The story of the young man who went forth to learn to play darts...
While for me it is no longer a new experience to visit PDC tournaments as a member of the "press" to do reports for my dart site global darts and
to use the opportunity to interview players I met on the third evening of the Grand Slam two young Germans who are absolute novices in the sport
of darts.
Jacob Schrenk travelled together with a young female photographer to England to get to know darts in the country of origin for the magazine "Neon".
"Neon" is some kind of "Stern" - a popular magazine in Germany for the young adults. It's produced like the "Stern" by Gruner und Jahr, though the editorial office is not in Hamburg but in Munich. The magazine exists since 2003 and it supports investigative work of young journalists under 40 years of age.
Such an investigative research together with a self-experiment brought the two young journalists to England - they want to get to know the traditional British pub culture inclusive the darts. They started their research in London where they immediately found out that now-a-days it is not so easy to find there a pub with a dartboard. In the end they managed and for the first time in his life Jacob took darts into his hands.
They travelled on to Stoke-on-Trent, the town where top players like Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis, Tony O'Shea are at home or at least play darts. They didn't meet any big names, a lot of them are at the moment assembled in Wolverhampton to play the Grand Slam of Darts.
They contacted the PDC and then appeared in the press room in Wolverhampton to get a first impression of the atmosphere of such a big tournament and to do a short interview with Phil Taylor. Both seemed to be very impressed.
To terminate their research they'll return to Stoke-on-Trent to take part in the weekly league evening at the Wolstanton Social Club where Adrian Lewis frequently plays as well.
Jakob Schrenk has tasted blood. He will go on playing darts and intends to hang up a dartboard in the editorial office. His report will probably be published in one or two months.
