Darts – Sports Gazette

The year in sport 2018: PDC Darts

by Adam Le Roux - 2 January 20192 January 2019 092

Been cracking. Darts has, this year. Okay the PDC World Championship final wasn’t the best we’ve seen, but the two and a bit weeks before were filled with plenty of tasty tungsten. The Ally Pally saw upsets aplenty, with the expansion of the tournament from 72 to 96 players — including Lisa

Stoke’s latest darting diamond: Ian White on Stoke, dabbing and a penchant for karaoke

by Nick Friend - 20 December 201821 December 2018 091

As Ian White prepares for his 2019 PDC World Darts Championship entrance, he does so as Stoke’s number one player. To the untrained eye, it is an insignificant statistic – the home to the pottery industry and close to 270,000 residents. Ultimately, however, it is a nod to the enduring brilliance of

From cones to arrows: Chris Dobey on being a late bloomer, roadworks and facing Phil Taylor

by Nick Friend - 13 December 201813 December 2018 0229

Chris Dobey had never seriously thrown a dart until eight years ago. His sport – when he had a spare moment – was football. Bornin Bedlington, a former mining town north of Newcastle, the game was in his blood, as were the black and white stripes of the region’s famous

We all love darts at Christmas

by Adam Le Roux - 9 December 20188 December 2018 0296

For some it’s festive football, for others it’s a Boxing Day test match, but for me, only one thing epitomises Christmas. Darts Yuletides of old are filled with the nonsensical chittering of Sid Waddell, as two blokes peppered the board with arrows. Ending up invariably, with Phil Taylor taking the crown

“It’s a publicity stunt. I don’t think it’s fair to ask women to play against men” — Former world number one Linda Duffy discusses women’s inclusion in PDC World Championship

Darts

by Matt Davies - 8 November 20187 December 2018 03082

The movement towards gender equality in sport — consisting of equal opportunity, pay and the evaporation of existing stigma — is an ongoing process. It’s easy to state intention, but what are those in influential positions actually doing to promote this progression? December’s PDC World Championship will, for the first time, guarantee two

Life as the Limestone Cowboy – Bob Anderson talks darts, javelin and Eric Bristow

by Nick Friend - 3 November 20184 November 2018 01151

“That damn horse gets more publicity than I do,” Bob Anderson chuckles. “None of it was my idea. I think horses are fabulous creatures, but there isn’t one alive that likes me. For a cowboy to say that, it’s pretty hypocritical. That horse was incredible — an ex-police hunter, 17 hands.

Talking darts: Chris Murphy on commentary, the great Sid Waddell and media coverage

Darts

by Nick Friend - 12 October 2018 01562

There is not a sport without a recognised voice. Each and every one has its familiar noise, a distinct sound unmistakably entrenched it its game, the mere sense of which provides a blanket of reassurance to its audience. Attached to each iconic tone is a name that – over time

‘I want to go a long way to changing lives’: Devon Petersen on national identity, being Africa’s only professional darts player and influencing a country’s future

by Nick Friend - 18 September 201819 September 2018 02030

The Fang dialect is spoken throughout Central Africa – it spans one million speakers spread across Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo and the minute islands of Sao Tome and Principe. Its part in the burgeoning growth of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) could scarcely register on even the most microscopic scale

A numbers game: Kirk Bevins on an obsession with numbers, life as a darts referee and conquering Countdown

by Nick Friend - 15 September 201815 September 2018 06335

To enter Apterous.org is to arrive in a different realm, a Narnia of the sharpest minds waiting beyond a digital wardrobe. On its homepage – for this is no mythical haven, but the home of a thriving online community – is a disclaimer. ‘Apterous is definitely not Countdown; it is not

“You have to play with the hand you’re dealt with”: Jamie Caven on defeating both logic and adversity

by Nick Friend - 11 September 201812 September 2018 02689

Much of the populist appeal of darts – first, in its takeover of terrestrial television screens in the 1970s and 1980s, and then in its unprecedented revival and growth under Barry Hearn’s chairmanship – has been aligned to the sport’s accessibility and its promotion of the ordinary accomplishing the extraordinary. As