[Other Sport] How can people watch DARTS ?

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Bar billiards is far more entertaining

 

[Whitechapel]

Personally think it is miles clear of most sports on TV.

Then again I think I’d rather drink lead paint than watch shit like snooker or F1 though.

Different strokes for different folks, and all that.

 

[Stato]

Yup.

The Indoor League - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I could turn this very easily into the Sid appreciation thread. He also commentated on nine ball pool, another "niche" (pub) sport I like to watch as well as play. He put just as much effort into his phrases and jokes for that as he did for the darts.

We met him in Frimley because my mate I went with is a Geordie and had a Newcastle top on and he talked to us like grown men instead of the half drunk 20 year olds we were.

Talking of nine ball, years later I saw Efren Reyes in Taipei after a pool tournament I'd watched. He was buying beers for, chatting with and smoking with the ex pat Filipinos who'd been supporting him..

Clearly not everyone who comes from humble beginnings and succeeds forgets their upbringing.

The few years in the late eighties / early nineties when Sid commentated on Higgins, White and Davies bolstering Europe's Mosconi Cup challenge were some of the most fun sporting broadcasts ever. When Higgins and White twigged that they won if they sank the nine ball with a plant at any point in the frame, it just turned into those two drinking beer and attempting elaborate trick shots whilst Waddell got more and more excited.

 

[um bongo molongo]

Loved Sid. Cambridge English graduate who I once saw interviewed about his favourite novel: Stephen King' s 'The Stand'. Absolutely no pretensions about the bloke. He loved darts and understood the theatre of the whole business. I grew up playing darts. My dad taught me maths sat on the sofa with a board at our feet, so I'm biased, but have been absolutely thrilled by some matches on the telly.

Each to their own and everything is subjective. With TV sport there is only one unarguable fact: Nobody really enjoys F1. They must all be pretending. They just must be. It's awful.

I went to the Hungarian Grand Prix on a stag do. For about 3 minutes it’s impressive. It’s loud and they go fast. But good god does it get dull quickly.

 

[maltaseagull]

If you don't get it then you can't be helped and just leave it for those of us who do and who enjoy the drama of a World Championship match. Jose De Sousa fought back from 3-0 down to win 4-3 earlier in one of the matches of the year - if that's not something you can enjoy then there's nothing for me to say to you.

I also love a good Snooker match, it's such a different vibe but there's real sporting drama and tension in a competitive, top level match.

Both require huge amounts of skill and dedication but sport? Never.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Darts is something you should only attempt to watch when you're drunk.

 

[Easy 10]

I feel the same about wrestling as a spectacle … it’s tripe.

Agreed. But darts is at least competitive.

I cannot get my head round the (adult) goons with their scrawled cardboard signs who go to watch wrestling. Might as well go to the circus.

 

[ManOfSussex]

A lot of ignorance and sneering in this thread. Coming from a darting hotbed like I do, a place that former PDC world champion and current world number 6 Rob 'High Voltage' Cross, former PDC world championship semi finalist Shayne 'The Bulldog' Burgess and PDC Pro Adrian 'The Conqueror' Gray call their home town too, to name but three, it's frankly just jealousy.

 

[Paxton Dazo]

I genuinely don't get it.

I can watch most sports on TV and get something from it, but darts ? f*** me. I'd rather watch Emmerdale repeats on a loop, and believe me, thats saying something. I cannot think of a DULLER sport to sit down in front of, except perhaps horseracing without having a bet on. Yet every year, people are falling over themselves to watch this drek. OK, if you go to watch it live I do get that its basically an all-day pub piss up with something going on to watch. But I guarantee, if the Ally Pally was as dry as Qatar, they'd be playing to an empty hall.

Tell me I'm wrong. Go on.

Honestly think it’s the best sport to watch on TV, but the worst sport to watch in person.

I follow both televised and non-televised events but would never step foot in the Ally Pally again after my first visit in 2013. Awful.

Does help when you have a bet on though, like you mention with horse racing.

 

[Norman Potting]

Whilst on the subject and for reasons unknown Mrs P,.had the iron man challenge or similar on. Big blokes carrying big weight's and grunting with the crowd going crazy. Odd.

 

[Weststander]

Agreed. But darts is at least competitive.

I cannot get my head round the (adult) goons with their scrawled cardboard signs who go to watch wrestling. Might as well go to the circus.

The only two people I’ve ever known who were into wrestling were otherwise 100% non-sporty and not interested in proper sports. A kid at school and a very ‘big unit’ distant relative.

 

[Springal]

161 check out unreal

 

[Guinness Boy]

161 check out unreal

"Could have landed on the pupil of a fly's eyeball"

 

[Red Squirrel]

Darts might not be for everyone but the MVG - Suljovic match is extremely entertaining.

 

[A1X]

It’s just the maths round on Countdown for people who haven’t accepted ageing yet.

 

[BN9 BHA]

A lot of ignorance and sneering in this thread. Coming from a darting hotbed like I do, a place that former PDC world champion and current world number 6 Rob 'High Voltage' Cross, former PDC world championship semi finalist Shayne 'The Bulldog' Burgess and PDC Pro Adrian 'The Conqueror' Gray call their home town too, to name but three, it's frankly just jealousy.

Jealousy
Yes I wish I had a wacky nickname and came from Hastings

 

[Luke93]

Top level darts is highly skilled. Games are action packed and the outcome is often unpredictable for most of the game. Brilliant atmosphere. Interesting commentary. Fat blokes are sportsman making millions.

What MORE could one want from a sport?

A lot better than golf and F1 in my book!

 

[HH Brighton]

Like it

 

[Guinness Boy]

Don’t pay enough tax, treat employees terribly and horrible amount of waste in their packaging. Doesn’t seem to put people off though which is sort of indicative of todays society.

That's the harshest critique of the PDC I've ever read.

 

[ManOfSussex]

That's the harshest critique of the PDC I've ever read.

I hope Barry Hearn and his legal team don't read that.