The darts on proper TV

[Thierry Ennui]

The darts on proper TV

I wanted to make a point about Wolfie being much more gracious in defeat than Phil Taylor was, but Phil was surprisingly restrained after losing to Anderson. Apart from leaning on the trophy stand during his interview as if he owned it, of course.

[Ray de Galles]

The darts on proper TV

Toro Toro wrote: As someone pointed out recently in The Guardian's Condescending Attempt To Occupy Traditional Working Class Pastimes...

If that was Martin Kelner's typically good piece that's hardly his usual MO.

[Seven Saxon Kings]

The darts on proper TV

Toro, out of curiosity what's the standard for your 'very poor' pub darts. Do you have a rough idea of your 3 dart ave/checkout %/how many darts you typically need from 501?

[Toro Toro]

The darts on proper TV

Harry - yeh, I was joking.

SSK - I would guess the three-dart is not much more than 40. Checkout rate is frankly homeopathic.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The darts on proper TV

Pub darts in Devon is a very serious business. Double-in, double-out, when I used to play down there. None of this straightforward lah-di-dah down from 501 nonsense. Games could take hours, if the two protagonists were crap/pissed enough.

[Toro Toro]

The darts on proper TV

Oh yes, double-in double-out is strict. Doubling-in was waived for my first game, and strictly & swiftly reimposed when I won.

[Ray de Galles]

The darts on proper TV

Sorry Toro, clearly a sense of humour failure on my part.

.

[Seven Saxon Kings]

The darts on proper TV

Cheers Toro. I used to have a board at home and practiced a bit. I think I got to about a level of a 3-dart average of 50ish, about 20% on my doubles and usually taking 8-10 visits to the board to do 501 (without doubling in). I was always curious as to whether or not that was an acceptable standard for [strike]the BDO World Championships[/strike] a pub team.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The darts on proper TV

Seven Saxon Kings

wrote:

Has Mitchell joined the PDC yet?

No, but four are trying.

They'll be back, tails between legs, next year. Fucking splitters.

[gavc23]

The darts on proper TV

Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote:

Seven Saxon Kings

wrote:

Has Mitchell joined the PDC yet?

No, but four are trying.

They'll be back, tails between legs, next year. Fucking splitters.

The wonderfully named Dyson Parody made a 9 darter in the qualifying school this week.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The darts on proper TV

Dyson Parody is a sketch involving use of the words "ball cleaning system".

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The darts on proper TV

Does ITV4 count as "proper TV"?

The Masters comes to a conclusion tonight, the quarter-finals were on earlier. Michael Van Gerwen beat Dave Chisnall 10-9 in one of those; their averages were 110 and 108, respectively.

Dave Chisnall LOST a 19-leg game of darts with an average of 108. That must be unprecedented.

Semi-finals will be MvG v Adrian Lewis, and RvB v Gary Anderson. Not a Taylor in sight. I'll quite enjoy this, on that basis.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The darts on proper TV

Ted "The Count" Hankey's just finished a leg T18 Bull to win the first set of his preliminary round match on BBC2. He's obviously back.

Someone else back from the PDC is Larry Butler, the American, who recently got as far as the semi-finals at the Winmau World Masters. He's unseeded here but on that form will be an outsider to watch.

[hank williams]

The darts on proper TV

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

BDO boards give me a headache

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The darts on proper TV

Hankey's out. Butler's through, though, and now faces top seed Glen Durrant, in a repeat of the World Masters final.

[hank williams]

The darts on proper TV

Won't be on proper TV for long by the sounds of it.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The darts on proper TV

Ah, the BBC aren't giving up on this as well, are they? Sky won't want it, they've got the PDC.

The BDO may be effectively the "second division", but it - through the WDF - still represents the grassroots of the sport, not only in Britain but across the globe. PDC/Sky's idea of promoting the game in eg Latvia is taking their top eight players over there to play an exhibition event for a night. The World Masters invites competitors over here from 68 countries.

[longeared]

The darts on proper TV

The BBC contract expires after this year's tournament and it's not expected to be renewed.

The BDO does do some good stuff in that it provides a pathway for players to develop. Pub -> Superleague -> County -> BDO tournaments. Problem is that most decent players then see the PDC as the next and final step. Maybe the loss of the last terrestrial TV contract might bring the BDO and PDC back together.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The darts on proper TV

Glen Durrant's nickname is "Duzza". He's put some thought into that.

[nmrfox]

The darts on proper TV

Someone on Facebook has posted a link asking whats the difference between the PDC and the BDO. It shows Gary Anderson hitting a 9-darter against Jelle Klaasen and then cuts over to a BDO player (I forget who) hitting 3 treble ones.

It's a bit cruel I know, and there are some decent players in the BDO, but it does seem to sum up attitudes about the two organisations.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The darts on proper TV

The BDO is the Championship compared to the PDC's Premier League, nowadays, it's true. When they have the Grand Slam of Darts, that pits the best from both against each other, you normally get one or two quarter finalists from the BDO, but no more.

But it still represents the best players from the county level, and most of the national champions from every country apart from Holland, that also has a few world-class pros in the PDC. There's no-one pooh-poohing these players who would be able to compete against them.

[longeared]

The darts on proper TV

For sheer drama, if not always the quality of the darts, the McGeeney - Mitchell match yesterday afternoon was excellent.

Some of it is just really poor though, I saw one leg earlier in the week where someone scored 164 from their first 12 darts. That's pub standard stuff and wouldn't get anywhere near the PDC event.

[hank williams]

The darts on proper TV

Great game on now mind.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The darts on proper TV

Final's on now. 2013 champion and vastly experienced Scott Waites, against unseeded first-time finalist Jeff Smith from Canada.

You'd expect this to be a bit of a walkover - for Waites. But who knows?

[longeared]

The darts on proper TV

Seen very little of him this week, but Smith might be better than his unseeded status suggests. He spends the year in Canada, participates in tournaments there, doesn't play the regular BDO circuit and only comes over for this. He used to be in the PDC and failed to qualify for their Worlds as recently as a couple of years back.

That said, Waites is 3-0 up already.