[Other Sport] How can people watch DARTS ?

[W3 BHA]

I genuinely don't get it.

I can watch most sports on TV and get something from it, but darts ? f*** me. I'd rather watch Emmerdale repeats on a loop, and believe me, thats saying something. I cannot think of a DULLER sport to sit down in front of, except perhaps horseracing without having a bet on. Yet every year, people are falling over themselves to watch this drek. OK, if you go to watch it live I do get that its basically an all-day pub piss up with something going on to watch. But I guarantee, if the Ally Pally was as dry as Qatar, they'd be playing to an empty hall.

Tell me I'm wrong. Go on.

We all like different things. I feel the same way about NFL - tons of hype, lots of people dressed like they were facing the Apocalypse, games lasting over 3 hours with the average play time in a game of around 13 minutes. Pumped up American self important crap at its best..... Whereas a nice game of darts......

 

[goldstone]

Probably same people watch darts as watch paint dry.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Probably same people watch darts as watch paint dry.

Do let me know when Sky are showing "paint drying live" with a packed crowd at Alexandra Palace

 

[A1X]

Probably same people watch darts as watch paint dry.

Worse. It’s paint drying with added maths.

 

[Paxton Dazo]

Some crackers today.

Pick of the bunch - Clayton v Rock. Has the potential to be as good as Rocks previous round game against Aspinall.

Still can’t see past MVG for the whole tournament though. The draw was VERY favourable for him, in terms of the quarter he was drawn into. Peter Wright getting knocked out did him no harm either.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

We all like different things. I feel the same way about NFL - tons of hype, lots of people dressed like they were facing the Apocalypse, games lasting over 3 hours with the average play time in a game of around 13 minutes. Pumped up American self important crap at its best..... Whereas a nice game of darts......

American Football should be a fantastic sport on paper, the various options for progressing the ball, the ‘human chess’ element, tricking the opposition into thinking you’re doing one thing then doing another etc. Personally I love the uniforms, and the skill levels are insane, one-handed catches no one has any right to make. It’s unfairly denegrated on here imho and popular to dismiss it, that said I agree completely with the game time/play time ratio, completely kills it for many, YouTube game highlights far preferable to watching a match in real time.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I genuinely think that being into a sport can largely come down to if you've tried to play it and / or understand it beyond a simple TV moment.

I've played four different sports for "competitive" teams. Football and cricket at a very poor level (pub / company / ex-pat football and village cricket) but even that gives you more of a perspective than if you just watch in a stadium. I played Darts and Pool for my local pub when there was a big local league structure and we were pretty decent, often in top two divisions. They are my indoor games of choice to play and watch - more than snooker.

At school one of my best mates got into American Football and used to play and train with the B52s and ended up playing High School in the US and coaching it in Europe. I trained a couple of times but it was obviously not for me, but I still enjoy it now, having followed the B52s with him, even doing chain gang at a few Withdean games. Consequently NFL is one of my games.

I had totally fallen out of love with F1 until my son got the F1 XBox game and I raced him on it one night when I was bored. Suddenly remembering the tracks and relative abilities of the cars got me back into it again and now I rarely miss a race.

On the other hand I have no intention of spending all day walking round the countryside with a stick and ball and find golf just as dull to watch as play. I was never going to be a rugby player and don't watch Union and think that League might just be the worst sport ever invented. Never really played tennis, no interest in watching it.

The exception that proves the rule is boxing. Absolutely love watching but have no intention at all of getting in a ring with anyone.

 

[BN9 BHA]

On the other hand I have no intention of spending all day walking round the countryside with a stick and ball and find golf just as dull to watch as play.

Golf? I thought this was exercising a dog.

 

[MattBackHome]

Another great thing about televised darts, and what adds to the theatre, is that you are constantly afforded a close up of the participants faces, and can therefore see and feel their tumultuous emotions.

Because of this, I'd go so far as to say that if you don't like TV darts you are probably a psychopath.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

I'll watch more or less any sport but every now and again I watch something that I just can't get my head around. For instance, on boxing day there was a cycle cross or something near me. Its a bit of mountain biking and road cycling munged into one. This seemed to consists of a load of lycra clad blokes with micro penises shouting at each other to get out of the way as they pointlessly went round and round the same track before sipping some water, going home aggressively on said bike and logging onto www.bikewanker.com as quick as they could. The only decent bit was when one bloke stacked it. My biggest takeaway was I needed a new word to describe a huge collection of testosterone in one place.

