The Meetkats team was formed in 2014 by popular landlord Pete Waters at the Market Inn with refugee dart players (Paul Render, Paul Vallier and Scott Newsom) from the Rose Hill Tavern which had recently closed. A temporary dartboard was put up and having compared the Market to other drinking establishments, the Meetkats were born. The pub quickly became a popular venue for darts players with the dartboard magically appearing on Monday practice night, (yep, hard to believe) and Tuesday evenings and latterly Wednesdays for the mixed league.

In post-pandemic times, there’s been a change team personnel and with it, a change in the team’s plastic-ware fortunes. In May 2024 they finally secured that elusive top spot in division 1.

With Pete taking a break in 2024, the original line up has gone so the team is now largely a tribute act. News that the pub is to be sold and refurbished at the end of 2024 has left teams based there to find new homes.

XBCC

The XBCC team began life in the Brighton Cruising Club (BCC) based under the arches on Brighton seafront. A huge hike in rent led to the club closing its doors for the last time so the team had a meeting to discuss its future. The XBCC name was suggested by Eddie Cowell which he thought it was a stupid name and promptly voted against it. He lost the vote.

The XBCC reconvened at the Hove Gas club in Church Road and escaped just before it was levelled to make way for a Tesco’s superstore. The team moved onto various venues including the British Legion club on Brighton seafront, Ex Services club in St James’s Street and the Montpelier, the closures of which were purely coincidental and not the fault of the team. In 2014 the Market Inn became their final resting place.
At one stage, XBCC players included four brothers from the Newnham family (Steve, Doug, Kevin and Adrian) and following the folding of Elm Grove Labour club, three members of the Johnson family (Steve, Brian and Gary). The merging of these family dynasties began the golden period for the XBCC. I say golden period, they won the odd bit of plastic-ware.

The team became more of a social club with end of season dinners where awards were given and recycled unwanted raffles prizes from previous years were handed out to unlucky recipients. The team took regular European cultural trips, mostly to Belgium, and mostly to drink beer. A dart was famously never thrown.

The XBCC team threw their last dart in March 2020 when the pandemic hit. They went out on top having won division 1. Three players (Stuart McFarlane, Steve Newnham and Gary Williams) continued their darting adventure by joining the Meetkats. The final XBCC dream line up included Johnny Norman and the late, great Malcolm Page, who was still hitting 180s in that final 2019/2020 season. RIP Malcolm.