Launch Season 2023: Red Dragon

Red Dragon’s production of world champion and major winning dart players is fast becoming the stuff of legend. They did not hide their light under the bushel today and lead from the front with their most prominent names. Two of them were on hand to guide us through the entire range and it was their own new darts that kickstarted the day:

Gerwyn Price – Avalanche:

Whilst looking for another edge, a clue as to why they keep producing winners, Gerwyn and Lee decided to look at a much smoother nose / front third and gained an instant reaction as Gezzy went 180-crazy. Smooth darts have often had an appeal with major winners and even World Champions benefitting for this design. With the Gezzy design and grip at the back you can certainly see more than one way to make these work….

Not content with a totally new design style Gezzy has also released a rainbow-coloured version of his classic dart. named Ionic and matched it with new flights as well!

Jonny Clayton – Element

The Ferret’s dart is a very popular shape and style with many players at least giving them a go. This time though there are two new editions that actually makes a difference rather than being mainly cosmetic special editions.

First up are Jonny’s take on the Element (diamond fusion ) grip often used by Red Dragon. If you’re familiar with this grip you will know there are two main features, despite its appearance its not as aggressive as it looks when new the diamond basically covers the grooves and forms a surface-style grip rather than a cut one.

As the grip wear that surface becomes almost personalised to how you throw it and worn in all the right places. Peter Wright for example had great success with worn-in diamond grip darts. It will be interesting to see how players get on with the combination of a superb, simply designed dart and the highest-tech grip.

Oxide:

Perhaps even more interesting is the oxide/shotblasted grip of Jonny’s second release. Anyone familiar with the MVG Exact darts from Winmau will be aware of the aim here. Basically, it’s to make a brand new set of darts feel comfortable and as if you have already worn them in. With Jonny’s basic design left alone but the oxided style produced he has clearly been taken by this and seems willing to use them in the competition having already tested them in exhibitions.

Peter Wright: Spirit

Jonny and Gerwyn had interesting things to contribute on why it is that Peter can and does change darts so often. neither seemed to be able to get much out of his new Spirit though.

These look to be a variation on Peter’s World Championship model with different grip specifications. Currently, these are likely to be Peter’s go to dart for Ally Pally, but let’s not get carried away there is time yet for a change of mind…..

We will be updating and adding our thoughts and first impression here , and those of our testing team, so check out the Red Dragon launch below and pop back here for more information