Back to the Divide

There is a massive divide between the standard of play from the PDC players to the BDO players, most of us accept that. The top players from the BDO can compete with most of the players from the PDC, but most players from the PDC can't cope with the top players either. When players leave the BDO to join the PDC they usually do themselves justice, this doesn't always mean they have a chance of winning the PDC World Championship.
When Mervyn King moved to the PDC nobody predicted he would win their World Championship and he hasn't. He does well and earns a good living but he won't win it. When Raymond van Barneveld moved across we all knew his class - he was expected to win it and he has.
The 2 biggest moves this year were Ted Hankey moving back to the BDO and Stephen Bunting moving to the PDC.
Ted coming back was not much of a shock as he used to be one of the best in the BDO but was never near the top with the PDC. Ted wants to win so gave up with the PDC. It will be interesting to see how gets on.
Stephen is a great player and quite young, he has a chance to make it in the PDC.

Is it right to move freely between the two sides? I don't think so.Ted decides he won't win anything with the PDC so is allowed back into the BDO system. There should be an 18 month period where he can't enter major competitions. He should try to get back in through the county system to prove he is back for the BDO not just himself.
The way Stephen moved makes a mockery of the whole sport of darts. He won the BDO World Championship and then moved across to the PDC, leaving the BDO without a World Champion. I bet Barry Hearn loved that - he is the winner, darts is the loser.

Any player who enters either World Championship should sign a contract to stay with that side for 12 months.

We all love watching the Darts on Sky. Sky and the PDC made the sport interesting to lots of new fans, flashing lights, fireworks and commentators with personality along with usually excellent darts. The BDO competitions on Eurosport and especially the BBC are awful to watch for ardent darts fans like myself. There are some good games but many more awful ones backed up with mundane commentary. The one advantage the BDO has is they have a Women's World Championship but they cock that up by only showing it begrudgingly and not much of it.

Until the sides make up and become one darts will remain a laughing stock. It should be run like football with the best teams getting promoted to the Premier Division and teams automatically getting relegated. The top plays move to the PDC and the underperforming players relegated back down to the BDO. All could then enter one World Championship. This would stop the situation we have now where the PDC have 2 World Champions and the the BDO none

One world championship is over, the other is in full swing

PDC Champion - Michael van Gerwin.

Once Phil Taylor was knocked out, many darts fans, myself included said the tournament was over - MVG was the champion. I put it on Facebook the next morning. MVG is currently playing the best, most consistent darts on the planet but Taylor's experience and on his day he can still beat anybody, is sometimes too much for MVG.
To lose to somebody else, MVG has to have a bad day.
My congratulations go to Peter Wright. This time last year he was the world number 32, he entered this years event as the number 16. He knocked out Taylor's conqueror, Mike Smith, before making it to the final. He lost the final but had a good game after a slow start.
The event was notable for 2 people getting 9 dart finishes on the same day and both losing!

The BDO event is still in the first round.

We don't expect the darts to be as good in the BDO event but it is the original World Championship and has a lot of followers. Most of the top players are in the PDC event but this year to make it more "Worldwide" the were more qualifiers. Most of these players would not get into a county team. There are also players in the BDO event who would do well in the PDC but have either chosen to stay with the BDO or not moved yet.

The reigning  champion, Scot Waites was knocked out in the first game by Alan Norris. Scot had a back injury (sustained whilst playing dominoes) and the lack of practice showed. Also out in the first round was one of last years semi-finalists, Richie George. Bobbie's son was thoroughly beaten by Robbie "Kong" Green in a display that would scare some of the PDC players.

We are still to see Stephen Bunting the number 1 seed, another player who could beat anybody on his day.

Fallon Sherrock

In the ladies championship, the favourites have not showed what they can do yet. Anastasia Dobromyslova won her first round game without impressing, I expect her to improve as she progresses. Trina Gulliver had a nightmare going out in one of her worst TV displays. A notable performance came last night from Fallon Sherrock. The 19 year old, Norfolk Youth player won her match 2 sets to nil.

The Ladies Darts Organisation

Today I interviewed Julie Lambie, the CEO of the Ladies Darts Organisation.

GH          What is the LDO and why was it formed?

JL            The Ladies Darts Organisation. It was formed in January 2012 because of the lack of ladies darts that was going to be shown from Lakeside (Ladies World Professional Darts Championship). It was formed after we did an online petition to highlight the fact that the ladies game wasn’t getting shown, the petition got 3000 signatures in a week. Due to this ESPN and BBC showed the ladies final via the red button. This brought Ladies darts to the attention of the media and the LDO was formed.

