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Darts
is back on ITV, or to be more precise I am back on
ITV in a new series I have mentioned in this column
before - ‘Don’t Call Me Stupid’
- which is going out in the primetime slot of 10PM
on ITV-1 every Tuesday (it started last month).
Make
sure that you watch my half-hour show with the bubbly
and very blonde Vanessa Feltz on October 9th.
You’ll
be impressed – not with her, but with me!
There
won’t be a dartboard in sight, but I will be
representing our sport (and myself) by being on the
show as a ‘celebrity’ and amazing everyone
(hopefully) with my new found knowledge of saucy English
writer Geoffrey Chaucer!
Honest!
It might seem improbable to some of you out there
(Check! Make that most of you out there!!) but I did
so much research on Geoffrey that I reckon I could
get an A Level GCE pass (with star!) on the subject
of Chaucer.
Cancel
that! I did so much swotting that I now know enough
about Chaucer and his ‘Canterbury Tales’
that I would probably get a degree and an invite to
appear on BBC’s ‘Mastermind’!!
How
about calling me The Hon Dr.Bobby George, Bsc (with
bling and darts)!
The
idea of ‘Don’t Call Me Stupid’ is
for me to become a Chaucer expert, while Vanessa Feltz,
tries to become an expert on fishing (darts would
have been too obvious).
Which
one of us is out of our depth? (Clever, eh?). Am I
saucier than Chaucer, or has Vanessa had her fish
and chips? You’ll have to watch it and find
out!
It
was probably one of the hardest things I have ever
had to do, but without giving anything away, I don’t
think anyone will be able to call me stupid after
watching the show.
Believe
me, it is a unique head-to-head challenge that is
well worth watching.
The
series features among others, controversial politician
George Galloway (who had to learn about equestrian
horse riding!), Germaine Greer, who had to burn her
bra to do car mechanics, and poor old Phil Tufnell,
who was landed with 16th/17th century art.
Serves
him right for doing so badly in Showbiz Darts!!
THAT’S
THE WAY TO ART IT!
Good
news for BDO players is that there’s lots more
bees and honey (money) available in the next 12 months
without it having to cost lots of bees and honey in
big entry fees!
Take
the Winmau World Masters next month (November). Prize
money has been increased by a massive 100% to £60,000
for the weekend finals on the 17th and 18th.
Now
that’s what I call serious bees and honey!!
I’ll
be there doing live BBC coverage with Ray Stubbs,
but I’ll also be playing (on the Friday at least!)
– and with a Men’s Masters prize of £25,000
for two days work, I reckon I should start practicing
now!
Marie
has already reminded me that I reached the last 16
in 2005 and she will make sure that I take it even
more seriously this year – she might even nag
me! Never!!
What
a nice problem it would be to be presenting the Masters
for the Beeb and playing in the televised finals at
the same time. Marie always says that I’m good
at doing two things at once – whatever does
she mean?
Well
done to Winmau, JJB Sports, the BDO and the good people
of Bridlington for making the 2007 Masters a luvverly,
jubberly, bees and honey weekend!
THAT’S
THE WAY TO BEES & HONEY IT!
There’s
also more prize money on the way from the England
Darts Organisation (EDO). They announced the 2008
England Open recently with a prize pot of over £15,000,
and now they’ve just found a new venue in Sunderland
for the 2008 England Masters next May (23rd to 26th)
– which will have a very tasty prize fund of
£25,000!
They
are both new/old events if you know what I mean? After
this year they move from BDO to EDO control.
Not
that any tournaments have been lost to the players!
No way!! The BDO will continue with their events under
different titles, so it means that the two EDO tournaments
are valuable additions to the playing calendar –
injecting another £40,000 plus into the available
prize money to BDO players in 2008.
Best
wishes to the England team in this month’s WDF
World Cup in Holland. Martin Adams and the boys are
keen to get the title back after the Dutch ‘nicked’
it in Australia two years ago, while Trina Gulliver
wants to make it a hat-trick for the ladies.
Good
luck to them all!
THAT’S
THE WAY TO ENGLAND IT!
I’ve
just played to a packed and very enthusiastic Circus
Tavern audience with ‘The Legends’ tour,
and the good news is that we’ll be back in December
to fill it all over again!
Me,
Cliff Lazarenko, Keith Deller and Eric Bristow (I
wasn’t the youngest, but I was certainly the
slimmest and best looking of the bunch!) had a great
night of fun darts with something like 700 enthusiastic
darts ‘nuts’ in the audience!
What
made it extra special was that we each donated a set
of our darts and collectively they raised an incredible
£1700 for Variety Club Sunshine Coaches.
They
do love their darts at the Circus, and what a generous
bunch they are.
THAT’S
THE WAY TO DO IT!
Coincidentally,
the venue for the EDO’s England Masters is ‘My
Legends’, which I am told is Sunderland’s
first sports bar and venue.
It’s
already hosted snooker ‘greats’ like my
old mate Jimmy White and Steve Davis, as well as plenty
of Sunderland’s football heroes, so darts will
go down well.
For
more information on the EDO and these events, plus
lots more, take a butcher’s at the website:
www.englanddarts.co.uk
THAT’S
THE WAY TO EDO IT!
Back
in June I mentioned that I was involved in a campaign
called ‘What Raises Yours’ which, though
it sounds more saucy than Chaucer, is actually drawing
attention to all the health problems caused by high
blood pressure.
Well,
I recently launched this on behalf of Guy’s
and St.Thomas’ charity (see photo) and I hope
it helps everyone – especially darts players
and officials – to keep their blood pressure
under control.
THAT’S
THE WAY TO BLOOD PRESSURE IT!
Must
congratulate the BDO on their new website.
What a difference it is to the old one! It’s
like comparing a Model T Ford to an Aston Martin!
Good
things are happening in the BDO at the moment and
it’s all for the benefit of the players and
the overall sport of darts.
THAT’S
THE WAY TO WEBSITE IT!
I’m
off to Cyprus for a rare holiday this month, and it’s
all to do with a certain very special person who has
hit the big bullseye!
No,
it’s not me. I haven’t got there yet (not
in my head at least), it’s the beautiful Marie
who doesn’t look a day over 25 (well, that’s
what she’s told me to say!).
My
thanks go to the BDO and BBC for moving the World
Masters to November just so that I can take Marie
on her birthday bash to Cyprus this month (well, that’s
what I’ve told her anyway!!)
Seriously,
happy birthday Doll………let’s
celebrate in Cyprus with lots of sun,sand and (at
my age and yours)…more bloody sun and sand!
THAT’S
THE WAY TO CELEBRATE IT!
Happy
birthday, Marie.
My
‘Player Of The Month’ (or should that
be year?) has to be Gary Anderson after his marvellous
victory in last month’s World Darts Trophy.
I’ve always tipped him as a great player, but
until very recently he didn’t seem able to take
his ‘A’ game from the floor (where he
is virtually unbeatable) to the big stage.
This
year he’s cracked it! He’s won the Scottish
Open, the International Darts League (in which he
was the only player not to have lost a game) and now
the World Darts Trophy.
And
he did so in style by beating the man they call the
‘Guv’nor’. To me it proves what
I have always said: Darts is on the day’!.
By
the way, he learned that double-double top finish
from me - almost!
I played him in an exhibition once and went for that
very shot and missed! The cheeky so-and-so then stepped
up and hit double-double 5!
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