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What days are these?
Phil and AP. Astonishing commitment. Amazing will to win. Frightening level of dedication. Gut-wrenching desire.
The two most complete, dynamic, reinventing and streetwise sportsmen of their generation; not so much rewriting the record books as obliterating them. Now sixteen-time world champion and seventeen-time champion jockey. The sportsman of our lifetime. And maybe of anybody’s.
You cannot choose your battlefield, for God does that for you;
But you can plant a standard where a standard never flew.Mike
Time to update your avatar?
Not having Sky Sports I’ve seen very little of Phil Taylor but his record clearly implies he’s that rare thing: a lone sportsman in the mould of Don Bradman or Joe Davis far, far ahead of his contemporaries
Looking forward to my annual romp with the arrers on BBC next week, though in footballing terms I guess that’s really the Championship and that just gone the Premiership
Darts tends to be derided as a mere game rather than a sport, but I for one find the skill of darts professionals admirable and the swift mental arithmetic fascinating
20 (whoopee) 5 1…go downstairs for chrissakes Drone: okay…19 (whoopee) 3 3…where next? Go and get the beers in: okay
Darts tends to be derided as a mere game rather than a sport
Aah…the chestnut returns –
but is it a
sport?
they wail…
If one defines sport as simply ‘running around a bit’ then sadly
dartistes
will come up short. But if you see in sport: theatre, drama, tension, dedication, commitment, anxiety, frustration, despair, joy, elation, escapism and a perfect distillation of all the human spirit – good and bad – then yes, darts is a sport. Maybe
the
sport.
This unique duo have careers intertwined. Both starting over 20 years ago now and having created astonishing records of relentless achievement and domination. But I guess that one day the eyes may fade, the latest novice chase fall maybe one too many and even this pair – who rage so admirably and so furiously against the dying of the light – will have to call it a day.
We really should enjoy them while we can.
Mike
Looking forward to my annual romp with the arrers on BBC next week, though in footballing terms I guess that’s really the Championship and that just gone the Premiership
Ryman League South.
The highlight of the year for the antediluvian Lakeside Country Club, poignantly adorned with fading 70’s ‘talent’ pictures most of whom are long since dead (either career-wise or literally). Think of it as a low-rent Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
To play darts overseen by the gurning poses of Liberace or Bobby Davro or even the great Keith Harris & Orville should inspire the darting also-rans on show, but sadly rarely does so. One is also permanently concerned that the sizable frilly-shirted BDO MC – Martin Fitzmaurice – is just about to announce the meat raffle.
"will you please take your glasses back to the bar…"
Mike
McCoy’s dedication and insatiable will to win commands respect from everyone, or should do.
Phil Taylor’s achievements in the game of darts ( I refuse to call it a sport
) is equally phenomenal. However, I often wondered why it was that many of his fellow professionals had no time for the man, as his public behaviour and demeanour seemed exemplary to me.Well, now I know why.
Taylor’s outrageous behaviour after defeating Raymond Van Barnevald may go some way to explaining why some players dislike the man.
Being a bad loser is one thing but throwing a tantrum after winning is another – and his ungracious behaviour and total lack of respect for his defeated semi-final opponent ( Van Barnevald ) was totally unbecoming of a multiple world champion and supposed role model.
Taylor’s prima-donna like tantrum marked him out as a self serving little egotist.
Champion or not, he has went down in my estimation.
He could learn a thing or two from Anthony Peter McCoy.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
To play darts overseen by the gurning poses of Liberace or Bobby Davro or even the great Keith Harris & Orville should inspire the darting also-rans on show, but sadly rarely does so. One is also permanently concerned that the sizable frilly-shirted BDO MC – Martin Fitzmaurice – is just about to announce the meat raffle.
"will you please take your glasses back to the bar…"
A compelling and enduring image isn’t it? The Working Man’s Club; an institution vanishing as rapidly as the working man now that we’re all middle-class
We really should enjoy them while we can
Happily, there may be a lingering remembrance of things wheeltapped and shunted into the past to take with us into an uncertain future – enormous sideburns, thanks to the public’s new role-model Bradley ‘Wiggo’ Wiggins – and isn’t that just a fantastic WMC, darty, ’70s frilly-shirt, flares and stack-shoes name
I often wondered why it was that many of his fellow professionals had no time for the man
Jealousy one would have thought. McCoy has had a severely limiting effect on some jockey’s careers ‘taking up’ some 750 rides per season and winning at an unprecedented strike-rate. Likewise Taylor, who’s (now decreasing) dominance has dampened a generation of ambitious slingers.
