps cooked up by who knows who over the years with the damdest monikers often in honour of the creators dog or similar prized possession the steps combine to create a clog ging routine the class i was watching had mastered 20 to 25 steps since september and was being put through its paces as the music sped up into the pop tune never let you go waves of released stress were palpable as the dog gers came to a bigstomp finish you put on these shoes and you go bananas you turn into a different person breathed pat mcdonald of aurora who along with friend charlene ross of newmarket travels to thornton for continued therapy after swigging some water shedding a few layers and pumping up the air condition ing the class was back on its magical musical feet i knew things were serious when i heard the first strains of flashdances what a feeling the cardio rate soared the floor shook and the happiness quotient peaked ms beaton an 1 1 year clogging veteran sat and watched her wellrehearsed group with pride she also teach es intermediate students but said advanced clogging is reserved for the very young the only ones able to turn their feet into a living blur it would kill us she said halfjoking after 90 minutes the class was reaching its climax with a rousing rendition of old time rock n roll blasting the dog gers let er rip pulling out a mountain goat rocking chair turkey and any other steps theyd learned and some besides i couldnt stop grinning then i felt it way down there on the floor my toes tapped my legs twitched and my feet wanted nothing more than to jump up and join in even if they didnt speak the language what a feeling been there done that is a regular col umn highlighting the exploits of staff who try to keep up with experts in a wide variety of recreational activities