GH          What is the LDO doing now?

JL            We are in the process of organising a nationwide ladies darts event. We have 15 venues lined up, including one in Northern Ireland. This could also include countries outside the UK. There will be regional playoffs leading to a final during the weekend of the Ladies Classic making it 2 large tournaments for ladies over the same weekend.

                We are increasing membership. We have new sponsors joining regularly we now have lots of merchandise including Shirts, Cases and Dartboard Surrounds

GH          What do you do with the money you raise?

JL            This organisation is nothing to do with the BDO so we put all the money back in to ladies darts. Most goes into the Ladies Classic for promotion and prize money. Some will also go to the Ladies Masters which is a LDO event. We now have an international rep, Santino Broer of Dart Youngsters Management (DYM), who will help with new things abroad – running competitions and benefitting our LDO members, also seeking out new members.

We are not affiliated with or recognised by the BDO yet but fingers crossed that will change in time. I have talks with them on my agenda. We will then be able to work closer with the BDO and be officially recognised – fingers crossed.

GH          What is your vision for Ladies Darts? Where do you want the LDO to go?

JL            First I want the BDO to recognise us so that we can apply for ranking points for our competitions, this would encourage international players to come over and take part in our events. Nationally entries are colossal but we need to get more internationals involved.

We need people to stand up, pay attention, take notice and giving ladies darts some bloody respect for a change instead of trying to shove it under the carpet.

GH          Is the LDO respected by men?

JL            Yes, Scott Mitchell is a massive follower of it, he promotes the LDO whenever he has a microphone in his hand. We’ve had men donating items of clothing to be auctioned to raise money for the LDO. Ross Montgomery, Phil Taylor and loads of others now recognise ladies darts. Men coming along to our events show support, some join in with marking games etc. We also have male members who like what we are doing and have encouraged wives and girlfriends to join us. This is all helping to get us recognised worldwide.

GH          Do you feel that the because of the time you have been going more people are actually starting to take you seriously?

JL            We did get negative comments at the start – as everybody does. They expected us to be over and done with in a couple of months but in January we will have been going for two years. We do have quiet spells as we are not like the BDO or other large organisations but there is always something going on. We are getting recognised by more organisations – Czech Darts, Polish Darts and others now support us. A lot of organisations have LDO members and they offer discount to our ladies on entry fees.

If people ask about ladies darts they are encouraged to visit our website and to join. We also have Twitter and Facebook pages, this all helps to get the name known.

We have some major sponsors like Winmau – which is amazing having a great big company like that totally behind us, I’ve talked a lot with Ian Flack a top man from Winmau. Winmau are sponsoring our new event the Ladies Masters and they are going to be our event sponsors next year. We are actually a member now of Winmau Global Darts.

GH          How many members do you have?

JL            Roughly 200, give or take a few.

GH          This all started with the World Pro, are you looking for more improvements in time for ladies at that competition?

JL            Although the World Pro is nothing to do with the LDO, it is a BDO competition, they have doubled the numbers of the Lakeside finals to 16. I think that because of our publicity the BDO have started to take notice and this may have influenced the decision to raise the numbers. This definitely shows the ladies game is on the rise – the BDO have also upped prize money for ladies events.

We are looking for sponsors, large and small to help with prize money etc. In return you will get good publicity at our events or on our website.

We are always looking for new members, to encourage this some companies offer our members discount. These companies are also promoted on our website, Facebook and Twitter.

The LDO also need the ladies to commit and enter all the competitions that are set up for them. They can’t moan about the lack of events if they don’t get off their backsides enter the events that are in place, not entering events will cause a decline in the ladies game again.

Darting Nicknames

Darters of all levels have nicknames; some are made up by others and some by themselves. Like in all walks of life, some people have nicknames “given” at school that stay with them forever and some people are never known by a nickname.

In the darting world nicknames are often brought in from younger days or named directly from their real names. Some players are known more by their nickname than their given name – John Thomas Wilson was always referred to as Jocky Wilson. His picture was also displayed by mistake during a performance of "Jackie Wilson Said" by Dexy's Midnight Runners.

Jocky Wilson

When I ran the Families Club at RAF Honington – The Jackdaws Nest – I played as Jackdaw Geoff. The name that stuck most also came from my military days where everybody gets a nickname. I was an instructor working in Ground Based Air Defence (GBAD pronounced Gee bad) working with the Rapier Missile system. I was given the nickname GBAD Geoff, Gee bad Geoff has that catchy ring required for a nickname to stick.

