 SURREY
DARTS
by Martin Cullip
As
appearing in the May Issue of Dart World
Youth Left in the Dark, but the Future’s Bright
Anyone who has ever played this quirky game of ours
will know that nothing is ever certain when your hobby is slinging
the tungsten against the sisal. A World-beating game can follow one
where you’d struggle to beat your Gran; A stolen leg can lead to another
where you’re 300 ahead but hit a brick wall on the double & spend
the rest of the week re-living the match, kicking the DFS sofa into
the middle of next week, much to the dismay of the other half who
took the double discount & still has to start paying for it in
May next year, damaged or not!
The only thing you can be sure of is that the lights
will still light up the board no matter how well or badly you play.
Actually, you’d be wrong if you thought that as the Surrey Youth side
found themselves in the middle of a blackout during their home clash
with Cornwall on the 10th April. Derick Wright was one leg up in his
match with Cornwall’s Shaun Burden when a power cut plunged the venue
into darkness & had the assembled organisers fumbling for their
rulebooks to find out if Derick’s first dart of the second leg, which
had found a comfortable home in the 60 bed, was to be counted or not.
30 minutes later, with the Epsom electricity board
apparently struggling to find someone to ride the bike that powered
the generator, the match had to be moved to somewhere with big windows
so that the final 3 games could be completed. Derick finally won his
match 2-1 & Surrey ended the encounter 12-5 victors, but while
their venue was as dark as a stick of liquorice in the Channel Tunnel,
the youth side’s prospects are decidedly bright.
If you haven’t attended a youth game recently, then
perhaps you’d better take a look as the youngsters seem to be a darn
site better than when this correspondent was young enough to take
part (please insert your own jokes about how long ago that was, I’m
trying to be serious here!).
There’s nothing like building a young team to challenge
for the future, but it seemed at first that the Cornwall side had
taken this too far as a couple of the early visiting players barely
reached the waists of their opponents. However, no matter the size,
the application was evident & no players were outclassed. The
away side grew in size as the draw went on though & so did the
problems for the home side. Anthony Hopkins struggled to a Man of
the Match award in his single, whilst Dave Crook & Chris ‘Tubes’
Forbes lost against accomplished opposition in Danny Symons &
James Chudleigh.
There followed a reserve game, where the very young
Oliver Harwood grunted Monica Seles-like through two legs as his 3
foot frame strained to reach up to the 20 bed with an incredible amount
of success, before the Girls then helped out nicely with a 3-0 win,
Faye Ketchell being prominent by producing her best game of the season
to oust Cornwall’s prodigy Tyrian Jesse & ensure a victory to
Surrey on the day.
If all that had preceded was of surprisingly good
quality, the Under 21’s pushed the envelope that bit further with
a set of matches that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Senior
Mens B Team. Ashley Smith was simply blown away by Cornwall’s Matt
Knowles before David Webb narrowly missed a 158 checkout on his way
to the equaliser.
Then came the blackout that had some of the older
Epsom Legion regulars nervously listening out for doodle-bugs &
had Derick Wright thinking that he knew a treble 20 could cause his
opponent damage but didn’t think it would have created so much chaos
with the Club’s electrics!
The match was finally resumed on a board situated
next to a large window that allowed the prehistoric sun to take over
where 21st Century technology had failed. Derick was finally successful
in three legs, followed by quality displays in the final two matches
that afforded a point apiece to each County. The setting may have
changed but the young players seemed happy to kick lumps out of one
another wherever they were asked to throw. What was it that Roy Castle
sang about dedication? These kids have got it in spades!
I suppose it’s a fact of evolution that each generation
will out-perform the last, and as Leonardo Da Vinci noted “It’s a
poor student that doesn’t surpass his teacher”, but many will be unaware
of how talented some of our future players really are. On the evidence
shown at this match, I’d give Super League players the following advice:
Know thine enemy. Get thee to a youth team match, support the kids
& get a preview of who is going to be beating you in a couple
of years time. Think ahead & think of tactics, but forget about
fiddling with the lights during play as it doesn’t wash & may
only make things worse!
