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Darts thread (1 Viewer)

titusbramble

titusbramble

Footballguy
We've got occasionally bumped threads for lots of non-mainstream (at least in the US) sports in the FFA, so why not one for darts? We're getting into the business end of the season (the majority of big tournaments take place in the winter), so what do we have coming up?

Starting tomorrow we have the Grand Slam of Darts - I'm at the afternoon session tomorrow, but this brings together all the big winners on the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) circuit, along with winners from a lot of their affiliate tours. The big name to watch for most people here is Stowe Buntz, a 44 year old from Virginia who was able to win the CDC (Championship Darts Corporation, the affiliated tour in North America) Continental Cup to get here, also having been able to win three of their tour events this season over the course of one weekend in Ontario to qualify for the world championship. He has a very tough group, facing twice world champion Peter "Snakebite" Wright, winner of multiple European Tour events this season Dave Chisnall, as well as former Lakeside champion Stephen Bunting, but he's shown flashes of quality play, so let's see what happens.

A couple of weeks from now we have the Players Championship - the culmination of a non-televised series of events, which sees the top 64 players face off in one knockout event, which is the final event of the year before the big one. The players to watch for here are Jules van Dongen, an American/Dutch prospect who has been improving rapidly in the last six months and just crept into the field as one of the last players to qualify, but has a tough draw against TV title winner Damon Heta from Australia, while Canada's Matt Campbell will also have a tough draw against former UK Open champion Danny Noppert in the opening round.

Then we get into world championship season. Here there is a cluster - there is a "world championship" hosted by the organisers of, for all intents and purposes, the game below the ultra-elite level in the WDF, here you will see very good players in Danny Lauby (seeded, possibly facing former PDC world semi finalist Jamie Lewis in his first game), Leonard Gates (not seeded, but with a very winnable preliminary game before coming into a first round proper tie against French finalist from last time Thibault Tricole) and veteran Jim Widmayer (who has a tough tie against the Hungarian Patrik Kovacs)

But for all intents and purposes, the big world championship is the PDC event. Taking place at London's Alexandra Palace over Christmas, this has all the top players in the world with a £2.5m (over $3m) prize pool, with 96 players facing off in a knockout event to decide who will be the champion of the world, taking home the title and half a million pounds in prize money. Notable players for North American include the aforementioned Buntz, Campbell and van Dongen, as well as Alex Spellman, probably the strongest American player we've seen since Larry Butler at his peak. Televised last year on DAZN in the US, which I assume to continue this year, this is the ultimate party atmosphere which will see defending champion Michael Smith attempt to retain his title against a raft of challengers, including three times champion Michael van Gerwen, a resurgent twice champion Gary Anderson, and a recent first time major champion Luke Humphries amongst others.

Will post up previews when we get into the PDC worlds season (I run a pretty comprehensive darts blog so will just link to things there probably), but let's see if there's any interest in all things darts first
 
Is this the sport you mentioned in the records thread with this post?
Don Bradman could have had another 40 straight ducks after his last Test innings was a duck and he'd still have the highest career batting average
Click to expand...
 
I remember when I first moved into my house 13 years ago. Within a couple months I had met our neighbor two doors down, so we would hang out in my garage. I had a dart board in there, beer fridge, tv for sports - the whole works.

Within about 6 months all the neighbors across the street and such would hang out every Friday or Saturday night and just have some pops, throw some darts, etc.

So one night, one of my neighbors asks if he can bring a buddy from the next street over to play some darts. I say, sure, bring him on over.

At this point we had been drinking for a couple three hours already, so we are going pretty good at this point.

This guy saunters in, mouth a roaring already. He’s wearing a Liverpool soccer jersey or something like that. Pulls his own darts outta his pocket so I start giving my buddy the ‘ol:

”Hey, who’s this ringer you‘re bringing over here with his own darts and ****”.

So this new guy just starts yapping his mouth. Talking about how when he was in the military he would go overseas and just kick everyone’s *** at darts. How all these guys had never seen such a good American dart player blah blah blah.

I look at one of my buddies and just roll my eyes. He gives me the look like “who the fook is this guy.”

So new guy asks if we are gonna play some darts. So I’m like, sure. I’ll pair up with my buddy and you pair up with the other neighbor that brought ya.

Guy opens the dart case and starts pulling them out, just yapping like an ankle biter dog. Finally he blurts out:

”Man, when we used to go into the English pubs I would just dominate those English guys. They would get drunk and I would just sit back and kick their ***.”

