10
Things To
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, it’s the happiest
season of all. There’ll be parties for hosting and pints for
toasting. It can only be the World Darts Championship.
By Jamie Shaw
Who needs 12 days of Christmas when there’s 16 days of
darting drama in the offering at Alexandra Palace?
If it was even possible, the greatest show on planet darts returns
better than ever, with 72 tungsten ticklers from all corners of the
world ascending up Muswell Hill to compete for the Sid Waddell trophy
and world crown.
There’s no such thing as a Silent Night at the Ally Pally over the festive
period, so deck the halls with boughs of tungsten.
It’s beginning to look a lot like the World Championship.
Here are ten things on the Ally Pally wish list this Christmas:
At the summit of every darts fan’s list this Christmas will
inevitably be a nine-dart finish.
The Ally Pally has proved a hotbed for the magical feat in its five years
of hosting of the sport’s show-piece event, witnessing now fewer than
five nine-darters and countless near misses.
Its predecessor – the Circus Tavern in Purfleet – hosted a barren spell
of 14 World Championships without a single nine-darter, however its
regular billing during recent tournaments has not detracted from its
magic.
Raymond van Barneveld broke the duck in 2009, replicating the
feat a year later, before Adrian Lewis, Dean Winstanley and Michael
van Gerwen all added their name to the illustrious list in the years
proceeding.
Photo: Mike Glover/UK Darts Magazine
A Nine-Darter