Surrey Crack the Codes
 OK,
we’ve read the letters page, we know the BDO don’t like the PDC &
we’re fairly certain the feeling’s mutual, but Surrey players seem
to be able to flourish in either environment if the weekend of April
9th/10th is anything to go by, so we’ll happily keep out of that particular
brand of politics for now.
On the BDO front, Apylee Jones made a successful
return to the England Ladies team in the Home Internationals, winning
both her matches by 3 legs to 1 & registering a 27.33 average
against Scotland that was just a smidgeon less than all-conquering
Trina Gulliver’s mark. Yes, I’m banging the Apylee drum again but
I’m sure it won’t be long before our Kingston-based international
is banging on the door of the Lakeside with equal fervour.
Meanwhile, in Sheffield, Jimmy Mann (pictured
left) was realising some of his undoubted potential, as predicted
in this column two months ago, by winning the PDC’s Budweiser UK Open
Midlands Qualifier. £4,000 in cash will no doubt go down well
in the Mann camp as investment material for future raids on the PDC
circuit, but a guaranteed place at Bolton for the Finals & 20
ranking points will be equally well received. On the way to the victory,
Jimmy beat Mark Dudbridge for the third time in as many meetings …
that’s what you get when you dare to nick Jimmy’s pint!
The Dirty Dozen
As reported here last month, Walton Working Mens
Club regained what they would term as their rightful place at the
top of the Super League & will contest the Champion of Champions
for the umpteenth time. Of course, the League wouldn’t be as successful
as it is without the other 11 teams, so here’s the Surrey Column end
of season report.
Walton Working Mens Club: They won.
Far too much said about them already. Next!
Ditton FC: Won last year, this time
they had a few problems. Being deducted 3 points for player abnormalities
didn’t help, but then with so many abnormal players what did they
expect?
Golden Lion: Croydon’s finest. That’s
not much of a boast if you’ve seen Croydon!
Salfords: Battled well & boasted
the best player in the League in Dave Askew. Dave is currently receiving
back treatment after carrying the others.
Golden Lion A: Second best in Croydon.
Rather like losing to Jimmy Krankie in a beauty contest really!
St Peters: Nicknamed the Saints
& they play out of a Church Social Club. Were crucified a few
times. Amen.
Metropole: The yokels of the County
did well this year. They may suffer with the new League rule about
chewing barley on the oche though.
Hersham: The last season we’ll see
this crowd. The ‘laced up boots & corduroys’ will be sorely missed.
Jubilee Club: Guildford is a posh
town, their team ain’t.
Worcester Park Athletic: The Club
is hard to find, a win there is quite a bit easier.
The Princess: A right royal name
for a side that had less success than Camilla in her modelling career.
Rhodrons: The Chessington side had
a World of Adventures this season. Not quite Enid Blyton though as
most of them ended in a right kicking.
The new season begins in early September, so to conclude
the end of term report: “progress has been made, can do better”
Celtic Warriors
There’s not a lot to say about Surrey’s latest Inter-County
fixture except that it was a job well done. Sitting precariously just
above the relegation places and with the teams below, Berkshire &
Northumberland, playing each other, a poor performance could well
have dragged us into a last match scrap for our Division One survival,
but some determined displays in Pontypridd meant that Surrey are almost
certain to take part in another season at this level after a brave
14-22 defeat.
The trip to the undulating valleys of South Wales
produced a plethora of highs & lows, the undoubted bright spots
being the 4-2 wins from both the Ladies sides. Apylee Jones (20.59)
took lady of the match in the A & Ladies Captain Tania Blake (16.77)
earned the same award in the B, and the Ladies performances were welcomed
by the Mens B & A sides that suffered 4-8 & 2-10 defeats respectively.
The County weren’t outclassed as had been expected
from such a strong Glamorgan side, indeed, in a match that provided
no hiding place, no Surrey player was found to be wanting in determination.
Steve Lovett (31.17) won a World Class match with Glamorgan Captain
Steve Gillet for the A team match award, whilst Peter Arnold (26.25)
also pulled out all the stops for his County in the Saturday game.
Relatively safe from relegation, Mens Team Manager
& Royal Mail employee Tony Cartwright now has licence to reveal
a few new faces for the final match of the year … that’ll be Postman
Pat & his black & white cat then.
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