The spat you referred to was indeed unedifying but the seed for it was some pretty childish pre-match comments from van Barneveld. Apologies were duly exchanged within five minutes.
Mike
The spat you referred to was indeed unedifying but the seed for it was some pretty childish pre-match comments from van Barneveld. Apologies were duly exchanged within five minutes.
Mike
Yes, if you believe Phil Taylor, who later admitted he sent an apology via text, to which RVB did not respond. Barney is quoted in several newspapers as saying that he did not respond or accept his apologies and could not understand why Taylor had reacted in such a manner. He then said he hoped that Van Gerwen would defeat him ( Taylor ) in the final. Make of that what you will.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
He then said he hoped that Van Gerwen would defeat him ( Taylor ) in the final. Make of that what you will.
He’s a poor tipster?
Mike
No mention of Tony McCoy when the BBC sports news reporter marvelled at the scale of Phil Taylor’s achievement.
Lame comparisons were made with much lesser winning runs by other sports stars, including tennis players, who had notched up nothing like Taylor’s total of championships.
But it obviously never even occurred to the reporter that the nearest comparable list of championship victories was from AP.
Racing just doesn’t figure on the consciousness of "main-stream" sports reporters, unless horses are being killed in the Grand National.
Another TV sports report I saw focused primarily on Taylor’s unfortunate confrontation with his opponent, as though that was the main story.
McCoy has achieved so much but only a tiny fraction of the people who claim to be interested in sport in this country would even recognise him.
Wasn’t the first time Taylor has behaved badly,he told Van Gerwen to ‘get out of the way’ i think about the last time they met before the WDC Final. Great player but not in the same league as a sportsman.I think people actually like ‘Barney’ more,if i was barney i would have answered his text..F… off.
Just heard on the radio that the very earliest that the International Olympic Committee would consider making darts an olympic sport would be 2024.
I thought it was a spoof news item at first but apparently it’s deadly serious.
Commentator Tony Green will no doubt have hung up his microphone by then, sadly…
No other darts scorer has ever matched his enthusiastic intoning of "one hundred and EIGH…teee". They all try to impersonate him but it just doesn’t work.
Meanwhile, proof that Clare Balding really does get everywhere. Richard Kay, in the much-criticised Dail Mail, has revealed that Clare was "spotted among the beer-swigging revellers" at the darts world championships on Saturday.
It was part of a treat for her brother, Andrew, who was celebrating his 40th birthday.
Andrew said: "It has become an annual pilgrimage for the Balding family."
Going on a jolly to the darts certainly beats a trip up the A1 to Musselburgh, it would seem.
History doesn’t relate whether Nicky Henderson also made the pilgrimage to the darts…
Just heard on the radio that the very earliest that the International Olympic Committee would consider making darts an olympic sport would be 2024.
It would be a wonderful addition to the Olympics and has already gained significant support from the likes of Sir Clive Woodward and The Times’ Matthew Syed who has written extensively about the psychological side of sport.
Mike
Just heard on the radio that the very earliest that the International Olympic Committee would consider making darts an olympic sport would be 2024.
It would be a wonderful addition to the Olympics and has already gained significant support from the likes of Sir Clive Woodward and The Times’ Matthew Syed who has written extensively about the psychological side of sport.
Mike
The problem with darts in the Olympics is that it’s a very regional sport. It has very little popularity outside of Northern and Central Europe (unless you count American-style darts, which is something entirely different) and the sport is heavily dominated by players from the United Kingdom. The PDC would have to work harder on getting worldwide interest in the sport. Even 9-ball pool is more international.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_W … _Champions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDC_World … ampionshipIt would be a reasonable spectacle for the Olympics yes, but you really couldn’t justify p#ss guzzling blokes with monsterous guts as opposed to those who are supremly fit and train their guts out.
) is equally phenomenal. However, I often wondered why it was that many of his fellow professionals had no time for the man, as his public behaviour and demeanour seemed exemplary to me.
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