So I say something like: “Wow, you must be pretty good then.”

He then says: “ But the Irish, I could never beat those guys. The more they drank the better they got.”

So I look him square in the eye and say:

”Well, you’re fooked because I’m Irish and I’ve had 9 beers already tonight.”

Me and my buddy proceeded to completely wax this dude and the neighbor that brought him three games in a row at cricket. Like, completely destroyed. Me and my buddy could barely see. But we were hitting triples all over the place.

And he and I are just yucking it up, high fiving and chest bumping and yapping like crazy. Dude is just looking at us like he’s watching Tiger Woods play golf. Shaking his head like WTF did I just walk into here.

I’ll never forget it. One of my finest hours.

:lol: :suds:
 
Buntz's dream big tournament debut continues with a 5-3 win over former Lakeside winner Stephen Bunting, which combined with results elsewhere sees him into the knockout stages, becoming the first American to reach that stage since Darin Young back in the noughties
 
I used to enjoy watching the championships from Ally Pally over the holidays when it used to be on ESPN. I think the broadcasts moved to BBC-America for a year before going behind a paywall. I'll watch if I can find them again this year.

I hung a dartboard up in our backyard during the pandemic and played against my daughter before dinner. I printed a picture of Phil Taylor and hung it next to the board until his face had too many holes to be respectful to the great man.

www.youtube.com

Stand up If You Love the Darts

Provided to YouTube by Kontor New Media GmbHStand up If You Love the Darts · Rick ArenaStand Up If You Love The Darts℗ Produced by Fiebich / Rötgens / Weßlin...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
Eephus said:
I used to enjoy watching the championships from Ally Pally over the holidays when it used to be on ESPN. I think the broadcasts moved to BBC-America for a year before going behind a paywall. I'll watch if I can find them again this year.
Click to expand...

I believe that DAZN has it this year, but it is relatively trivial to find a stream if you want to hunt it down
 
Zigg said:
Are Price, Smith and MvG still the dominant players? I haven’t watched in a while.
Click to expand...

Price and van Gerwen still absolutely up there. Smith's not played great away from TV but looks like he's cranking up the form for the business end of the season. Gary Anderson's back in form and probably playing the best of anyone statistically, while Luke Humphries has stepped up from nearly man to having now won a major title and very much in the equation. The game's so deep nowadays, it's not like 5-6 years ago where it was MvG then a huge gap to everyone, there's at least a dozen players who could win any given tournament and it wouldn't surprise me
 
Wow, I'm way out of darts after being in it for quite a while. Phil Taylor handed me his first place trophy at the inaugural Las Vegas Desert Classic to sign my program. Eric Bristow hit on my girlfriend and told me to keep my day job at a N.A. Open. I lived with Steve Brown's sister in law. I never won anything serious, but I drank a lot of beer. Good Times!
 
ChiefD said:
I remember when I first moved into my house 13 years ago. Within a couple months I had met our neighbor two doors down, so we would hang out in my garage. I had a dart board in there, beer fridge, tv for sports - the whole works.

Within about 6 months all the neighbors across the street and such would hang out every Friday or Saturday night and just have some pops, throw some darts, etc.

So one night, one of my neighbors asks if he can bring a buddy from the next street over to play some darts. I say, sure, bring him on over.

At this point we had been drinking for a couple three hours already, so we are going pretty good at this point.

This guy saunters in, mouth a roaring already. He’s wearing a Liverpool soccer jersey or something like that. Pulls his own darts outta his pocket so I start giving my buddy the ‘ol:

”Hey, who’s this ringer you‘re bringing over here with his own darts and ****”.

So this new guy just starts yapping his mouth. Talking about how when he was in the military he would go overseas and just kick everyone’s *** at darts. How all these guys had never seen such a good American dart player blah blah blah.

I look at one of my buddies and just roll my eyes. He gives me the look like “who the fook is this guy.”

So new guy asks if we are gonna play some darts. So I’m like, sure. I’ll pair up with my buddy and you pair up with the other neighbor that brought ya.

Guy opens the dart case and starts pulling them out, just yapping like an ankle biter dog. Finally he blurts out:

”Man, when we used to go into the English pubs I would just dominate those English guys. They would get drunk and I would just sit back and kick their ***.”

So I say something like: “Wow, you must be pretty good then.”

He then says: “ But the Irish, I could never beat those guys. The more they drank the better they got.”

So I look him square in the eye and say:

”Well, you’re fooked because I’m Irish and I’ve had 9 beers already tonight.”

