Tuesday, August 18, 2020
Column HR287
STOP IT!
The Old Dart Coach likes to reminisce about them “Golden Days of Darts” but when he does many readers echo his pal, Nurse Fluff, and say “STOP IT!”
Regardless, thanks to Facebook postings by Bill Specht fond memories of that era are being brought back and shared with new players. He’s doing for the USA what Roger Nickson does for England. Thanks Bill.
Guess who the leading US money earners were in 1987. The men’s list was topped by Paul Lim who was closely followed by “Rocket” Ronnie Baxter. Not bad for the Brit as he competed in the USA for less than 6 months.
One of Rocket’s biggest wins was against the ODC in the New Orleans Open. The Coach had him down 1-nil and was on a double when the ODC remembered that the third leg of the Triple Crown of racing was only an hour away. As he liked to bet and N’Awlins had off track betting, he missed a double for the win then “allowed” Baxter to throw a 15-dart game for the win. Of course, it was first round.
What a humanitarian the ODC is.
Baxter is one also as he lost the final to his traveling partner so he could qualify for the Lucky Lights Challenge of Champions. They were also splitting money.
In 1987, the lady’s top four were Kathy Karpowich, Sandy Reitan, Kathy Maloney and Connie Sroka. All are in the darting Hall of Fame as they should be. Quality top to bottom. Pun intended.
The PDC just announced a four-event Women’s Series for October. The ODC had surmised this would be the case and predicted it some months ago. The event will be open to all women (age 16-plus) and run October 17-18 with two events per day. It’s not clear if “those who feel like a woman” will be allowed to enter. The total prize money is £20,000 or £5,000 per event.
“Women’s darts at the top level has never enjoyed as high a profile and this is an important development,” said PDC Chief Executive Matthew Porter. A grain of salt and a shot of Tequila should be taken with that announcement. Were it not for the cancelation of the International World Series of Darts (where Fallon Sherlock would have been great for women’s darts) Mr. Porter’s statement would be valid.
There is an “againer” out there (i.e. “Against Everything”) that takes the PDC task for staging the event. The “Retarded Irish Potato Moron” (with apologies to all that fit that description) writes, …not because these hypocrite bitches are great dart players who can perform at the standard the men can, because they cannot, it’s being done for the simple reason of the political correctness, and also the PDC whoring itself out for publicity and media attention in the hope that they can recreate what happened last year when Fall-in SheerLuck (Fallon Sherrock) had a lucky run and garnered media publicity.
Some valid points? Perhaps. But that doesn’t discount what the PDC is doing.
Back in the day when the ODC was in advertising one of the company’s accounts was Kaiser Industries. Kaiser used the moto “Find a Need and Fill It.” That’s exactly what the PDC is doing.
With the demise of the British Dart Organization and its effect on the World Darts Federation women’s darts have been tossed to the wayside. The World Masters and the BDO “Our” World Championships is headed for File 13. A major competition was needed. The PDC filled a need.
Some might question giving the two winners of the competition places in the World Championships. The ODC must agree as those cherished spots are supposed to be awarded on merit.
Can a female compete head to head with male? Sure. Can they do that over the long haul? No, but so what? Women’s tennis and golf are just as entertaining as the men.
Women darts can be as entertaining and sometimes more so than your run of the mill men’s darts. The truth is some male matches put more people to sleep than Melatonin.
The ODC now predicts that within 4 years the PDC will have a full-blown Women’s Tour. The success or failure of the event will fall squarely on the shoulders of women darters. If they pony up the £25 for each event in large numbers, it will be a success. If not, “goodbye” and please ladies: shut up.
STOP IT!
Some may forget that in 2010 the PDC held a Women’s World Championship with £30,000 up for the taking. If memory works Unicorn Darts played a big part in staging the event. Thirty-two ladies toed the oche with the finals played during the PDC Mid-summer Classic at Blackpool.
The winner was the late Stacy Bromberg from the USA. Stacy defeated Anastasia Dobromyslova (4-3) and then Tricia Wright (6-5). The average was a low 63.27.
Average is irrelevant.
Was it entertaining? YES.
Hopefully, this year’s event will draw (it should) the cream of the women’s crop from Europe. It takes either a brave or foolish man, which qualifies the ODC twice, to predict how the event will go. There’s also the saying/song that, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” The ODC is no angel but here goes…
The winners of each event will be Fallon Sherrock (England), Mikuru Suzuki (Japan), Beau Greaves (England) and Anastasia Dobromyslova (Russian but living in England). Left out are Lisa Ashton and “The Queen” Deta Headman both of England.
The winner will be Beau Greaves who will reach the ripe old age of 16 on January 4, 2020.
Graves’ 2016-2019 resume is enough for a career. She was a winner in Girl’s events – the 2017-2018 Girl’s World Masters and 2019 Girl’s WDF World Cup Singles. Graves jumped into Women’s events in 2019 winning the Women’s England, Welsh and England National Championship. She started the year 2020 with a win in the Scottish Open. In the 2019 England Women’s Open Graves beat Deta Headman (4-1), Mikuru Suzuki (4-1), Aileen de Graaf (4-3) and Fallon Sherrock (5-4).
Beau Graves is the REAL DEAL.
Recently, a former world champion proved that expertise on the oche has nothing to do with knowledge, brains or learning -which puts dart players with other athletes. He whined about nasty comments on Twitter. The aforementioned “Retarded Irish Potato Moron” commented that he’s “fast becoming a full-blown bitch these days.”
What did the former world champion post? People put horrible things on Twitter and don’t think before they write them. Twitter needs to be more regulated.
Guess this person never heard of “freedom of speech.” He’d fit right in with the USA moron WOKEs of today. STOP IT!
Stay thirsty my friends.
