Although we have mainly focused on forward looking and positive events from during darts toughest year there can be no doubt that it was the tipping point and the end of an era for our sport. The governing body that had led to the first golden era of professional / television darts and, to many, still represented the sport for the everyday player and fan, was on the brink of collapse, covid appeared to be the final straw. The Weekly Dartscast’s Alex Moss summed the situation up for DartsWorld 570:
These are worrying times for the longest active major tournaments on the darting calendar. With BDO Enterprises Ltd set to enter liquidation at the start of this month, it leaves the fate of their three major televised events in real trouble.
Putting the World Trophy, first held in 2014, to one side, the BDO’s other two flagship tournaments, the World Masters, and its own World Championship, are steeped in history.
The World Masters predates the World Championship, with its first staging back in 1974, four years before Leighton Rees would crown himself the organisation’s inaugural world champion. For more than 40 years, these two events have been staples in any darts fans’ diary, but their days, in its current guise under the BDO anyway, look numbered.
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I had the fortune of being in attendance at the last World Masters, and at the final day of the most recent World Championship, in January, and interviewing the men’s champions. Following John O’Shea’s triumph at the Circus Tavern is a memory which will stay with me for a very long time.
Listening to the struggles that the Irishman had been through off the oche with injuries, which almost forced him to quit the sport, and then to have that fairy-tale moment of becoming a major champion provided a heart-warming end to what had been a controversial week.
The re-draw on the first day of the World Masters damaged the reputation of the long standing tournament, and only a few months later the World Championship did not play out without its own problems.
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Wayne Warren, at 57, became the oldest winner of the World Championship, again another touching story, as he reflected on his victory in the final with tears in his eyes to me in the players’ room at the Indigo. A dream fulfilled to win a world title, but the previous year’s top prize of £100,000 it was soon revealed had been slashed to £23,000 – its lowest figure since 1989.
The BDO has attracted plenty of headlines over the last 12 months, but not for the right reasons. The Covid-19 pandemic has put the sport on hold, and in late May the BDO’s website, with no accompanying announcement, updated its diary with ‘cancelled’ next to this year’s World Trophy (August 28-30), World Masters (October 21-25) and World Championship Qualifiers (October 26).
Editors note: Perhaps Martin Adams later summed it up best:
Now the BDO’s future, at least in staging major events nears it’s sad conclusion, the hope is that another organisation, perhaps the WDF, can resurrect these prestigious events.
Images: Chris Sargeant / Tip Top Pics
Words: Alex Moss
Originally published in Dart World 570 (Summer 2020) with additional editing for context.
Magazine Pages/Graphics: Darts World Ltd