Me and my buddy proceeded to completely wax this dude and the neighbor that brought him three games in a row at cricket. Like, completely destroyed. Me and my buddy could barely see. But we were hitting triples all over the place.

And he and I are just yucking it up, high fiving and chest bumping and yapping like crazy. Dude is just looking at us like he’s watching Tiger Woods play golf. Shaking his head like WTF did I just walk into here.

I’ll never forget it. One of my finest hours.

:lol: :suds:
Click to expand...
This is better than the season finale of Ted Lasso!!!
 
ChiefD said:
I remember when I first moved into my house 13 years ago. Within a couple months I had met our neighbor two doors down, so we would hang out in my garage. I had a dart board in there, beer fridge, tv for sports - the whole works.

Within about 6 months all the neighbors across the street and such would hang out every Friday or Saturday night and just have some pops, throw some darts, etc.

So one night, one of my neighbors asks if he can bring a buddy from the next street over to play some darts. I say, sure, bring him on over.

At this point we had been drinking for a couple three hours already, so we are going pretty good at this point.

This guy saunters in, mouth a roaring already. He’s wearing a Liverpool soccer jersey or something like that. Pulls his own darts outta his pocket so I start giving my buddy the ‘ol:

”Hey, who’s this ringer you‘re bringing over here with his own darts and ****”.

So this new guy just starts yapping his mouth. Talking about how when he was in the military he would go overseas and just kick everyone’s *** at darts. How all these guys had never seen such a good American dart player blah blah blah.

I look at one of my buddies and just roll my eyes. He gives me the look like “who the fook is this guy.”

So new guy asks if we are gonna play some darts. So I’m like, sure. I’ll pair up with my buddy and you pair up with the other neighbor that brought ya.

Guy opens the dart case and starts pulling them out, just yapping like an ankle biter dog. Finally he blurts out:

”Man, when we used to go into the English pubs I would just dominate those English guys. They would get drunk and I would just sit back and kick their ***.”

So I say something like: “Wow, you must be pretty good then.”

He then says: “ But the Irish, I could never beat those guys. The more they drank the better they got.”

So I look him square in the eye and say:

”Well, you’re fooked because I’m Irish and I’ve had 9 beers already tonight.”

Me and my buddy proceeded to completely wax this dude and the neighbor that brought him three games in a row at cricket. Like, completely destroyed. Me and my buddy could barely see. But we were hitting triples all over the place.

And he and I are just yucking it up, high fiving and chest bumping and yapping like crazy. Dude is just looking at us like he’s watching Tiger Woods play golf. Shaking his head like WTF did I just walk into here.

I’ll never forget it. One of my finest hours.

:lol: :suds:
Click to expand...
that is a great story and i have one like it too a long time ago i was out west with a bunch of guys fishing and we stopped into a bar in montana with a pool table now i am not a flashy guy and i look pretty much like you think a guy who grew up working in factories would look and im normally in jeans with work boots on and a flannel with the sleeves rolled up anyhow im there with a group and one guy in particular who we will call gill for this story cause its a fishing story anyhow ole gill is a banker and richer than god and he is something of a dandy and when we are fishing im out there in my very well used stuff that i could barely afford as it was and hes there upstream of me in thousand dollar waders and waving around an even more expensive rod and reel combo and he hasnt caught jack you know what all day and they were biting so it wasnt the fish if you know what im saying anyhow we get into this bar and its a typical montana place rough but not too rough and with a working class crowd my kind of people but old gill you know he sort of looks out of place just too fancy but they have a pool table and there are people putting down their quarters and getting in line and gill says hey swc lets go play some pool so he walks up and puts down some quarters for us and hes like half the size of the guys who were playing who it ends up were literally cowhands straight off of a ranch and in town for some fun that night so when we finally get up to play gill says how about we put twenty on this one and i say hey man too rich for my blood and he says dont worry swcer i got you covered and then says and this is the quote you break and then ill win that is what he do say well hells bells whatever ole gill couldnt do on the river with the trout he sure as hell could do on a pool table he was like minnesota fats and literally i would break and make one and then maybe get another one or two in before i missed and then the other team would go until they missed and then gill would run the rest of the table like it was his job well now these cowpokes are pissed because truly old gill was a total shark and had completely laid in the weeds about it and they started calling him orvis and all this and were starting to give him a few bad looks but gill says hey dont worry about the bet and let it go and then said i will buy us all a round i just like paying pool and he did multiple times it ends up gill is actually a hell of a guy and has a pool table in his house that he plays on constantly and anyhow we ended up buds with the cowpokes and just about everyone else in the bar who came over to play pool that night becuase old orvy kept buying pitchers and i won out the entire night and all i ever did was break and that is a true story brohans take that to the bank
 
I’ve gotten back into darts because of this thread, and I believe darts partially exist for commentators to rattle off silly English sayings. Today I just learned:

“He’s really put the cat amongst the pigeons.” Half the greatness of darts is the commentary. I’ve watched 3 highlight clips on the trot. Back to the tungsten titans.
 