Give me 2 blokes epically re-enacting 2 scientists sending missile to missile from continent to continent any day of the week. Even if it does have a football soundtrack from 2005.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Golf? I thought this was exercising a dog.

"All day"? Even my mental, energetic spaniel cross is knackered after about three hours. Otherwise quite similar in that a long dog walk at the weekend can really just be an excuse to go to the pub afterwards

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

I'd go so far as to say that if you don't like TV darts you are probably a psychopath.

Or the players...Some of them look like right high blood pressure wife beaters, women’s place in the kitchen and “Where’s me tea love?” sorts. I'm sure the guy with the mohawk helps old ladies across the road in real life, but he just looks like a wrong un.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I’m a total oddball I’m afraid. I really like watching it on telly and sat through all three games this afternoon. However, I’d never go to Ally Pally for exactly the reasons @Pevenseagull states.

Went to the proper darts in Frimley twice back before Sky and the Cocaine Male Voice Choir took over. Used to play for a pub team too. Met Sid Waddell. Now he was a proper geezer. Highly intelligent working class Geordie

Spooky. How very similar to me (except I have never been to proper darts). I used to be in a pub darts team and it was absolutely brilliant. Every Thursday we'd get food laid on, all the favourites: roast potatoes, chipolatas, scampi. And it was really important to drink lots of beer to help steady the hand. Lots.

However, I found that playing darts is a dangerous game....

I remember oversleeping one Friday morning, 30 years ago, waking at 7.20, and realizing my train left at 7.40.......I had one lecture to give at 9 and crashed through the lecture room door with 30 seconds to spare, after a frantic cycle from Victoria. Top work. Then at 10.30 I had another 2 hours of lectures to give at another campus across London. To a room full of nurses. On a complex topic they had no interest in. After an hour the fact I'd not had a shower or brushed my teeth was beginning to become noticeable (to me, anyway). My mouth was dry and I was beginning to get a tension headache. I was stumbling through increasingly dull and complex issues, and I had clearly lost the audience. Out of politeness they sat it out in silence. With beads of perspiration now pricking my brow, and my guts sending strong warnings of unpleasantness ahead, I was eventually able to make my escape, to ponder my folly.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

I was stumbling through increasingly dull and complex issues, and I had clearly lost the audience.

What a euphemism for being hungover that is.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Or the players...Some of them look like right high blood pressure wife beaters, women’s place in the kitchen and “Where’s me tea love?” sorts. I'm sure the guy with the mohawk helps old ladies across the road in real life, but he just looks like a wrong un.

Ryan Searle looks like the sort of guy who'd go to an Iron Maiden gig all by himself and spend most of the time in the corner of the bar.

 

[The Clamp]

It’s not for me. One of those games that’s great fun to play but boring to watch. For me anyway, I get why people enjoy it though.

 

[Red Squirrel]

looking forward to the Price-de Sousa game, if only because concentration and maths are not the "Special One's" strong points
. Yesterday he scored 80 on a 71 checkout, he thought he needed 102.

 

[Badger Boy]

looking forward to the Price-de Sousa game, if only because concentration and maths are not the "Special One's" strong points
. Yesterday he scored 80 on a 71 checkout, he thought he needed 102.

In his defence, he did then come back and clean up with T13 and D16 in two darts. His lack of concentration is really surprising on the main stage but he's probably got something not quite right going on upstairs.

 

[Paxton Dazo]

In his defence, he did then come back and clean up with T13 and D16 in two darts. His lack of concentration is really surprising on the main stage but he's probably got something not quite right going on upstairs.

They grow up playing soft tip darts in Portugal too, which is a machine that calculates your scores for you.. which was an excuse when he first went to Q school and won a tour card in 2019, not so much 3/4 years later.

Great player on his day though.

 

[Braggfan]

I do love the world championship but the crowd thing is tedious now. It hasn’t changed in 15 years at least now. Barry Hearn was on Jake Humphrey’s podcast recently and apparently it’s the most watched sport on Sky over everything apart from football

I love watching the darts on tv, but I have to say I dislike watching it in person because of the crowds. I've moaned about it on darts threads before, but people bang on about being a "good laugh" and "a great p*ss up", but the last time i saw the premier league darts at the Brighton centre, it was Phil Taylor's last performance in Brighton and there was some guy dressed as Freddie Mercury who had his back to the stage while singing and dancing. He stayed like that all evening,I mean what was the point of going? When people would rather go for the fancy dress and beer than watch a sports GOAT play for the last time, something's wrong.

Its a shame because the premier league darts is amazing. There aren't many sports where you can see 10 of the best players in the world all in one night.