Behind Closed Doors
By Mike Glover
This years Championship League Darts has proven to be a
successful event as always, with a great mix of players
having made it through to the Winners Group already
and with two more opportunities to qualify (at the
time of writing), there will surely be more fantastic
darts action to come.
The format of the event is fantastic in that by introducing
the top eight into group one and eliminating two of them
straight away it offers some of the players from lower
down in the rankings an opportunity to reach the latter
stages of an event.
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This great mix of players is of course a fantastic thing, not that
I would want to see it at every event mind, as it spices things
up for the fans. The event has also seen no less than three ninedarters at the time of writing along with a plethora of 100+ averages,
a standard perhaps even above that of the televised majors, the
events that usually bring out the best in players.
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This set me to thinking; should there be more darts events behind
closed doors? My immediate reaction was, yes if it takes the
pressure off players in the way it seems to have done at Crondon
Park this year then absolutely, why not? Indeed why not play all
darts behind closed doors?
Of course this is an unrealistic prospect, for a start a major
part of the darting spectacle is the interaction of the players
with the fans, players simply react and celebrate more in
an arena full of fans than they do behind closed doors and
to miss out on the likes of MvG and Andy Hamilton in full
celebratory flow would be a great shame.
It’s true the fans have been