Zigg said:
Also, I have no idea why John Part isn’t a Canadian icon. It’s a travesty.
Click to expand...

I'm a huge fan of pretty much the entire set of players who were opponents of Taylor at his peak. Part, Priestley, Baxter, Manley, Dudbridge, Barney etc. Arguably the greatest of all time but so easy to dislike

Buntz managed to get up to a 5-0 lead in the first session against Gilding in the last sixteen and get over the line from there, but tomorrow he'll play Stephen Bunting in the quarter finals who's maybe the most underrated player on the circuit right now. Buntz got the win in the group stage but a first to 16 is going to be a huge step up in match length and think it will be part of the difference
 
Played a little cricket last night - have always enjoyed the game.

Used to be (30 yrs ago) on a local dart team which was just another reason to drink back then. Now it’s every Thursday night at the local pub with some friends - they trying to get me to join a dart league but just don’t have the time for it now.

Also have a board in the garage/man cave.

When I watch the tournament on TV with the pro’s I’m always amazed at the amount of people in attendance watching these events.
 
Grand Slam final show starts in about an hour, major winner from this year Luke Humphries ought to be around a -175 favourite against former world champion Rob Cross
 
Play all the time. Cricket. Got like 6 other guys in the hood that play. Usually play every 2 weeks or so.We have a wrestling belt for the champion. I am the current holder and have had it for 6 months.
 
titusbramble said:
World championship draw is made, will list the NA interest:

Michael Smith v Kevin Doets/Stowe Buntz
Krzysztof Ratajski v Jamie Hughes/David Cameron
James Wade v Matt Campbell/Lourence Ilagan
Stephen Bunting v Ryan Joyce/Alex Spellman
Joe Cullen v Jules van Dongen/Darren Penhall

Full draw - https://www.pdc.tv/news/2023/11/27/202324-paddy-power-world-darts-championship-draw-confirmed
Click to expand...
How often do the favorites win these matches? I've been known amongst my friends to bet parlays on sports and people I have never heard of or watched and win good money.

Always looking for something to throw a dart at.
 
ChiefD said:
titusbramble said:
World championship draw is made, will list the NA interest:

Michael Smith v Kevin Doets/Stowe Buntz
Krzysztof Ratajski v Jamie Hughes/David Cameron
James Wade v Matt Campbell/Lourence Ilagan
Stephen Bunting v Ryan Joyce/Alex Spellman
Joe Cullen v Jules van Dongen/Darren Penhall

Full draw - https://www.pdc.tv/news/2023/11/27/202324-paddy-power-world-darts-championship-draw-confirmed
Click to expand...
How often do the favorites win these matches? I've been known amongst my friends to bet parlays on sports and people I have never heard of or watched and win good money.

Always looking for something to throw a dart at.
Click to expand...

Usually about as often as the market suggests
 
Hey Dartguys…

Looking to buy a NICE setup for the house. Are all the store bought ones the same? Should I just get a regular dartboard and build my own case?

TIA
 
STEADYMOBBIN 22 said:
need2know said:
STEADYMOBBIN 22 said:
Hey Dartguys…

Looking to buy a NICE setup for the house. Are all the store bought ones the same? Should I just get a regular dartboard and build my own case?

TIA
Click to expand...

i have a pretty basic cabinet but make sure you get a Winmau blade board. they are the best imo
Click to expand...
Thanks! How about darts?
Click to expand...

i have been getting these off amazon

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

but i have bounced around and used all kinds of brands. you prob gonna have to take a chance with some
 
need2know said:
STEADYMOBBIN 22 said:
need2know said:
STEADYMOBBIN 22 said:
Hey Dartguys…

Looking to buy a NICE setup for the house. Are all the store bought ones the same? Should I just get a regular dartboard and build my own case?

TIA
Click to expand...

i have a pretty basic cabinet but make sure you get a Winmau blade board. they are the best imo
Click to expand...
Thanks! How about darts?
Click to expand...

i have been getting these off amazon

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

but i have bounced around and used all kinds of brands. you prob gonna have to take a chance with some
Click to expand...

