BBC SPORT | Special Events | 2000 | World Darts Championship


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Thursday, 4 January, 2001, 12:58 GMT

Absolute beginner checks out darts

All eyes on the stage at Frimley Green

The BBC's Matt Millington takes a trip to the famous Lakeside Country Club to get a unique, first-timer's insight into the Embassy World Darts Championship.

"You don't never show disrespect to the darts! You don't never show disrespect to the darts!"

So says Keith Talent, the scary central character and up-and-coming arrowman of Martin Amis' novel London Fields, as he pins the story's narrator against the wall for daring to call the game "dumb".

So should the non-aficionados of the darts world approach these mini-spear throwers and their entourage of fans with caution or not?

Strictly for oddballs?

Well, I was about to find out as I approached the Lakeside in Frimley Green, billed as "Britain's top cabaret club", for the Embassy Worlds.

I realised I was witnessing something special

Matt Millington on the Embassy World Darts Championship

Long had I witnessed the event on BBC TV, but actually going to attend was a different thing altogether.

I've enjoyed Robot Wars and even Winter Olympics curling on the small screen, but never would I consider making the trip for the live event - strictly for oddballs, surely?

Yet there was something about the fans' intensity, the players' down-to-earth characters, the groupies (yes - groupies!)... or perhaps it was just the drinking that drew me towards this event.

And so it was that I booked a table for a second round evening. Fears that I would not get rid of the tickets proved unfounded and within 48 hours I had a long waiting-list of closet fans eager to come on board. Anyway, £3.50 for a ticket? You can't even get a programme for that at many sporting events.

Not a happy man

John Inverdale had been fronting the BBC programme and his demeanour did not strike well. Here was a man brought up on the best of world sport suddenly thrust into oikdom.

It was like seeing Ranulph Fiennes on holiday in Butlins. He was clearly not a happy man.

Dutch darts fans are a noisy new breed

It was with some trepidation that we approached the Lakeside Country Club. Surly bouncers still awaiting their Charm School diplomas greeted us with a menacing look.

Inside it was truly lowest-common-denominator stuff: Pie, chips and beans from the canteen-style kitchen (not bad, actually); fizzy lager at pub prices; a thick haze of cigarette smoke (Embassy, presumably); the garish nylon tops of third division football teams stretched to the full on over-ripe bellies; a compere spouting non-PC jokes from the stage; a scrum at the on-site bookies; and the now obligatory "orange" table full of Dutchmen - the world's new breed of darts fans

Volume levels

But from the moment the compere declared: "Lets!... Play!... Darts!" in unison with the baying sell-out crowd of 2,000-plus, I realised I was witnessing something special.

John Inverdale's own fluffed intro for the sake of the BBC cameras - "Welcome to the Embassy World Snooker Championship" - is drowned out in howls of laughter, adding to the volume levels.

The crowd laps it up and it is impossible not to get sucked into it... this is pure, unadulterated theatre

Matt Millington

And then, it is time to Bring on The Gladiators. They strut proudly on stage to their own signature tunes, bedecked in finery, brandishing candelabras, cloaked in capes, soaking up the atmosphere.

The crowd laps it up and it is impossible not to get sucked in. This pure, unadulterated theatre.

True, some of the competitors spend less time on the oche than they do making their entrance, but that matters not to the casual fan.

Deathly hush

Sure, there are tables full of partisan groups, but for the most part everyone is there to enjoy themselves, whatever the outcome.

Yet, at the same time, matches that go to the wire instil a deathly hush, only to be broken as a player retrieves his arrows.

As the great Sid Waddell once said at a moment of tension: "You couldn't get more excitement here if Elvis Presley walked in eating a chip sandwich!"

And I swear, by the end of the tournament, even John Inverdale really looked like he was enjoying himself.