For the returning dart player, this time of year is a strange mixture of tremendous activity, although perhaps not in the venues one would prefer, normal life and a sense of excitement at what is soon to come.
This summer and autumn was the busiest and in many ways most enjoyable playing period I’ve had for a little while. A mix of highly competitive MODUS Live League and other competitive open events – across all kinds of organisations and none – even a return to the exhibition circuit and revisiting my old stomping ground in the North East.
One can’t mention the region, in relation to darts, without wishing the return of fine form to Glen Durrant. Duzza is a gentleman and one hell of a player. I look forward to sharing an oche with him again soon!
As with most of you, work looms large and, oddly, I can only give credit to normal working for a living over the last couple of years. The perspective and routine has been positive during COVID and although, of course, I would rather have been throwing tungsten instead of cement, I can barely imagine what being unable to do what you need to do for yourself and your family must be like.
A more normal family Christmas awaits us all this year and I just wish all, especially those who continue to wish me well so often, a very happy time doing whatever you hope to do.
2022 looks like being a remarkable year. The PDC has expanded all their tours and thus the ladder back to the very top is outstretched again. Q School will be hotly contested as ever but The Wizard will be in there amongst them with a full range of spells available.
Outside the professional game, the opportunities constantly continue to grow. Full WDF calendars, the MODUS Live League, and more. Play your darts right and you can once more be a full-time dart player enjoying your trade and earning a living even without being in the gilded club of PDC Tour cardholders.
An old friend of mine says that darts is no longer just a young man’s game but that, those of us with experience, determination, the skills, and, yes readers, the balls for it, can thrive.
That’s just what the Wizard is going to do, in 2022.
Colin Osborne was the winner of the PDC Championship of Darts as well as several Pro Tour events and a UK Open finalist.
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