Ill...

My second day in London brought a full day of darts in the Ally Pally with an afternoon and an evening session - I really had to recover from it.
The afternoon session was quite entertaining with an really good performance by Jelle Klaasen, a convincing player from the Philippines, a surprising defeat from Ronnie Baxter against Steve Farmer (might be he was irritated because the walk-on girls were to late to accompany him on stage), a Robert Thornton who seems finally to be recovered from his pneumonia and a not really easy win for Alan Tabern.
After that I first had to "compose" myself and to prepare for the evening.
The evening started with a match between Magnus Caris and Steve Beaton in which the at least slightly crowd played a shaded part. Kevin Münch played much better then Dietmar Burger in the afternoon and won his preliminary round match. Vincent van der Voort in his usual way raced through his match too fast for Mark Hylton. Mensur Suljovic had a tough time with Paul Nicholson and lost and Kevin Münch got a bye which brought him into the second round.

Which brings us back to the topic.

The World Championship is to be sure the peak of a dart players year but it is as well the peak of the cold season. One could see it in the first year in the Alexandra Palace when even Phil Taylor was ill and couldn't regain his title. Last year John Part had an ear infection and I was afraid he might fall from the stage. A famous story - though not cold related - is the story of the BDO World Championship final between Bobby George and John Part. Bobby George had injured his back in such a way the doctor told him he should not play not to do further harm But Bobby George appeared wedged in a corset, which hold him together, and not able to lift his arm so far, that he could throw at the doubles on top of the board. Till today he seems to bear a grudge that Part didn't have regards for him.
This time Denis Ovens was affected. He had a incarcerated nerve in his back - not a darts injury but a work injury - was in a lot of pain and almost couldn't move his throwing arm. Nevertheless he had dragged himself on stage, but in contrast to Bobby George gave up...
I don't believe it is the money in this case what matters for the players. But they worked hard all year to qualify for this tournament and at least want to try. It leaves the opponents bewildered - did one really play so good? Or did one only win because the opponent was so bad? One practiced so hard and prepared so well - now there was no "battle" at all, can one really count it as a win?







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