Day 246 - Saturday, September 3rd, 2011

Debbie kindly awoke me and after a good natter over Cheerios-'n-tea breakfast, sped me to the Moorways Leisure Centre in ample time for the commencement of the day's action-packed proceedings, which would feature a Players Championship, a Youth Championship and the PDC Officials Cup, and by mere coincidence with the staging of the latter competition, there were over 10 more markers present today than at any preceding event! As a result of the marker-glut, I was officially rested, but gave Gaz Hitman a rest from his board by marking 3 games - Mark Dudbridge's wins over Nicky Bache and Reece Robinson, and Alan Tabern beating Robert Thornton by 6 legs to 4.

After this there was time for cans of Carling (a relative pub bargain at £2 a pop) and banter aplenty with players, officials and markers including Conor, Chris, Nick, Mark, Daz, Chizzy, Hitman, Scott, Stu, Ann, Kirk and many others, as we warmed up for our tournament. Drinking buddy Liam was making his debut in the Youths tournament and after a fine 2nd Round win, there was no shame in defeat to Holland's Rick Veughelers.

Displeasingly, the Officials Cup draw pitted me against Mr. Scott Gibling, weekend host and one of the hot favourites for the tournament, although Tommy Cox took my £10 each-way bet on him at 8-1 yesterday. It was not going to lessen my attempts to beat him, despite public declarations to the contrary before and afterwards, but Scott was in excellent form, and occasional tonne scores from me did nothing to halt an easy 3-0 victory, refereed very finely by Ryan Harrington. Scott went on to the final against Kirk "The Kirkulator" Bevins, who had literally been practicing for three hours beforehand, and it deservedly paid off with victory by 3 legs to 1. It was fantastic to see the trophy being lifted by one of the regular markers, and the quality of his darts prompted talk of sponsoring him in the Qualifying School next year. There will be worse entrants, that's for sure!

By 9 o'clock we got back to the local where Debbie, Liam, Jon and a host of others awaited, and after attacking the quiz machine with eventual vengeance, there was more "winner holds on" doubles action at the oche. Alas, both the super-hot Indian and the "24-hour" Asda were closed upon departure from the pub, causing us to launch a callous attack on the bottle of Bailey's that I had brought Debbie and Scott in thanks for their hospitality. A double replenishment will be on the way for my part in such a horrifying crime! It did help to fuel banter and channel surfing until 5am though - huzzah!

                              PDC Officials Cup 2011 - D. McEvoy (Rep of Ire) v S. Gibling (Eng)

Contentment : 18 / 25
Excitement :    5.5 / 10
Memorability : 7 / 15

Overall Score : 61% (3rd out of 246)