Also in the military, my son was challenged to a game of darts by one of his superiors, they were both serving on 1 Royal Tank Regiment (1RTR). It became a match between Armour Piercing Paddy and Hellfire Herschell. Hellfire was victorious.

Here are a few examples of players having nicknames referencing their name:

Norman Madhoo             Guyana                                Stormin’ Norman

Paul Hogan                      England                                Crocodile Dundee

Kevin Painter                   England                                The Artist

Kevin McDine                  England                                 SupaMc

Ray Carver                      USA                                     Razor

Andy Hamilton                 England                                The Hammer

Robert Thornton              Scotland                               The Thorn

Roland Scholten              Netherlands                          The Flying Dutchman

Gary Anderson                Scotland                               The Flying Scotsman

Scott Mitchell                   England                                Scotty Dog

Chris Mason                    England                                Mace the Ace

John Walton                     England                                John Boy

Keith Deller                      England                                The Fella

Leo Laurens                    Belgium                                The Lion of Bruges

Lionel Sams                     England                               The Lion

Andy Hamilton                England                                The Hammer

Mark Webster                  Wales                                  The Spider

Alan Norris                      England                                Chuck

Some examples of being named due to the Country the player represents or the place they were born in:

Paul Lim                          Singapore and USA              Singapore Slinger

Nandor Bezzeg                Hungary                               Mighty Magyar

Peter Evison                     England                               The Fen Tiger

John Henderson               Scotland                               Highlander

Ritchie Burnett                 Wales                                   Prince of Wales

Eric Bristow                     England                                The Crafty Cockney

Jason Clark                      Scotland                               The Cockney Jock

Alex Roy                          England                                The Ace of Hert’s

Tony David                      Australia                               The Deadly Boomerang

Players are often named after their looks, demeanour or Playing style:

Andy Smith                      England                                  The Pieman

Bill Lennard                      England                                  Mr Consistency

Cliff Lazarenko                 England                                  Big Cliff

John Lowe                       England                                   Old Stoneface

James Wade                     England                                  The Machine

Andre Brantjes                 Netherlands                            The Quiet Man

Bob Anderson                  England                                   The Limestone Cowboy

Andy Fordham                 England                                   The Viking

Peter Manley                    England                                   One Dart

Martin Adams                   England                                   Wolfie

Ted Hankey                      England                                   The Count

Alan Warriner                   England                                   The Iceman 

We also get themes – such as Magic:

Simon Whitlock                 Australia                                The Wizard of Oz, or the Wizard

Scott MacKenzie              Hong Kong                             The Alchemist

Steve Coote                       England                                  Magic

Steve Maish                       England                                  Mr Magic

Colin Osborne                   England                                  The Wizard 

Nicknames also apply to the fairer sex:

Karin Krappen                   Netherlands                           Dolphin

Anne Kirk                          Scotland                                Captain Kirk

Tricia Wright                       England                                 The Wright Stuff

Trina Gulliver                      England                                 The Golden Girl

Sue Edwards                      England                                 Super Sue

Zoe Jones                           England                                 The Pink Panther

Father and Sons:

Bobby George                   England                                   Bobby Dazzler

Richie George                   England                                   Richie Rich

Colin Monk                        England                                   Mad Monk

Aaron Monk                       England                                   Monkey

I’ll finish off this page with my favourite nicknames. Starting with the ladies, the best has to be:

Anastasia Dobromyslova              Russia                   From Russia With Love

For the men, I have a top 5:

Willy van de Wiel                          Netherlands                 Free Willy

Jan van der Rassel                       Netherlands                 Rassel Dazzle

Mark Frost                                   England                       Frosty the Throwman

Antonio Alcinas                             Spain                          El Dartador

My favourite is not so much the nickname but why he was given it:

In 2005 Adrian Lewis was in Las Vegas for the Desert Classic. He won $75 000 (over £40 000) on a gaming machine but was not allowed to collect it as he was only 20 years old, the legal gambling age being 21.

My “Best Nickname” award goes to England’s, Adrian “Jackpot” Lewis.

 Here Adrian Jackpot Lewis hits what has become known as a "Blind 180" against Peter One Dart Manley.

