Day 275 - Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

Another record was broken today, travelling from Lighthouse pillar to PDC tournament post in a record time of 21 minutes thanks to Al The Almera, the Dublin Port Tunnel and the M50. The stars of today's board were Wes Newton, strolling to comfortable wins over Michael van Gerwen (6-1), Roland Scholten (6-3) and Andy Simth (6-2) with phenomenal scoring, and Roland, who edged out Andy Hamilton (6-5) and comfortably accounted for Stephanie Luck (6-0) before losing to Wes. In the first game of the day, MVG beat Kirk Shepherd 6-4 in a game that was even closer than the score suggests.

There was delight for Chizzy Rascal, who was well rewarded for his travels by marking Barney's 9-darter against Phil Taylor - he'll get the signed dart-board for that. Today's winner was Justin "Speedy" Pipe, whose advancement through the ranks continues in leaps and bounds. People focus on his pace, but it is his scoring and finishing which is doing all the talking. The Top 16 beckons for him next year, without doubt.

Afterwards, I brought Scott (Gibling) and Andrew (Davis) into town for a guided pub tour. After callously dumping off Al The Almera, the first port-of-call was the ship-turned-pub the Cill Airne (Irish for Killarney, fact-fans). After a brace of finest ales there, we perambulated leisurely along the Liffey down to the Oktoberfest, which bizarrely was shutting down already, at 8pm. Far from crushed with disappointment, we hopped on a LUAS and took an ale at TP Smith's before corssing the river into Temple Bar and Fitzsimons' pub, which was very busy for a Sunday night. Next liquid port of call was The Foggy Dew, where a rather good SKA band were playing, before a final brew at Pravda before calling in to Supermac's for a Smokey Bacon Burger and curried chipped potatoes.

Contentment : 17 / 25
Excitement :    3 / 10
Memorability : 4.5 / 15

Overall Score : 49% (41st out of 275)

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)