Friday, July 1, 2011
\nColumn HR46
\nHappy Independence Day \u2013 even to you POMS!<\/b><\/p>\n
As those of us in the Colonies prepare to celebrate Independence Day, that\u2019s the 4th of July for you folks from public schools, it\u2019s a time of retrospect, to look back and remember. Some older folks may even recite the opening lines from the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem of 1860 entitled The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. \u201cListen my children and you shall hear\u2026 of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.\u201d To younger folks the poem might be new as in today\u2019s schools they don\u2019t bother much with such \u201cinsidious mundane nuances\u201d \u2013 subjects such as history, reading and writing. Those same \u201czipper snappers\u201d would probably also be surprised that nowhere in the Declaration of Independence are found the words \u201cMom and Dad\u2026 I\u2019m moving out.\u201d The Declaration of Independence does contain, \u201cWhen in the course of human events it becomes necessary\u201d and \u201cWe hold these truths to be self-evident\u201d. The words themselves are credited to Thomas Jefferson. No time and space here to explain who Thomas Jefferson was.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s very doubtful that when a group of darts players joined together to form the World Darts Players Association there was the same degree of elegance of language, actions or even the revolutionary fervor found in Revere, Longfellow or Jefferson. Still for that hardy group of darters the decision to take the first step to cut ties with the \u201cGrand Poobah\u2019s\u201d of the sport must have been for some a heart-rending experience. From Jefferson\u2019s words and Revere\u2019s actions after more than 200-plus years has sprung the United States of America. From the band of darters evolved the PDC. The latter seems to be working better right now thanks to Barry Hearn. Maybe the USA could hire Hearn to take control and have Tommy Cox as it\u2019s \u201ccountry director\u201d. Always go with what works.<\/p>\n
At the initial meeting it was Eric Bristow, Maureen Flowers, Bob Anderson, Keith Deller, Linda Batten (Now Dr. Batten), Richie Gardner, Dave Whitcombe, Cliff Lazarenko, Leighton Rees, Jockey Wilson, Mike Gregory, Steve Brennan and Australia\u2019s Terry O\u2019Dea that got things rolling. Missing from that first meeting was the big name in darts, John Lowe. For the second meeting of the group Lowe, who requested the meeting, added his name along with America\u2019s Jerry Umberger, Danny Valleto and Rick \u201cThe Hammer\u201d Ney. Bob Sinnaeve and Avtar Gill from Canada joined in along with Russell Stewart from Aussie, Nicky Virachkul from Thailand, Paul Lim from Singapore and Mr. Stefan Lord of Sweden. Just a guess, but that meeting probably took place during the Embassy which probably frosted the \u201cdoor chimes off old Mr. O. Croft.\u201d There were two top players missing as neither Bobby George or Alan Glazier made appearances. George was rewarded by BDO Grand Poobah Olly Croft with a spot in what was to become a \u201ctalent depleted\u201d Embassy World Championships far past his \u201cuse date\u201d. Mike Gregory would cut and run from the player\u2019s organization to also be rewarded by the BDO\u2019s Olly Croft.<\/p>\n
While this group, called the World Professional Dart Players Association, had some power it didn\u2019t have enough, darn little money, few tournaments nor a television outlet so the darting scene was unsettled. Then came a re-organization with 15 \u201cnew\u201d professionals joining the nucleus. Mike Gregory re-joined along with Dennis Priestly, Rod Harrington, Kevin Spiolek, Chrissie John\u2019s, Jaime Harvey, Peter Evison, Alan Warriner and one Phillip Douglas Taylor. This group also included Tommy Cox and Dick Allix, the top two managers of the day. One idea at the time was to get paid for \u201ccounty games\u201d which went nowhere. The only result was the \u201cprofessional players\u201d no longer played county matches. The end result of that is that today\u2019s county matches are not the draw they use to be. During this period the \u201cassociation\u201d had limited TV which provided almost no direct revenue. Then came the lawsuit instituted by Olly Croft and the BDO which resulted in a name change to the PDC.<\/p>\n
The Old Dart Coach had some experience with lawsuits as he was sued by the ADO. In the end that lawsuit proved nothing except the ODC ended up with a lot less money and the other sides \u201cmember\u201d lawyer got stiffed. When Barry Hearn joined the PDC the party began and the rest is now history. The ODC now moans, \u201cWhere was Barry Hearn when I needed him?\u201d<\/p>\n
