Charis’ Column

Monday, December 16, 2018
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The PDC and Ladies Darts

This year, the PDC expanded the World Championship field of participants to 96 and two of the First Round places were on offer in two ladies qualifiers – one for ladies from the UK and one for ladies from the rest of the world. Qualifying …

Monday, December 9, 2018
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An interview with Canada’s Jim Long

Jim – when did you start to play darts?

I started playing darts when I was 19 years old.

How did you get into contact with the sport?

I went to my local tavern one night to play pool and everyone was playing …

Monday, November 26, 2018
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The Grand Slam of Darts – a sad story with wide-ranging consequences

One of the mechanics, Louis Coatalen, worked with at Sunbeam was Tim Barrett. Barrett was born and grew up in Wolverhampton. During his apprentice training he worked among others from Guy Motors which produced motors for airplanes …

Sunday, November 25, 2018
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The Grand Slam of Darts – close contests

Not only was it on the third day of the Grand Slam that we saw close contests.

Those happen often enough in car racing as well. Years ago, there existed in Wolverhampton a manufacturer who produced racing cars – Sunbeam. Sunbeam …

Saturday, November 24, 2018
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The Grand Slam of Darts – a lot more darts…

On the second day of the tournament I again used the shuttle to the venue. The pick-up stop had changed due to Remembrance Day. The shuttle needs around twenty minutes to get from Wolverhampton to Aldersley which is a …

Friday, November 23, 2018
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The Grand Slam of Darts – a new venue

This year the Grand Slam was again played in Wolverhampton but not, as in former years, in the Civic Hall (which is being renovated) but in Aldersleigh Leisure Village. This “village” is not a small town but a big sporting …

Wednesday, November 7, 2018
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The Grand Slam of Darts – Preview

I don’t do predictions any longer…

This year, I have been off the mark far too often.

What the hell happened to the dartsplayers? It was rather easy in the past. For years, one could predict Phil Taylor would be the winner …

Monday, September 21, 2018
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The Season Begins!

As in football the summer break is over – though there is no real summer break in darts any longer. Since the World Matchplay we could follow three World Series tournaments and three European Tour events by the official PDC stream (which was not always pure …

Monday, August 6, 2018
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World Matchplay – the third pier

Blackpool is a seaside resort which offers not one or two but three piers, which is quite unusual. The oldest of the piers is the North Pier, which was built in the 1860s. At first it was not planned as a real pier …

Monday, August 6, 2018
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World Matchplay – dancing along…

As we all know, the World Matchplay takes place in the Empress Ballroom of the Winter Gardens in Blackpool – though except for a few darts players no one during the event really dances here. But in fact, for much longer than the World …