This might have the feel of a diary entry at certain points. Having started to write about the Test series in Sri Lanka I can’t just leave you hanging. The thing is I have also been challenged to write about darts so I will attempt to rise to that challenge. The Test series concluded on the same day that darts had one of its more newsworthy days so it made some sort of sense to combine the two.
To Kandy first where England predictably wrapped up the second Test and therefore the three-match series. They started the final day needing three more wickets while the hosts required 75 runs to pull off a win that would have squared the series at 1-1. That figure had been reduced to 61 when Niroshan Dickwella edged Moeen Ali to Ben Stokes but by the time skipper Suranga Lakmal was bowled for a fat one by the Worcestershire man the jig was up. Victory was confirmed when Jack Leach caught Malinda Pushpakumara off his own bowling for just one. England’s 57-run triumph secured a first series win in Sri Lanka for 17 years, which I guess is the cricketing equivalent of pointing out that it’s been a while since Manchester United beat Brentford. There are bogey grounds and then there are places that you just don’t visit all that often.
One place that seldom occupies the sporting spotlight is Wolverhampton, but it to the midlands that we go for all the drama from the arrows. The city is the venue for this week’s Grand Slam of Darts, a tournament unique in the sport for having entrants from both the BDO (British Darts Organisation) and the PDC (Professional Darts Coporation). The sport has been split since the mid-90’s when the thought occurred to some of the better players that they could make a lot more dough away from the confines of the then ailing BDO. Darts had enjoyed a boom in the late 70s early 80s but was on the wane to the point where only the World Championships made it on to the television. It was struggling to put its beer and fags reputation behind it, an image not helped by a certain Smith & Jones sketch. In stepped Sky to fund a whole host of tournaments around the darting world and the sport was reborn.
The BDO plods on but it’s mostly a breeding ground for new PDC talent. Those who show their quality in the former regularly end up in the latter. Both organisations have their own version of the World Championship which is great for darts geeks who can watch the PDC bash over Christmas and then pore over the frankly inferior BDO version in the New Year. Yet for the Grand Slam they come together annually, almost as if the PDC wants its regular opportunity to prove its superiority. The only BDO player to win the Grand Slam of Darts is Scott Waites who did so in 2010 beating James Wade in the final, though there has been a representative in the last eight on nine occasions since the tournament began in 2007. This year Michael Unterbuchner saw off Wade to reach that stage but there the German was unceremoniously dumped out 16-6 by Flying Scotsman Gary Anderson.
Anderson has won pretty much everything in the PDC including two world titles, a UK Open, a World Matchplay and a Champions League of Darts but the Grand Slam still evades him. Having despatched darting behemoth Michael Van Gerwen in the semi-final here this was perhaps his greatest opportunity yet, but he was beaten by Welshman Gerwen Price in a controversial final. Price was booed as he received the trophy following altercations between the two players during the match. Anderson reacted grumpily to Price’s penchant for a roaring, posturing celebration at the end of a winning leg, at one point nudging Price out of the way as he stepped up to the oche. There have also been suggestions that Price was making noises in an attempt to put Anderson off during his throw. Price’s wind-up techniques are clearly part of his all-around game-plan and he makes no apology for them. All of which should ramp up the tension when the PDC World Championship gets under way in December.
Having said that neither man will be the favourite at Ally Pally (Alexandra Palace). Van Gerwen won the last three Grand Slam titles before this year’s event and is twice a World Champion. He has 29 PDC titles to his name and one World Masters from his time with the BDO. The Dutchman is an imposing figure with a touch of the George Dawes about him, screwing his face up and punching the air with every winning dart he throws. And there are plenty of those. Nicknamed ‘Mighty Mike’, the 29-year-old will be difficult to beat.
From the Flying Scotsman to Mighty Mike the nicknames are all part of the marketing wizardry which has catapulted darts back into the limelight. Along with the monikers each player has their own walk-on music which is belted out as they walk into the arena like boxers before a title bout. They were accompanied by a couple of walk-on girls until recently when the practice of attractive women marching alongside the players was ditched among cries of sexism and well, just generally not fitting in with what is acceptable in 2018. Formula One followed suit, proving if nothing else that darts is a sport which has influence outside of its own bubble.
The problem with darts for this writer, and what limits my interest to the World Championships and tournaments like the Grand Slam of Darts which happen to coincide with a period when I am off sick from work and unable to sleep very well, is the accompanying atmosphere. Though the players have had the pints of lager whisked from their tables since those heady days of Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson et al 30 years or more ago, the fans still neck the sauce by the bucketful. There is nothing wrong with having a pint at the game so to speak. I continue to be baffled by football fans’ inability to enjoy an alcoholic beverage without the threat of the seats being torn out and flung across the field. But in darts a few scoops leads to some of the most tedious chanting, sign-writing and general ‘look-at-me-I’m-a-bell’ behaviour in society. It is all I can do not to switch off a match, no matter how thrilling, how gladiatorial, when I hear the intoxicated hordes break into a rendition of ‘boring, boring table’ or ‘stand up if you love the darts’. Darts fans must be the most witless live attendees of any major sporting event.
Perhaps if the chants were more original and the signs less hackneyed I’d be more inclined to watch more often. Oh and the fancy dress. Enough with the fancy dress. The very last refuge of the witless. Yet I am in the minority with this view and there is no sign of darts’ current popularity sliding as it did so dramatically pre-Sky and the PDC. The formula works, so much so that many rugby league enthusiasts want the man behind it all, Eddie Hearn, to introduce similar marketing efforts to the game. I have always been against this idea not least because I can’t stomach the site of the self-satisfied Hearn but also because I reject the idea that only one man in the world is capable of adequately marketing a sport as good as rugby league. If he ever did get his hands on rugby league I would hope that Hearn would have the good sense to market it differently. I do not want to see Saints walking out to ‘Hi-Ho Silver’ or for lulls in the action on the field to be ‘livened up’ with outbreaks of the Kolo/Yaya Toure song from the terraces. I can just about handle Golden Point, but when the chanting goes that far downhill I’m done.
I digress. The draw for the PDC World Championships takes place on November 26 with the action getting under way on December 13. All live of course on professional sport bankroller and occasional broadcaster Sky Sports. The final is on New Year’s night. For all its faults it has become part of Christmas for me and many others. The Grand Slam, complete with its girly spats and shock result, has done nothing to dampen the enthusiasm it will generate.
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