Darts Walk on Music for County or the Big Stage

All dart players need to choose walk on music. It is a major part of TV coverage now, its puts some razzmatazz into the sport. Even the Sky TV darts theme is catchy, no lyrics but the crowd sing a long.

Players usually first require walk on music for county matches although some now use it as early as county youth games.

It is better to find your own rather than let somebody else choose it. I've seen people have terrible games after being embarrassed by their walk on. Imagine walking on to "Mr Blobby" when you're already conscious of your weight!

I chose this tune for my walk on. As well as liking it, I know the Inspiral Carpets lead singer - Stephen Holt. We were in the same class at school. They are a local band from my home town. The song is also catchy - which is important.

This is a live version, I had the recorded single for my walk on as the sound quality is always greater.

Here are some of the professionals entering the fray:

How to choose walk on music - Some choose to suit their name, a good example being Mervyn King who uses "Bow down to the King".

Others choose to suit their nickname - probably the most heard tune being "I've got the Power" used by Phil "The Power" Taylor.

Tony O'Shea uses, "Hey Baby" which doesn't have a direct reference to him until the crow change the lyrics to "Hey Tony".

Adrian Lewis uses tunes without lyrics, his starts with "Papa's got a Brand New Pigbag" which is catchy enough without words.

A more subtle approach is by John Part. He uses the Star Wars Theme to go with his nickname which refers to his Canadian Nationality and Star Wars - Darth Maple.

Why are the Two Darts Governing Bodies?

I have often been asked why there are 2 Darts World Championships and who do I think is the “real” World Champion. I can answer the questions to the best of my ability but this is my opinion, the opinion of a player who has been involved at different levels of the game for many years.

The split was caused by a dispute between the people governing the game and the top professional players. The dispute snowballed and both sides became stubborn. There were court cases, personal verbal assaults, exaggerations and general bitterness from both sides that ultimately has left the game in disarray.

I do not have a favourite side, I love playing and watching the game. I would like the 2 sides to join but I know it will never happen.

In 1994 the top players wanted “more” out of the game. More what? It depends who you talk to – more money, more TV exposure or more of a say in moving darts forward.

 

The British Darts Organisation (BDO) had been the games governing body since forming in 1973. Their biggest mistake was not to listen to the “rebels” or take them seriously, they expected them to return to the fold with their tails between their legs once defeated. At the time the game was in decline and some thought that the BDO were not acting quick enough to stop this decline. The BDO members recognised a similar decline and voted out the old committee and replaced them with an almost entirely new one recently, if this had happened in 1994 this split may have been avoided.

 

16 players split and formed their own governing body – The World Darts Council, later to be renamed the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). The first contract won was for 3 competitions screened by Sky TV. The 16 who split were:

Phil Taylor           DennisPriestley                 Rod Harrington                 John Lowe          Eric Bristow

Jocky Wilson      AlanWarriner                    Bob Anderson                   Peter Evison       Jamie Harvey    

Chris Johns         RitchieGardner                 Cliff Lazarenko                  Kevin Spiolek     Kieth Deller

Mike Gregory

This list includes all the past world champions except Leighton Rees who had stopped playing tournament darts.

Instead of talking and sorting out the differences to ensure the public got the best out of darts, the 2 groups argued until the gap widened into such a position as it is impossible to close. We now have 2 sides with their own world championships and neither side will relinquish theirs for the good of the game.

Which is the best? As a spectator the more thrilling spectacle is put on by Sky TV. Top quality darts shown with great pictures with knowledgeable commentary. The BDO competition is screened by the BBC and is dull to the uninitiated, only darts players watch it; it will not win new fans.

As a dart player I like the BDO version, I know a lot of the players and officials. I know there is a better chance of a grassroots player winning through to the TV stages and even winning the competition. There is also a women’s world championship with the BDO.

Who is the real champion? Most will say the PDC winner because overall the competition his of a better standard. The truth is that there are a lot of players in the BDO who could beat anybody on their day, Scott Waites proved that by winning the 2010 Grand Slam  – the only top competition open to players from both sides of the divide.

I would like the gap to close and bring the sport together, as would about 80% of darts people. Barry Hearn offered to buy out the BDO recently but was turned down by a vote of the BDO members – I was there. It was the correct decision as the grassroots player would not be looked after in that proposal. You can’t have a top class sport where only the best players and best counties are looked after.

The only way the 2 sides could start closing the gap would be for both sides to formerly recognise the role of the other. Follow the football route with the PDC becoming the Premier League and the BDO the FA.