FOR a brief, perhaps unique, moment a single roomed public house just outside Sutton Coldfield held a remarkable and outsized presence in the world of professional darts.
Major champions,a PDC New Player of the year, tour title winners and a truly trailblazing woman were all kickstarted, boosted, inspired, hosted or influenced by a tiny traditional boozer almost 15 years ago!
Darts World talked to some of those involved:
A couple of years previous the new landlord had alighted upon the idea that darts could turnaround the fortunes of this struggling local hostelry.
“There was a real love for the game, mainly socially, but there was also a very good baseline standard, knowledge of, and experience within, the game…”
The locals built more teams and played in a variety of leagues. Darts days were staged even though, at times, there was barely enough room to facilitate them.
Early success saw an attempt to expand the concept and run events elsewhere. It was during one of these that another idea first took hold.
Local promoters were thriving and one had the idea of entering players in the PDC system. Our protagonist wondered if there was some way his pub and darts start-up could support a PDC player via a sort of ‘Resident Pro’ scheme?
“It was a very odd set of coincidences. Spotting a wonderful talent, being annoyed at others ignoring it, and the soon changing nature of the PDC system added some real urgency…”
The Day of Darts at The Pint Pot saw more than 100 players compete during the New Year Bank holiday of 2010. Major winners and even a World Championship finalist squashed into various nooks and crannies in an attempt to share in the £2010.
Shortly afterward an approach was made to Mark ‘Mile High’ Hylton and the project that would lead to the Ally Pally and every ‘Big 5’ major within twenty months was underway……
For the full story grab a copy of Darts World 586 or one of fabulous digital subscription packages
—–ENDS—-
Images: L Lustig/PDC (Featured) and Darts World Magazine (Graphics)