Professional players in North America provided support and one, Larry Butler, copped one of the first \u201cProfessional Championships\u201d. Canada\u2019s John Part went on to stardom with the PDC but he first was a BDO and WDF \u201cstar\u201d in much the same manner as Raymond van Barneveld later on. Both served as poster boy for a couple of years for the BDO\/WDF. North American players mainly provided support. There were no county games. Big money tournaments, save two, were put on by local organizations which refused entry to no one. That\u2019s not to say that there haven\u2019t been and aren\u2019t attempts to form a meaningful professional players organization or leagues.<\/p>\n
The latest is Major League Darts, the brainchild and promoted by one Brian Jackson. Their $20,000 Canadian Challenge takes place July 8-10 in Calgary with a pair of 501 singles playing a modified format \u2013 modified in that it\u2019s played \u201cmodified round robin\u201d with best of 11 knockout rounds and a best of 15 finals. A $100.00 entry fee per singles event eliminates the \u201cweak,\u201d though not the silly or stupid. The success of the tournament will need a lot of the latter to be financially viable. Reportedly Major League Darts held their first event in the San Francisco Bay Area May 13-15.<\/p>\n
On April 18, 1775 at 10 PM when Paul Revere rode through town on a small chestnut mare named Brown Betty yelling \u201cThe British are coming!\u201d no one knew or guessed where his actions would lead. It\u2019s probably true also of the professional dart players who first joined together. They might never have dreamed of 35 plus Championships Tour events each year with a prize fund of \u00a370,000 major events covered on TV from start to finish, a Premier League that sold out venues or becoming the second most popular TV sport in England. Just recently Gary Anderson entered the Dutch Darts Trophy tour events in Nuland, Holland. He won both Saturday and Sunday for a nifty \u00a312,000. Who would have thunk it 10 years ago? Barry Hearn.<\/p>\n
Like the nation itself, foreigners became a part of the American darting scene. Lenny Heard came from the \u201cMotha Country\u201d representing the USA in both the World Cup (1979, Las Vegas) and Pacific Cup (1986, Auckland). This was American\u2019s first Pacific Cup win making up for lousy coaching by The Old Dart Coach in 1984 in Hawaii when he foiled the attempts by Jerry Umberger, Nicky Virachkul, Kathy Karpowich and Jo-Ann Anderson to win the gold. At one point during the event the ODC sent for a brown paper bag. He labeled it \u201cSack of Outs.\u201d It almost worked but fell one \u201cout\u201d short. A missed double 12 did them in. Two years later, with the ODC working on persona non-grata status, Kathy Karpowich hit double 12 for a Pacific Cup win in Auckland, New Zealand.<\/p>\n
The ODC\u2019s role in this win was insuring that the bar guarantee was met along with a rolling on the floor like an idiot (a part he plays well) fight with a pal from Aussie. He also informed Paul Lim (then playing for Singapore) that Aussie Russell Stewart described playing Lim the following day \u201cis like picking flowers.\u201d To which Lim replied \u201cplicking flowers? I\u2019ll show him plicking flowers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lim won while Stewart fumed and America smiled. The ODC had struck again. Also watching the event was actor Jack Palance who while sitting next to the ODC admired his \u201creal Rolex from Thailand.\u201d \u201cThat watch real?\u201d \u201cNo. Real made in Thailand.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll give you $50.00 bucks for it.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s a fake.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t care, every time I get a real Rolex someone on the set steals it.\u201d Over the years the ODC would sell other \u201cReal made in Thailand fake Rolexes\u201d to the late actor. One American team member rewarded the ODC with one of their gold medals, probably for his work at the bar.<\/p>\n
Another import was the Thai Cowboy Nicky Virachkul. He won the singles at the World Cup in Las Vegas in 1979 for America and was a fixture on the international scene operating out of various locations in the USA. Nicky retired from international competition and moved back to Thailand where he sadly passed away in 1999. One of his last dart tournaments was the Thailand Open held in Pattaya Beach. Nicky entered the doubles with a \u201ccousin.\u201d When he lost in an early round to the ODC and his partner Nicky quipped, \u201cGood thing I retired.\u201d Another Thai, Manop, traveled to the USA to compete. He did so with flair, flash and a heck of a lot of ability. At one time he was the top \u201cAmerican\u201d player before scampering back to the Land of Smiles where for a time he became a monk.<\/p>\n
