Premier League Darts

On Thursday night me, my brother and his mate Gary (who's not called Gary but I can't remember his real name) went to watch the Premier League darts at Sheffield Arena. There was over 5000 people there which is one the biggest (if not the biggest) crowds ever to witness a darts match.

The first match saw "The Tripod" Roland Scholten beat "Jackpot" Adrian Lewis 8-6. Lewis is known as jackpot after winning about $40,000 on a slot machine when in Las Vegas when he was 20. However he was not allowed to claim the money as you
have to be 21 to gamble there. The match had to be halted for about a minute as the plasma screens showing the Sky TV coverage showed a shot Blackburn Rovers and Wales international footballer Robbie Savage and the crowd hurled insults at him which would continue through the evening. It was quite funny really and he'll be used to it!

The second match saw Dennis "The Menace" Priestley beat "Jaws" Colin Lloyd 8-5. The atmosphere for this match was good as Priestley is from Yorkshire and so had a lot of fanssupporting him and quite a few in full Dennis The Menace fancy dress.

The third match saw "The Raging Bull" Terry Jenkins beat Peter "One Dart" Manley 8-5. No-one in the crowd likes One Dart due to his previous disagreements with The Power so he was booed regularly throughout the match but he plays on the boos very well and it wouldn't be the same if people liked him.

Then came the big one, the best two darts players of all time battling it out again. "Barney" Raymond Van Barneveld led Phil "The Power" Taylor 5-1 at the interval but The Power came back and won 8-6. A full review of the night's action can be found here.

It was a very loud evening with great atmosphere especially at the end and going into each advert break for the TV when everyone does the Sky darts dance to Chase The Sun by Planet Funk. I can also confirm that there was a lot of beer being sold as you would expect so while darts is just a game played at the pub, it's a big commercial sport, the traditional drinking side of it seems to remain in place.