Day 247 - Sunday, September 4th, 2011

Again Debbie kindly provided the reveille, Cheerios, tea and lift to the Moorways, where marker numbers had miraculously plummetted from 30 yesterday to 17 today. (Chris was initially left on the sidelines, but was introduced as a rolling substitute before long, so everyone was suitably employed.)

Board 14 was to be my officious realm for the day, and the following matches :

Round 1

Reece Robinson 6 Stephen Hardy 2 : I hadn't marked Reece before yesterday, so naturally a similar pleasure would befall me 2 days in a row. On both days, Reece was quiet, calm and courteous, and this comfortable win shows that he is "one to look out for."

Co Stompe 6 Peter Hudson 4 : Co was in quirky form as ever, and his chair-breaking banter with Peter was taken in the good spirit that it was intended. Frustration at poor scoring nearly caused intervention though when he stood onto the oche when throwing his 3rd dart - thankfully it just failed to register on the board, as it wouldn't have counted. Peter missed his next 3 darts at a double and Co finished the 60 that he had remaining.

Dave Smith 6 Joe Cullen 4 : Joe seemed to be in somewhat lacklustre form and Dave capitalised with a narrow but well-merited victory.

Round 2

Justin Pipe 6 Reece Robinson 5 : Reece was 5-0 up in this match - up to this point Justin had been throwing really poor darts (mostly 40-something scores), but the threat of suffering a whitewash brought out barrages of 140s and despite being 5-0 up, Reece didn't have any darts to win the match. Evidence of a new calmness from Reece as he took defeat on the chin and exited gracefully after shaking the hands of opponent and marker.

Co Stompe 6 Dave Smith 2 : An easy win here for Co.

Round 3

Justin Pipe 6 Co Stompe 5 : Marking two 6-5 Justin wins in a row requires supreme concentration, but in truth it was easy to do, as this match was exciting and high scoring, with Justin edging it in the deciding leg.

Quarter Final

John Part 6 Nigel Heydon 4 : John has been in superb form of late and he needed to maintain it to see off the challenge of Nigel, who is rising rapidly through the ranks. Both are gentlemen of the game, so it was great to see both do well today.

John went on to lose in the semi-final to eventual winner Gary Anderson, and with that, another PDC weekend was at an end. Before being left to the airport, I had dinner at the local with Debbie Liam and Scott, and got unlucky with a mixed grill of leathered-beefsteak, gammon fat, pork sausage and cremated chips, although the tomato was delicious. The meal failed to leave a sour taste in the mouth though of a weekend that was fantastic fun, and I can't thank Scott enough for his hospitality, which I look forward to reciprocating in Dublin in October.

I met up with those Krazy Kilkenny Katz Dave and Paddy in the queue at the gate for a flight that landed 30 minutes ahead of its scheduled hour-long length, and the Ryanair crew forgot to press the Punctuality Bugle button - double-huzzah! All of this meant that I was home for 10pm and in bed for 11pm to get the first regulation-length sleep since Wednesday!


Gary Anderson - to today's victor the £6,000 spoils

Contentment : 15.5 / 25
Excitement :    3.5 / 10
Memorability : 4 / 15

Overall Score : 46% (66th out of 247)

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)

Day 245 - Friday, September 2nd, 2011

I rose at 6am, before the alarm - weird, as I had just been in bed for a few hours. Drove to the Carlton Hotel who offer a park-and-shuttle facility for just €6 a day. The Ryanair flight at 8am was standard, with the dehumanizing punctuality bugle blaring triumphantly upon landing. Picking me up from the airport was Mr. Scott Gibling, PDC Official and Marker extraordinaire, and my generous host for the weekend.

After a quick Inspection of Works of his back-garden that is currently mid-transformation, we headed off to Westfield shopping mall in Derby city centre for a Sausage Egg McMuffin meal at McDonald's and a potter-around. The local Asda was then visited for dinner ingredients, and I acted as co-head-chef in the making of a very fine spaghetti bolognese made with mince, pasta sauce, onions, garlic mushrooms and peppers.

Pub-time!, and we picked up Messrs Tommy Cox and Gary Wood before heading to a very fine boozer, which was packed because of the England v Bulgaria match (which England won comfortably), but we managed to find a table in the beer garden, which also had a TV. Alas, there was no chance of seeing the Republic of Ireland v Solvakia match, as it was on at the same time, but perhaps no harm, as it was a 0-0 dirgefest. After many pints and much excellent banter, we left Tommy and Gary home and proceeded to Scott & Debbie's local boozer for more pints and plenty of games of darts. After close-down the local Indian take-away was paid a visit, where I pleaded with the proprietor for the hottest vindaloo imaginable, confirming that I would not sue them or anythng like that. He kindly brought out a sample of his vindaloo sauce, which did have a very nice kick, and he said that if I came back tomorrow, he would have the ingredients for the hottest dish ever.

Back at the ranch, Debbie's Liam had kindly done a run to 24-hour Asda for cans, enabling a channel-surfing and banter session to continue until 6.30am - yippee!!!


Westfield Derby

Contentment :  17.5 / 25
Excitement :     3.5 / 10
Memorability :  6 / 15

Overall Score : 54% (19th out of 245)