An argument can be made that the best \u201cimport\u201d ever was Singapore\u2019s Paul Lim or Leong Hwa, if you please. Paul was and is a professional darts player in every sense of the word. There is little doubt that had he not gone into the \u201cbusiness side\u201d of darts he would be right up there with the best in the PDC. A number of years ago he joined the soft point industry where he\u2019s currently based in Hong Kong for a company called Dartslive Asia. They\u2019re running a soft-tip tournament at the I Darts Club in Hong Kong. The tournament has 8 qualifying rounds and a final. John Part, sponsored by COSMO, won round three so will be back for the final. First prize is 100,000 Hong Kong Dollars which is $12,836 and meaningless 81 cents USD. Interesting format: best of 5 with 701-cricket-701-cricket-choice. The ODC likes \u201cchoice\u201d as in \u201che wins.\u201d Not going to happen.<\/p>\n
The ODC was musing, which some might call the doddering of an old coot, of 4th of July\u2019s past. One in particular came back to his increasing useless fading mind. The ODC on this particular 4th of July found himself at a bar sharing a pint of lager with the late Barry Twomlow. Always the \u201cwise-ass\u201d the ODC asked, \u201cBarry I guess the 4th of July is a big holiday in England?\u201d \u201cOne of the biggest.\u201d \u201cSo you celebrate losing a colony?\u201d \u201cNo we celebrity getting rid of the likes of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Happy Fourth of July to all\u2026 yes even the POMS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As those of us in the Colonies prepare to celebrate Independence Day, that\u2019s the 4th of July for you folks from public schools, it\u2019s a time of retrospect, to look back and remember. Some older folks may even recite the opening lines from the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem of 1860 entitled The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. \u201cListen my children and you shall hear\u2026 of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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POMS!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[17],"class_list":["post-5406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-howie"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":3279,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-32.jpg?fit=412%2C520&ssl=1","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-32.jpg?fit=412%2C520&ssl=1",412,520,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-32.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-32.jpg?fit=238%2C300&ssl=1",238,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-32.jpg?fit=412%2C520&ssl=1",412,520,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-32.jpg?fit=412%2C520&ssl=1",412,520,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-32.jpg?fit=412%2C520&ssl=1",412,520,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-32.jpg?fit=412%2C520&ssl=1",412,520,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/darts-image-feature-random-32.jpg?resize=45%2C45&ssl=1",45,45,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Dartoid","author_link":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/author\/dartoid\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"As those of us in the Colonies prepare to celebrate Independence Day, that\u2019s the 4th of July for you folks from public schools, it\u2019s a time of retrospect, to look back and remember. Some older folks may even recite the opening lines from the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem of 1860 entitled The Midnight Ride of…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":17,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"howie-reed","display_name":"Howie Reed","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/111howie.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/111howie.jpg"},"first_name":"Howie","last_name":"Reed","user_url":"http:\/\/www.dartoidsworld.com","job_title":"","description":"Astute, often controversial, and always humorous, the Old Dart Coach, Howie Reed (a former rodeo cowboy and advertising executive), is heralded as the Dean of Darts Chroniclers - the most prolific and widely followed writer ever about our sport. He goes back decades with the legends and knows where the skeletons are buried (just ask any of the ADO and WDF old-timers!). Here are four well-known facts about the Old Dart Coach: 1) he is a Republican, 2) he loves the ladies, 3) he can drink most anybody under the table, and 4) he throws darts as bad as Dartoid."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6477,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5406\/revisions\/6477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5406"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=5406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}