Official Darts Thread

[Fatty Facesitter]

1 hour ago, hallicks said:

It was supposed to be a blockbuster evening, but turned into a bit of a damp squib. Once Bunting lost the 2nd set, his head just went. Felt bad for him, he seems like a nice guy and is clearly very talented. Hope he can put it together soon.

Michael Smith didn’t look like he’d recovered from the mind games of  “Madarse” (c. Glen Durrant) the other night. Didn’t help that he was playing Dobey, who was relentless and clinical.

Hoping that Barney vs Littler delivers a bit more this evening. Littler needs to keep playing with that freedom that he’s had so far.

Great summation. Barney vs Littler should be a cracker.

I thought the first half of the tournament pre-Christmas was a bit dull in comparison to previous years, but apart from some one-sided affairs yesterday the second half of the tournament had started quite well. 
 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Smith has looked a bit off all year to be honest. The hangover from fulfilling his ambition to be world number 1 and world champion, and to get that "Choker" tag off himself once and for all. The lack of focus is understandable after such a year. 

[Mr_Danger]

Can we all just agree that that Littler fella is clearly a middle aged man with his hat on backwards. 16 my arse.

[TheBurningRed]

I’m so glad Smith lost. He’s had a shit year as world champ. Probably as bad as John Parts in 2008 or Rob Cross in 2018. But it’s always a pleasure seeing that mumbling Tory wanker lose. Dobey was fantastic however. 

Gary Anderson with a great point about Littler. They’re hyping him up so much on Sky and in the media and it’s going to do him harm. Same thing happened with Fallon and as Ando says, Josh Rock. Poor Littler got loads of abuse from (mostly) scousers yesterday. He had a photo taken holding a copy of The Sun. He’s a kid. Like he knows about something that happened 18 years before he was born. And if he does, I’m sure he doesn’t know why The Sun is scum. I doubt his parents knew the connection either. And they’ve had to come out with a statement apologising for it. Hopefully he can keep focus despite all this hype and beat Barney. 

Here’s a fun game to play when he is playing. Count how many times they mention he’s 16. Stuart Pyke mentioned it 27 times during his game the other night. 

[hallicks]

Good to see Anderson sticking up for him.

I’m finding the commentary pretty poor overall. Especially Mardle. He delivers every line with absolute seriousness, like it’s some mystic truism that’s beyond mere mortals, and he’s actually saying stuff like “That’s why the better players win more matches. Because they are better players.” Mind. Blown.

Part’s usually alright I think, though I don’t know if that’s just because he makes me nostalgic for when was commo at Lakeside when I was younger. 

[TheBurningRed]

Commentary is usually poor. It’s worse on ITV. With Sky, Mardle is only good when he’s with John Part imo. Part is always great, as is Webster and Durrant. Dan Dawson is really good as he’s always on the pro tour commentary so he knows every player inside out. The rest are shite. Pyke has been doing that job for about 20 years and gets the simplest things wrong, doesn’t seem to have a clue and just shouts randomly. Rod Studd just can’t shut the fuck up. Any combo of Studd, Pyke, Mardle and Turner and I mute the telly. 

[Fatty Facesitter]

2 hours ago, TheBurningRed said:

I’m so glad Smith lost. He’s had a shit year as world champ. Probably as bad as John Parts in 2008 or Rob Cross in 2018. But it’s always a pleasure seeing that mumbling Tory wanker lose. Dobey was fantastic however. 

Gary Anderson with a great point about Littler. They’re hyping him up so much on Sky and in the media and it’s going to do him harm. Same thing happened with Fallon and as Ando says, Josh Rock. Poor Littler got loads of abuse from (mostly) scousers yesterday. He had a photo taken holding a copy of The Sun. He’s a kid. Like he knows about something that happened 18 years before he was born. And if he does, I’m sure he doesn’t know why The Sun is scum. I doubt his parents knew the connection either. And they’ve had to come out with a statement apologising for it. Hopefully he can keep focus despite all this hype and beat Barney. 

Here’s a fun game to play when he is playing. Count how many times they mention he’s 16. Stuart Pyke mentioned it 27 times during his game the other night. 

Some observations and further context on this having covered similar events in the past (not darts but the majority of this applies) and also picking up on the piece Luke did with The Sun - 

• Gary's comments come from a good place in terms of wanting to protect players from media scrutiny. Totally fair enough. 
• Only thing I'd say is that he's kind of tarring all of the media with the same brush, which I don't is an accurate reflection of the wider darts media landscape. There are definitely some shitehawks that rock up to some of the bigger tournaments from the tabloids, but there's also a lot of positive and well-meaning coverage generated by a lot of the darts media and the wider sports media more generally. Darts gets far more coverage (positive and negative) than many other so called 'niche' sports and I don't think that should be taken for granted. 
• Luke Littler is one of the stories of the tournament. It's perfectly natural and normal that the media would want to cover this unique story of a young player having an incredible tournament in more detail. It would almost be weird if they didn't cover it as a big story.  
• Typically at a tournament like this, Sky will want plenty of time to shoot features and promo shots with the players - as the host broadcaster there's nothing unusual about this and again Sky have been incredible in terms of what they've done for the sport. The Worlds in particular is obviously the most newsworthy event of the year and so the press rooms are packed with not just the travelling darts media regulars, but journos from many of the national newsdesks and video agencies. 
• The responsibility then lies with the media/communications team managing individual press requests. They are responsible for managing the players' workload in terms of media commitments throughout a tournament and working to make things happen. Unless it's a particularly outlandish request, they'll more often than not try to find a way to make this happen - it's good coverage for the tournament and it all adds to the statistics in the various washup review meetings once the event concludes. 
• With Luke being 16, this is clearly a special case and it needs special care and attention, especially from the PDC's perspective and how they handle his schedule and amount of requests. 
• Which leads me to my next point relating to his photo holding up a copy of The Sun. This will likely have been a media opportunity lined up by the PDC at the request of The Sun, where their journalist on the ground will have asked the PDC comms team if they can get some one to one time with him. 
• If the above is the case and this was set up by the PDC, somebody within their media team should have had the common sense to realise the sensitivity issue of this and the potential negativity that would have come from it. To me this is an enormous error of judgement on their part. 
• It might also be the case that Luke set this up with The Sun entirely by himself, in which case he should have been advised against doing this for the same reasons. Also it's something the PDC should have been aware of as it's taking place during a tournament - players are usually fined for doing any media activity outside of that jurisdiction. 

