THESE DARTS ARE MADE FOR WALKING!
As part of the British Darts Organisation application for darts
to be recognised as a sport, both Martin Adams and Mervyn King
were fitted with state-of-the-art pedometers during the 2005
Lakeside World Professional Darts Championships.
The players wore them to provide evidence that darts is a physical
sport, and the results were pretty conclusive. In the 4 days
that Mervyn King wore the equipment for practice and match play,
he took 13,850 steps.
However, in his successful route to the final Martin Adams
took an amazing 33,310 steps – which equates to 25.37 kilometres,
the equivalent of a darts marathon!
The figures will now be evaluated by Dr. Peter Gregory, a leading
expert at the Centre for Sports Medicine at the University of
Nottingham, and will form an important part of the BDO’s
application to Sport England for darts to be recognised as a
sport.
“This proves beyond doubt that darts is as physical as
we have always claimed”, says Olly Croft of the BDO. “There
is no way that those competing in archery or shooting could ever
achieve figures like these – yet they are recognised as
sports.
“Our last application met every criteria demanded by
the Sports Council, but we were refused because darts wasn’t
considered physical enough. The figures produced by Mervyn and
Martin certainly show the opposite”.
Dutch Open
This years Dutch Open once again produced an enormous entry
of nearly 4000 players.
Congratulations to Trina Gulliver and Francisca Hoenselaar
on winning the Dutch Open Women’s Pairs and to Ted Hankey
and Co Stompe who took the Men’s Event.
The Women’s Final was between young Russian star Anastasia
Dobromyslova and England’s Clare Bywaters with Dobromyslova
taking the final 2 - 1.
Ladies Semi Finals:
Anastasia Dobromyslova 2 defeated Karen Smith 1
Clare Bywaters 2 defeated Dee Bateman 0
The Men’s Singles was an all England affair with Martin
Adams meeting John Walton in one Semi-final and Tony Eccles meeting
Peter Manley in the other.
Mens Semifinals:
John Walton 2 defeated Martin Adams 0
Tony Eccles 2 defeated Peter Manley 1
Mens Final:
Tony Eccles 3 defeated John Walton 1 |
Australian
International and former Embassy Champion Tony David is set to
play in the Master of Darts Tournament next week. The Master
of Darts event is a playoff between four BDO players and four
PDC players and he joins such players as Raymond “Barney” van
Barneveld and Andy “The Viking” Fordham to name a
few. The confrontation between the best players of the two federations
has been eagerly pending for several years. This tournament guarantees
that there will be a clash between Taylor and Barneveld. 
Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands sent a personal letter of
congratulation to Raymond Van Barneveld within minutes of his
fourth Lakeside World Professional Darts Championship victory.