Actually the day started qite well – almost no traffic on the way to the airport, great weather in
London, and a lot of time to get to Bolton before the evening, but during the evening peace and quietness
were over soon.
It had rained at home and was rather cool but in London the sun was shining from a blue sky . I used the
bus from Stansted to get into the city and went to the train station by foot. As London is very very large
it took more time then I had supposed. It´s easy to get by train from London to Manchester and Bolton and
I slept most of the time as the evening before we still worked at the dartsite – there is still a lot of
work to be done and I am not really fast with it yet. Finally arrived I got me something to eat and went
to rest a little bit to my hotel which is not far away from station and venue – only around
fifteen minutes.
When I arrived at the venue it was still rather quiet only in the press room were the usual people.
That changed fast, the venue filled more and more and it felt like a sardine in a can only probably warmer.
Suspense grew and grew as always before a tournament starts – when it’s started everybody is back to routine.
During the Preliminary round it was not difficult to follow what was going on, but when round one started
the problems started too. As I said I am not really fast updating yet and when eight matches at eight boards
are played at the same time all at a different pace it´s no longer easy to follow.
And to make it worse to players were disqualified and Chris Mason withdrew and so suddenly match four from
board three changed to board seven and match three on board five ended as match four on stage and similar
actions and I had to update 74 totally disorderly matches. I started to sweat more then some of the players
at the boards. And when then to make it even more difficult you forget to close your html brackets properly
it may happen strange texts appear on your homepage. It took me a quarter of an hour to find the fault –
a missing bracket of a “br”.
The evening was very very long – matches were going on till past midnight – and there were an impressive
row of young talents around this time. Beside I learned to say 180 in sign languages
(I’ll tell your more about this in an article soon), was watered with beer, did see some old acquaintances
but had no time to talk and really managed to update all results in the end. When I finished it was around
two o’clock in the morning and I just managed to return to the hotel to fall into my bed.
Thanks to the breakfast times five hours later the night would already be over again.
The night really was short….After an English breakfast without sausages I had to decide what to do with
the day. The tournament would not continue till the evening. I of course could have returned to bed but I
hadn’t come over to England for that. So first I tidied up the site and then I boarded the train to
Manchester. I didn’t go into Bolton, Bolton is not really interesting and rather far from the Reebok –
around an hour by feet or two stations with the train. And when I have to use the train anyway I can better
use it to visit Manchester. Manchester is not a beautiful town – one can still see it was more a town with
industry then with historical monuments. But it is a very lively town and a god place to go shopping.
I just managed in time back to the tournament.
The venue was even more crowed then the evening before – there are more standing rooms and fewer seats on
the first two evenings. So more people can squeeze in. As on the evening before on the second evening
matches are played on eight boards at the same time. But in third round there are only 32 matches with 32
players advancing from day one and the top 32 of the UK Open Order of Merit entering the tournament.
At the beginning of the evening there always is some kind of small walk-on with the players of the first
matches. The players of the first match on main-stage appear separately. You later on can’t do that again
because the matched are all played in different speed so the players just turn up at their boards.
Board one is the main stage which is televised all the time. Board two is a smaller stage where cameras are
up all the time though you can’t see all on TV. All other six boards are floor boards and only covered from
time to time by a camera. While board one can be viewed from all over the venue to watch was going on board
two you have to stand exactly in front of it. It’s usually very crowded and I sometimes retreat to the press
room above to have a better view.
I had more time to view the matches on the second evening and I did see quite a lot good matches though a
lot of top 32 players already were eliminated after their first match. That happened to Dennis Priestley,
Mark Webster, John Part, Mark Dudbridge, Steve Beaton and Michael van Gerwen. Dennis Priestley almost
managed to stay in the tournament starting a dynamic catch-up race while John Part looked like the sure
winner at the beginning of the match but then run out of steam. Terry Jenkins was painfully defeated 1:9
while Michael van Gerwen at least had a good performance on main stage though no chance against a brilliant
Gary Anderson.
And Phil Taylor used the opportunity for another record as his opponent Wayne Mardle was no real challenge
for him and set up a new record average for a televised tournament. 118, 66 is now the mark to beat.
With Paul Warwick even an Amateur qualifier survived third round as did the young Irish player William
O’Connor who only joined the PDC Circuit in April managed to qualify for the UK open final and now had to
play James Wade on the main stage in round four.
At least most of the time - because by now the pressroom had the temperature of a sauna and it was difficult to
think articulate.
It’s almost a relieve to get into the cool air outside when you’ve passed around 13 hours in there. The weather has
changed –
it’s cooler and at my way home a few raindrops were falling.