He needs an agent. He also needs the PDC's media team to get their act together one way or another. 

[TheBurningRed]

2 minutes ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

Luke Littler is one of the stories of the tournament. It's perfectly natural and normal that the media would want to cover this unique story of a young player having an incredible tournament in more detail. It would almost be weird if they didn't cover it as a big story.  

Of course he is. I agree. But just like Fallon, Josh Rock and even Max Hopp from the past (who suffered massively from it to the point he’s now without a tour card as he fell apart after all the hype), the fact they’re constantly banging on about him when there are other things/stories going on, and the constant hype is going to have an affect. It’s a lot of pressure. Especially for his age. It did on those players. Leighton Bennett another example but he didn’t get the same level of hype they have, but it still happened. Beau Greaves will have the same. And it also turns fans against these players with the overhype. To the point they get unfairly booed. I’ve seen it so many times. They see something special and amazing happening, and while they’re in the rights to cover it and talk about it, they go way over the top until it becomes ad nauseam. It’s not their fault. I think Gary Anderson was right about probably 90% of the darts media imo. I’d tar a whole load of them with the same brush personally.

 

12 minutes ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

• Which leads me to my next point relating to his photo holding up a copy of The Sun. This will likely have been a media opportunity lined up by the PDC at the request of The Sun, where their journalist on the ground will have asked the PDC comms team if they can get some one to one time with him. 
• If the above is the case and this was set up by the PDC, somebody within their media team should have had the common sense to realise the sensitivity issue of this and the potential negativity that would have come from it. To me this is an enormous error of judgement on their part. 
• It might also be the case that Luke set this up with The Sun entirely by himself, in which case he should have been advised against doing this for the same reasons. Also it's something the PDC should have been aware of as it's taking place during a tournament - players are usually fined for doing any media activity outside of that jurisdiction.

Absolutely. It’s just a shame people online have attacked Littler, a boy who more than likely hasn’t got a clue about the sensitivity and not the PDC who probably set it up. 

Not defending anyone involved with the PDC or their media team, but there is a chance that whoever set it up didn’t realise what the issue could be themselves. Not everyone is clued up. I just hope it doesn’t affect him tonight. 

[SuperBacon]

I'll be honest I have zero interest in darts, but I love this thread (similar to the cricket one) as everyone writes so well about it.

I saw a clip yesterday from I think SSN, where they were asking Littler what his kebab order was. Imagine that being the level of your job. Asking a 16yo what kebab he has. Properly pathetic. 

Everyone has lost their heads.

[TheBurningRed]

8 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

saw a clip yesterday from I think SSN, where they were asking Littler what his kebab order was. Imagine that being the level of your job. Asking a 16yo what kebab he has. Properly pathetic. 

After he won his first game he said he was going to celebrate with a kebab and either a tin of coke or Fanta. He said he was getting another kebab after his second win (only right for a darts athletes body) so there was context to it. But it was really awkward as that’s probably going to be his gimmick now other than being the oldest looking 16 year old. The kebab boy. 

Edited December 30, 2023 by TheBurningRed

[SuperBacon]

8 minutes ago, TheBurningRed said:

After he won his first game he said he was going to celebrate with a kebab and either a tin of coke or Fanta. He said he was getting another kebab after his second win (only right for a darts athletes body) so there was context to it. But it was really awkward as that’s probably going to be his gimmick now other than being the oldest looking 16 year old. The kebab boy. 

That's fair enough, but as you say it was just so awkward. I find a lot of this a bit rank as he's a child.

Also, I assume you meant to say can of Coke and not tin

[TheBurningRed]

1 minute ago, SuperBacon said:

Also, I assume you meant to say can of Coke and not tin

Sorry, not a tin or a can. I meant a packet. He was getting on it. 

[Fatty Facesitter]

2 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

I'll be honest I have zero interest in darts, but I love this thread (similar to the cricket one) as everyone writes so well about it

Absolutely, especially @TheBurningRed - always provides great contributions.

[TheBurningRed]

Cheers @Fatty Facesitter Darts is the sport I’m most passionate about now Man Utd have sucked all enjoyment out of football for me. I could talk about it and play it all day. 

[Keith Houchen]

Going back a few more years, Kirk Shepherd is another who had one good tournament, got the media hype and subsequently did fuck all (apart from twisting his ankle after his celebration went wrong) But that was funny because he’s an awful coke fuelled bollocks.