Wolverhampton and the American Declaration of Independence

As this once again an American darts player stands at the oche - several years ago it were even two with Darin Young and Gary Mawson - I remembered that I read somewhere an emigrant from Wolverhampton was among the persons who signed the American Declaration of Indepence. Not that it was a rather surprising fact - most of the people who signed had been emigrants from the UK. But this Button Gwinnett had before already been the representative of Georgia in the Continental Congress and afterwards for a short time president of Georgia - so he was a quite successful politician. Gwinnett County - today part of Atlanta - was named after him. And even his death in a duel had a political background.

Gwinett was not born in Wolverhampton but in Gloucester, where he probably went to school as well. He was a trade person and in 1754 moved to Wolverhampton where he married a local. Together the couple emigrated 1762 to America, it's not known why. When they arrived in Georgia Gwinnet decided to give up trade and bought some land to found a plantation. He was so successful that some years later he ended as politician. When he felt his rights were infringed joined the supporters of the Declaration of Independence and signed it on 2. August 1776. Some time he worked in the legislative administration of Georgia till he died in May 1777 due to the injuries of a duel he had fought against his political opponent Lachlan McInstosh. Luckily today political opponents only fight verbal duels.Despite Gwinett playing only a small part in the history of the USA one can find several allusions to him in films, TV series and in literature.

But back to the Grand Slam an American Larry Butler who had no luck with his opponent - a well prepared and much focused Gary Anderson - and lost 0:2. Not bettered fared a seemingly slightly helpless Martin Phillips against and determined and motivated playing Phil Taylor and Andy Boulton against Raymond van Barneveld. All four BDO players lost their matches in the afternoon session but at least Robert Thornton had some big problems against Belgian Geert de Vos. The surprise winner of the afternoon to be sure was PDC qualifier Jonny Clayton who won a Tour Card last January. It was his first appearance on TV but he showed a convincing performance against Terry Jenkins and won the match. All other matches of the afternoon were won in the sold out Civic Hall by the favorites.

After a break to refuel and stretch the legs the evening session started. Of course the matches of the BDO players were in the centre of interest as the legend Andy Fordham would stand at the oche and the iron BDO player Martin Adams, who this year for the first time had accepted the invitation to take part in the Grand Slam. Reigning BDO World Champion Scott Mitchell would be among the players as well and the unknown Dutchman Mark Oosterhuis. With the exception of Mark Oosterhuis the BDO players answered the expectation of the crowd. Scott Mitchell and Andy Fordham lost their matches - but showed a better performance as many of the PDC players on the day. Fordham had an average of almost 100 while Mitchell's was with 104.82 the highest of the day. How he managed to lose is difficult to understand... And then of course there was Martin Adams who for many years had refused the invitation to take part in the Grand Slam. To be sure that happened because of principles not because he was afraid he couldn't keep up with the PDC players. But his win over Ian White was not really surprising - not for me after his performances during the last two Winmau World Masters.Mark Oosterhuis turned out to be the weakest of the BDO players but he never before had played in front of TV cameras - a strong Michael van Gerwen had no problems to win the match 5:0.

A long but entertaining day of darts was over but I still had no clarity which and if at all BDO players would survive the group stages. We saw four 5:0 wins, a number of averages over 100 but with the exception of Jonny Clayton no real upsets - Ian White was the only seeded player who lost his first group match.










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