And so he trained as an electrician, playing the odd local competition to keep his eye in. In October 2015, he tried to qualify for the smaller British Darts Organisation world championship, and was disqualified for sipping a glass of water. No drinks were allowed on stage. “I was branded a cheat,” he says. “I’ve never cheated at anything. That hurt me. For a few months, I fell out of love with the game.”

Good job ifm isn't reading that!

seriously though wasn't it a school boy error on his part not to know the rule re no drinking onstage? Anyone recall this happening?

devosteve wrote:And so he trained as an electrician, playing the odd local competition to keep his eye in. In October 2015, he tried to qualify for the smaller British Darts Organisation world championship, and was disqualified for sipping a glass of water. No drinks were allowed on stage. “I was branded a cheat,” he says. “I’ve never cheated at anything. That hurt me. For a few months, I fell out of love with the game.”

Good job ifm isn't reading that!

seriously though wasn't it a school boy error on his part not to know the rule re no drinking onstage? Anyone recall this happening?

I assume it would have been at the Kent (?) qualifier, having no liquid on stage at all seems rather draconian though. Someone should have stopped him taking it on in the first place.

Then again, the date given is October so may have been the Masters. No stage qualifiers there, so maybe something lost in translation.

ssjsa wrote:Interesting article on Chris Mason

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/oth ... on-1562623

I enjoyed watching that and have a bit more respect for Mason now. I was not fully aware of his mental health issues until I watched that.

But, he says in the interview that he does not drink anymore, I could have swore he was sitting there supping a pint of Thatchers.

Just like when Phil Taylor claimed he hadnt been in a pub for 20-odd years, despite being the landlord of one during that time.

Interview with Phil Taylor.

Interview with Chris Mason.

Great, honest interview from Mace there.

Mark McGeeney believes joining the Dartan Army can help him “focus” on BDO World Championship glory.


The Gladiator has this week linked-up with Dunvegan Darts alongside Tommy Gilmour and double world champion Gary Anderson.


New BDO world number one McGeeney has leapfrogged Lakeside World Champion Glen Durrant as top dog and now wants to kick on for major title success.


McGeeney, 42, revealed: "I'm over the moon to have joined up with Dunvegan. It's a real honour and great opportunity for me.


"It’s a proper professional management team and I’ve always winged it in the past. I’ve been a one-man band all my career and it’s been a struggle at times. But now I have their backing I can just concentrate on my darts.


"I think that will make a huge difference to me. You can get caught up worrying about travel, bookings and all sorts of stuff, but now that’s organised for me and I can focus on my game.


"The sky's the limit for me now. My game will improve now, I know that for sure and I feel I can kick on for more success.


"The likes of Tommy and Gary have done it all before. Tommy has managed world champions in boxing and darts and knows how to handle everything. 


"All the boys in the Dunvegan stable have been great to me. They have great players and nice guys like Gary, Michael Smith, Ian White, Chris Dobey, Adam Hunt and Chris Quantock. We immediately clicked and that's perfect for me."


McGeeney enjoyed a fine run at the Lakeside but couldn not stop Durrant wrapping up a second successive world title. 


But the Coventry ace has vowed never to miss out again. He added: “I want to keep that World No 1 spot and I want to win major tournaments. The World Trophy is coming up, I want to try and win that and then the World Masters and then Lakeside.


"I played Glen a month after Lakeside and beat him in the Dutch Open Final. I said to myself after Lakeside, I’m never going to let him beat me again.


"I'm also guaranteed a Grand Slam place which is something I’m really looking forward to, it’s my favourite tournament of the year. To compete against the PDC guys, it’s going to be fun.”


McGeeney also revealed that he did not get his nickname from watching 90s TV hit show Gladiators, adding: "It's got nothing to do with Wolf or Shadow I can assure you!


"I just thought that dart players were like Gladiators in a coliseum, with small arrows, not spears, obviously!"


McGeeney is best-priced at 13/2 with Sportingbet to win the 2019 BDO Lakeside world title.

Ssjsa not crediting his source, there.

"World number one" 13/2 to be Lakeside champion.

He'd be off to Q-school next year.

See Aaron Monk won the Basingstoke Open earlier today.

ssjsa wrote:See Aaron Monk won the Basingstoke Open earlier today.

They have comps at Bank Holidays at the local snooker club.
Hogie normally cleans up, some good names attend these days. Reynolds and a few others.
A tenner to enter.

BlueSpark wrote:

ssjsa wrote:See Aaron Monk won the Basingstoke Open earlier today.

They have comps at Bank Holidays at the local snooker club.
Hogie normally cleans up, some good names attend these days. Reynolds and a few others.
A tenner to enter.

Went down to the Hampshire Open a few years ago, that was a really well run comp.

Monk Snr had a good run that day.

Lee Taylor wrote:

BlueSpark wrote:

ssjsa wrote:See Aaron Monk won the Basingstoke Open earlier today.

They have comps at Bank Holidays at the local snooker club.
Hogie normally cleans up, some good names attend these days. Reynolds and a few others.
A tenner to enter.

Went down to the Hampshire Open a few years ago, that was a really well run comp.

Monk Snr had a good run that day.

Been a few times now, a most enjoyable weekend.
Last went in 2016, Rob Cross won it. Threw some unbelievable darts.
The Basingstoke one isn't really an open, just a comp run by Angela Hogan every Bank Holiday. Becoming ever more popular, lots of entries.
Any time anyone from here wants to enter, give me a shout and I'll pop over.

Bruce Terrett wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018 ... itch-stoke

I'm in London shortly and was looking for a darts pub. Came across the Shoreditch flight club. Interesting concept. I wonder if it will thrive or not.

If you played two hours of snooker you'd pay. Not sure what the problem is, other than the clientele.

Black Velvet wrote:If you played two hours of snooker you'd pay. Not sure what the problem is, other than the clientele.

And with snooker you ain't getting any fancy digital gizmos. From the video it looks like a good experience.

A DARTS fanatic has had a custom-made PDC-branded glass eye fitted.

Marc Jones, from Newcastle, had his eye removed last October and decided to get the Official PDC logo printed onto the front of his new false eye.

"When I found out I had to get my eye removed I was a bit dubious about getting a false eye," explained Marc.

"But then I decided to just go for it and get something totally different.

"I'm darts mad so I thought what better image to have on my glass eye than the PDC logo!

"Every chance I get I'm watching PDC darts, whether it's live at the events or on TV so my new false eye represents how much the sport means to me.

"I'm very pleased with how the eye has turned out, it's much clearer than I thought it would be and it looks really smart."