Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa Bolton; UK Open Last Minute Preview
“24 Hours from Bolton, one Day Away from the Darts” as the great song almost went…
Walk on girls Daniella Allfree and Sammi Marsh will be working at the R...
Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa Bolton; UK Open Last Minute Preview
“24 Hours from Bolton, one Day Away from the Darts” as the great song almost went…
Walk on girls Daniella Allfree and Sammi Marsh will be working at the Reebok
Well it’s more 24 hours until I jump on a train Bolton bound! I hope all of you who are going along to the FA Cup of darts have a great time.
If you’ve never been before, it’s a very friendly crowd, I’ve found it’s probably more relaxed than events like the Premier League. Thursday night especially is special – I think because of the amount of players friends and family there, and indeed even players themselves on the floor watching games (those lucky enough to be playing Friday and missing the Thursday rounds). I’ve been lucky enough to stand chatting with the likes of Paul Nicholson while watching one of the outer boards in previous years.
I’ve been asked before so will repeat here for Bolton newbies; Both Thursday and Friday nights your tickets just get in you in, the seats are NOT reserved, so you can grab a seat and sit in it (if you want to watch the main board or board 2 maybe), but most of the time I’m on my feet walking between the boards picking and choosing the games I want to watch. Try and be courteous though – it’s polite to allow the player’s guests/family to stand in the best positions.. remember what they are going through! That saying, because of the very ‘close up’ nature of the UK Open multi-board system, you do sometimes get some ‘niggle’ – often when an amateur player brings a load of his pub mates along, who give the bigger ‘name’ player some grief on their chuck. Because it is so close up, any calling out can of course be heard distinctly by the players, so it can get heated at times. But that’s the nature of darts and I’d not want it to become too stale and sterile, the rest of us play in pubs and clubs and banter is half the fun!
Stephen Bunting (and Glenn Durrant) in last year’s UK Open
I hear two of the newer and very popular walk-on girls are going to be at Bolton on the final Sunday … I may try and get a photo with them (get in the queue I hear you shout!). Of course if you’re not going along, it’s all going to be live on Sky Sports (next year the rumour is it will be on ITV4, as Sky has dropped it from their list).
We shall try and keep this site updated through the sessions – the understanding Mrs Krispy will have a laptop ready to keep our loyal readers up-to-date. I’ll probably post the odd picture on twitter @dartsbeerscheer – and add them to the stories when I get back to the hotel room.
I often get asked, “Who’s going to win then?“. Well this year we obviously have two stand up favourites; The ever great Phil Taylor, and the current best player in the world, Michael van Gerwen. Either of those could obviously be taking the trophy home this year, but there are obviously other strong contenders. Could it be Jamie ‘Jabba’ Caven’s time to win a TV title? After a year or so in the wilderness, his recent special back to back double on the pro tour shows he’s back stronger than ever. That could be the spark of confidence he needs to come back to his best, and finally do it on TV as he has done on the floor. Robert Thornton of course is still in fine form, and he’ll be returning to the Reebok as a confident reigning champion. I still think Kim Huybrechts is going to be close to a TV major win sometime soon… BUT one of the best players in the world on current form is 50-1 to win… the BDO’s no. 1 Stephen Bunting. Now a win for the Bullet would certainly put the cat amongst the darting pigeons! I do have a couple of quid on him each way
Dare you have a Punt?
Obviously the UK Open can be an opportunity to hav
