It’s nearly Christmas and it’s time for one of the great sporting occasions of the year: the World Darts Championships!
Actually, there are two World Championships these days: the PDC on Sky which has all the big stars and the BDO on the BBC (and BT Sport) which hasn’t.
The atmosphere at the Alexandra Palace is amazing. There is little of the ‘best of order’ to quieten the crowd since the constant drunken singing and chanting is part of the evening. Off camera, venue staff serve thousands of pints of lager for ‘fans’ to consume in a very short space of time. The darts appear to be going on in the background. And to a point, it is.
There is some loud cheering when a player does something special, like a 180 or a big finish, but I am not sure if the crowd gives a monkey’s as to who has hit the big score. This is not a ‘knowledgable’ crowd of keen darts players; this is a large crowd of people who like a night on the piss and a bit of a laugh. It is not really a sectarian event unless one of the players does a Mick McManus in order to generate some friction, which isn’t really there. The players are roared to the oche by glamorous ‘walk on girls’ whereupon they are greeted by scantily clad dancers before the action gets underway. And the action is getting as pissed as possible.
I wonder if Raymond van Barneveld, the immensely fat diabetic ex tram driver from the Netherlands, realises that the ‘Barney Army’ chanting is not from people who hang posters of him in their bedrooms. It just so happens they have heard of him and seen him on telly. And when you have had a dozen pints of overpriced lager, you will chant anything. And with the exception of Phil Taylor and one or two others, hardly anyone cares who wins. There are no fights between fans of, say, Steve Beaton and Peter Wright because no one really gives a toss about them. It’s a bigger picture, a night on the lash, a great atmosphere and a brilliantly packaged pub game it would be easier to watch on telly rather than at the event.
Sky do this sort of thing very well. Darts, fishing, snooker – there’s always something new, something different and usually something crap. But the Sky darts coverage isn’t bad; it’s brilliant.
The real darts aficionados prefer the BDO because that’s the heart and soul of the game, where it’s played in pubs and clubs every week. The PDC appeals to an entirely different person who wouldn’t bother to cross the road to watch a pub game but loves a bloody good night out. And in Taylor, the PDC has the greatest player the world has ever seen.
I’ll watch far more than is good for me but I’ll watch it all the same!
Stand up if you love the darts? Well, fuck that, but I do like it, sitting down though! Bring on the dancing girls!