Oh those look nice. Thanks again, Merry Christmas!
 
STEADYMOBBIN 22 said:
need2know said:
STEADYMOBBIN 22 said:
Hey Dartguys…

Looking to buy a NICE setup for the house. Are all the store bought ones the same? Should I just get a regular dartboard and build my own case?

TIA
Click to expand...

i have a pretty basic cabinet but make sure you get a Winmau blade board. they are the best imo
Click to expand...
Thanks! How about darts?
Click to expand...
Be pretty careful buying darts off of any American-based specialists, it certainly used to be the case that they added enormous amounts of markup and it was cheaper to buy the equivalent products from UK based suppliers like Red Dragon, Darts Corner etc and have it shipped. Wouldn't try that with a board because weight, but you can get pretty decent sets over here for no more than £20 (~$25). Will second the Blade recommendation for the board itself, although there's quite a few decent alternatives these days, only ones I'd avoid are Unicorn's range as they're not particularly hard wearing and will deteriorate quicker than others
 
Also had the first seeding upset today in the worlds with Canada's Matt Campbell knocking out multiple major title winner James Wade, although Man Lol Leung defeating Gian van Veen in the first round yesterday was a bigger upset just looking at the pure odds, approaching half way through the first two rounds tomorrow
 
STEADYMOBBIN 22 said:
need2know said:
STEADYMOBBIN 22 said:
need2know said:
STEADYMOBBIN 22 said:
Hey Dartguys…

Looking to buy a NICE setup for the house. Are all the store bought ones the same? Should I just get a regular dartboard and build my own case?

TIA
Click to expand...

i have a pretty basic cabinet but make sure you get a Winmau blade board. they are the best imo
Click to expand...
Thanks! How about darts?
Click to expand...

i have been getting these off amazon

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

but i have bounced around and used all kinds of brands. you prob gonna have to take a chance with some
Click to expand...

Oh those look nice. Thanks again, Merry Christmas!
Click to expand...

same brother
 
In terms of what darts are best for you, n2k is right that you'll just need to try a few and see what works for you. Cheapest way would be if you have a bar with a board near you that has sets you can borrow (or also ask someone playing if you can have some throws with theirs) to gauge whether you have any sort of preference for longer or shorter barrels, barrel shape, weight, grip etc before putting any decent money on a set. If you get even remotely serious into it you will want to upgrade from brass to tungsten, the denser metal makes an ENORMOUS difference and is absolutely worth the investment - once you have a rough idea what works for you. Which isn't overnight, I've been playing 20 years and have gone through at least ten different sets and I still suck and don't know what the right darts for me are
 
Spellman got off to a great start today, but Ryan Joyce was just too strong, against a weaker opponent Alex could quite easily have come through but you can't choose your draws unfortunately.

But the big story tonight is sixteen year old Luke Littler annihilating his opponent 3-0 in sets with an absurdly high average, cutting him down in the betting markets to one of the top five or six players to win the whole thing. He plays tomorrow again in the next round around 2pm EST, but hilariously the two questions that have generally been raised are:

- how is he that fat at 16
- he's not 16, he's 35, right?
 
Alright, we are down to the semi finals, and we have former winner Rob Cross, who came from 4-0 down to win 5-4, up against the aforementioned Littler, who demolished surprise quarter finalist Brendan Dolan 5-1, Dolan having already knocked out Gerwyn Price and Gary Anderson, but couldn't live with Littler. In the other semi, Luke Humphries had few issues in the quarters but dodged bullets in the previous couple of rounds, and he'll face Scott Williams, the relatively unheralded player having previously beaten both Danny Noppert and Damon Heta but took advantage of a seriously below par performance from Michael van Gerwen to get the 5-3 win. Semis start 1430 ET tomorrow, and the final will be from 1500 ET on Wednesday
 
This Littler kid is such a huge sensation he’s now transcending the dart world and seems to be taking the UK by storm, even broaching the US media consciousness recently. Would have been awesome had he won the final but still a great story.
 
Great news today for the US as both Jules van Dongen and Danny Lauby secured their tour cards for 2024-25, van Dongen getting it straight back and Lauby winning it for the first time, Alex Spellman was close but unfortunately one game short of joining them, but we've got two Americans who'll be plying their trade with the elite of the game for the next two years, along with the first players from Italy and New Zealand and only the second players from France and Denmark as the sport continues to grow internationally
 
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