My Sporting Life

As a sophisticated sports fan, I was delighted to learn last week that the World Seniors Darts Championships were on BT Sport. A golden opportunity to see watch some legends of the darting past roll back the years. The names were there: Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor, Martin ‘Wolfie’ Adams and of course my old adversary Bob ‘The Limestone Cowboy’ Anderson who narrowly beat me in the Civil Service South West Darts Championships in Plymouth back in the early 1980s. Indeed, I caused all sorts of trouble for Anderson until he stopped laughing and my interest in the tournament was mercifully ended.

Anderson, who like me was a civil servant at the time, is 74 and looked ridiculously well. He was well-beaten by the tournament’s eventual winner Robert Thornton but got the crowd to it’s feet with a three dart average of 80 and achieving a 180 which brought the house down. Back in the 1980s, no doubt buoyed by his success against me, a few years later he became world champion. If you think I haven’t been dining out on that story for nearly four decades you don’t know me too well.

The rest of the tournament was a bit of a disappointment, not least due to BT Sports less than average coverage. It appeared that having assembled some of the all time greats from the world of tungsten, they didn’t have enough money to make a professional show. That probably explained the presence of former Soccer AM presenter Helen Chamberlain who disappointingly came across as a fish out of water. Her post match interview with Phil Taylor after he’d defeated Peter ‘One Dart’ Manley went a bit like this:

Taylor: Shit

Chamberlain: Phil said shit. Can you say shit? Oh, I’ve said shit now. Ha ha ha.

And that was as good as it got.

We also got to see a new slimline John Lowe, though sadly not for long. Sadly, Andy ‘The Viking’ Fordham died last year because otherwise he’d have been a sizeable presence on screen too.

As we noted, Thornton won the final, defeating Wolfie Adams in a one-sided match we I completely forgot to watch. I suppose if I’d have had a back story with him like I did with the Limestone Cowboy I’d have tuned in.

It was fun while it lasted and I’m sure we will be seeing many more of these veteran tournaments so I can regale my family with the story of the day I almost beat Bob Anderson. Only my complete lack of darting ability stood in myway.