It were a lot of hours with darts - there was an afternoon and an evening session with the rounds four and five.
It’s not that all people in pressroom are all the time concentrate on the darts. The reporter in front of me was
occupied with a lot of
other things too. For some time he played online poker. Of course people eat from time to time; sometimes somebody
picks up coffee for all
from Starbucks. Most of the time the pressroom is occupied by the same PDC and Sky Sport people who already know
one another quite
intimate for some time. They always meet during the Major tournaments, often travel together and stay together in
the sometimes not really
first-class player hotels. I think they even eat breakfast together…
Very often I am the only “stranger. But I can’t complain, often enough I am included in meal orders as well as in
the banter. Most of them
know me by now – even the security staff, as most of them is always hired by the PDC for the Majors.
I can’t get into the players area. In Bolton it is just across the press room on an open mezzanine and one can
look in there and watch the
players warming up or if one really wants to probably find out who’s there.
During the Grand Slam you are much closer to the players as to get into the press room you always have to walk
across the player’s area.
And during the World Championship most players appear in the press tent for short after match interviews or statements.
But back to Bolton…
The fourth round was played on four boards, the others were taken down over night and the number of standing places
was reduced.
Round five was only played on the two stage boards. The other two were taken down during the break between the two sessions and you
were no longer allowed to stand around everywhere only around the smaller stage.
The last amateur and the young Irishman lost their fourth round matches though the amateur had a rather close battle
with Kevin McDine.
But another comparatively unknown player had a great run - Tony Ayres.
Gary Anderson had a successful clash with Paul Nicholson, and later on with Mervyn King – not even King’s Nine-Darter
stop him.
Paul Nicholson, who is when not on stage a very nice person, continued the clash with the crowd. I don’t know really why.
Another player who really impressed was Denis Ovens – might be he’s right when he says he’s the most underestimated
player in the PDC.
The crowd was comparatively fair. Of course it drunk quite a lot, but beside a little bit of jousting it was
peaceful and most of the
security work was to get people back to seat who stand up on their seats for cheering. Players got only boos
during the Walk-On’s while
during the matches the crowd was quite well-behaved.
It was not as late as the two nights before when I returned to my hotel but nevertheless the roads were deserted
and the pub up the street
looked already asleep. Only a very small rabbit lolloped across my way.
Even when on the last day there are still seven important matches played already in the morning you can feel
the tournament soon will
be over. The first thing to indicate that is that when I arrive at my usual time in the press room it’s almost
empty. Most of the work
for the inhabitants is already done.
I could choose free between the seats, only down in the hall a few people laid fresh white tablecloths on the
table, screwed at the
lighting and filled up the Unicorn stand. So I could do some work at the site before people slowly turned up.
John McDonald who does his
best to entertain the pressroom arrived with all his luggage packed in wearing a T-Shirt and only in the Pressroom
dressed up as MC.
One of the PDC employees brought along the two cups which everybody looked closely at. I didn’t find out yet
whether every year there is a
new cup or whether they are only engraved new. Finally Dave Allen turned up as well who’s usually the first to
come and the last to leave.
Across the players room looked rather empty too.
Before the tournament started I had a fight with one of the water taps in the toilet. For us Germans the sanitations
in the UK are
often not really to see through. This special water tap had the effect of a shower too – luckily I hadn’t carried
my camera with me….
On the last day all matches are played on the main stage and the security always watches that no one is standing
around. Only during the
Walk-On you are allowed to stand, and then you are requested to sit down. No problems at all as the tables at the
far end of the venue
were not sold out. You always can see that during those tournaments Friday evening is the rowdiest; it’s fewer
spectators on Saturdays
and even less on Sundays
At the final day all players have got a Walk-On including Walk-On girls though without artificial fog. The
atmosphere was good and there
were some great matches to watch though Anderson seemed to be tired during the final- no wonder as it was the
third difficult match he had
to play that day. As there were some German acquaintances down in the venue I watched the final together with them.
You can only watch –
to really talk it much too loud and you’ve to shout. This morning during breakfast there were some fans sitting at
the neighbour table who
sounded like that had done this all night…
Even during the final behind the scenes the dismantling started. In the pressroom people started to depart. One
waited to congratulate the
final two or to ask them for short statement or a signature. After that the pressroom suddenly was quiet and empty.
While finishing my
updates the dismantling team already appeared and cut the electricity supply. The employee told me it takes them
under four hours to tidy
everything up. All things are stored till the PDC caravan travels on to the next Major. The next station will be
Blackpool.