PDC World Championships Night 6

Posted: 23.12.14 in Tournament Analysis Blog category

It's the last night before the festive break!

I would have forgiven you if you had a ticket for last night and were left a little disappointed once you had looked at the games! Maybe you would have wished you had tickets for tonight?

Caven v Hogg was a below par PDC game-Jamie almost reliving the days when if he had a game on stage in a big tournament my bank manager would start rubbing his hands together-he knew there would be some cash coming in soon as Caven would contrive to lose any game put in front of him with me backing his opponent.

Smith v Mensur was a good game and who doesn’t like to see Barney at full pelt? The South African qualifier, Nolan Arendse, didn’t do himself justice in the last game of the night and it all turned into a bit of an anti-climax.

But what’s that you say, the ticket holders don’t care what games are on stage! Are you trying to tell me that they could sneak two cricketers on stage for a match and the crowd wouldn’t even notice? They are only interested in getting smashed, wearing fancy dress and questioning the personality of the furniture? No way, this is the blue ribbon darts event of the year, surely it is packed with darts fans?

This is of course an argument that has been raging for many years. Barry Hearn (and well done to him for putting his point across) popped his head over the Twitter parapet to basically say “stuff you” if you don’t like it. Barry claims that millions of fans all over the world love what the PDC do. He also points out that it is the fans in the Ally Pally, who have forked out their hard earned cash that fund the tournament. It’s not the armchair fans sitting at home moaning that the crowd don’t seem too interested in the darting athletes doing their thing that are spending any money.

It’s a good argument in some ways. I think though you do have to understand the mentality of the PDC and its glorious leader Uncle Barry to fully take it on board. The reason for living for the PDC is money, or more importantly profit. They don’t care if darts fans sit at Lakeside or anywhere else in respectful silence, their fans don’t, as long as the PDC are making millions they are happy.

The PDC don’t care about the grassroots, youth or county; that is not their thing. They have a product that works, they are making dart players millionaires so Barry does get a little confused as to what the fuss is about. He doesn’t get it, but he does get the money pouring in to his coffers!

On the other side of the mountain are the “real fans”. They don’t like the venues being filled up with fancy dress clad clubbers who use the darts as an excuse for a party. They don’t like the players being picked on or worse booed. They are also concerned about the safety of the spectators at the venue, there have been prophecies of a mass brawl one day at one of these events.

I do have some sympathies for these arguments too although I find it hard to believe there aren’t any fans present that go just for the darts. I don’t necessarily agree either that just because you are dressed up as the Honey Monster that this excludes you from appreciating what is going on in the match.

Booing and such like is part of sport. Yes it is disrespectful and blah blah blah. But a boo doesn’t affect the path of the dart so I much prefer to go down the road of the players taking responsibility for dealing with that sort of abuse.

With regard to fans not even watching the game then it does seem bizarre I admit. But they have paid for their ticket and once you have done that you take your choice! Perhaps us armchair fans need to get off our sofas, get along to these events and show Barry that you can sell tickets without demeaning the game as many would argue is happening now!

Tuesday December 23
7.10pm Vincent van der Voort (2/5) v John Henderson (9/4)
8.15pm Jermaine Wattimena (Evens) Robert Marijanovic (10/11)
9.00pm Mervyn King (1/6) v Max Hopp (5/1)
10.00pm Adrian Lewis (1/14) v David Pallett (19/2)
11.00pm Stephen Bunting (1/16) v Jermaine Wattimena/Robert Marijanovic (9/1)

Picture  by m_bartosch/www.freedigitalphotos.net

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