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Let's Turn Back the Clock for Charity
The Match That Never Was!
Aside from the expected, my not winning a single leg in four qualifying rounds, last year at the Professional Darts
Corporation’s (PDC) Las Vegas Desert Classic III, my greatest disappointment was the unexpected last-minute disqualification of Lubbock, Texas’s Ricky Villanueva.
As Dick Allix put it recently, Villanueva “ran afoul of the rules.” While I continue to maintain that the reality was the other way around, that the rules ran afoul of Villanueva, the past is the past. It’s time to think about tomorrow.
Still, I can’t help wondering what might have happened had Villanueva, largely unknown in the
United States, but literally a legend in the Philippines – twelve times National Champion and arguably the best shooter since the late Freddie Deen to ever hail from the
archipelago – been allowed the opportunity to show his form on stage in the first round draw against Bolton’s, Steve Coote.
To his credit, the twenty-five-year-old Bolton, 1999 German Open Champion and two-time
qualifier for the Embassy World Championships, was impressive in Vegas. He fought his way through the tough qualifying rounds, something Villanueva didn’t have to do,
having earned his place on stage by racking up points against less-stiff competition on the American circuit, and held up well under the lights, knocking off Andy Jenkins
before going down to the high-powered darts of Phil Taylor.
But still, again, I can’t help wondering what might have happened had Villanueva and Coote
faced off. There’s no doubt that the match would have been a crowd-pleaser, and had Villanueva emerged the winner, I believe he would have stunned millions of
television viewers across America and the United Kingdom. Both players wanted to get it on.
Perhaps they still can...
For several years running, Las Vegas’ Stacy Bromberg has staged a charity shoot to benefit
the Make-A-Wish Foundation on one of the free evenings during the North American Open. For the past three years, she has run the shoot after hours during the Desert
Classic. Hundreds of darters have participated and tens of thousands of dollars have been raised to help brings smiles to the faces of terminally ill children.
Typically, the event is held at Bromberg’s home pub, CD’s Lounge, and features a best of
eleven legs doubles exhibition. Bromberg teams with her usual tournament doubles partner, Paul Lim, to play whomever the current World Champion is, who pairs with the
event’s leading benefactor, Joe McElligott. Although the details for this year’s charity shoot are still being finalized, in the past both Phil Taylor and John Part have
stood up for the kids. Russ Bray has called the event. Once, it is rumored, Tommy Cox even danced on a table while people stuffed dollar bills in his shorts.
There are also door prizes and a huge luck of the draw. And all of the money goes to
help kids.
So here’s the deal – the opportunity to turn back the hands of time and do a good thing...
This year that charity event is tentatively scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, June 28,
following the third and fourth qualifying rounds. The format will be basically the same. The only difference, should the proposal that follows be accepted, is that the
usual doubles event, though it will still take place, will not be the headliner.
Instead, the featured exhibition on June 28 will be the match that never was, the match that
everybody should have had a chance to see: a showdown between the former and multi-time Philippine National Champion who is now burning up the sisal across America, Ricky
Villanueva, and the up-and-coming young sensation from England, Steve Coote.
Who wins doesn’t matter.
What matters is that people show up. Those who do will have a chance to throw the Luck of the
Draw, maybe win a prize, watch the World Champion, and witness the form of two potential future World Champions.
What matters is that people have fun.
What matters is that darters support the sort of charity event that the sport of darts is
famous for.
From this side of the pond all is set. The format is undecided but wide open to the wishes of
the competitors. Best of five sets. Best of seven sets.
Provided the event is for fun and charity, as it always has been and always will be,
Villanueva has already agreed to appear.
All that remains is a positive nod from Steve Coote.
So Steve, by this column, I am respectfully requesting your participation at CD’s Lounge on
Tuesday, June 28. It’s for fun. It’s for the kids.
And, please, if you accept, and I hope you do, bring Tommy Cox with you. I have a wallet full
of dollar bills ready to stuff in his shorts.
Let’s turn back the clock for charity. Let’s have a great night of darts.
From the Field,
—Dartoid
When You Throw Mud You Lose Ground!
Man and his deeds are two distinct things.
Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation, and a wicked deed disapprobation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked always deserves respect or pity as the case may be.
—Mohandas Gandhi
This column will be short.
Sadly, the old Gandhi quotation above pretty much sums up the point I am compelled to make. More eloquently and precisely than any words I have in my vocabulary, it captures the most basic difference today between the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and the British Darts Organization (BDO).
It should lead some of us to action.
The leadership of the PDC is moving forward and promoting all that is positive about the
sport of darts. They have the ability and the heart to pause when times demand it, look beyond the oche, and take action that benefits humankind.
The leadership of the BDO is stagnant, essentially moribund, and, worst of all, jealous. And jealousy is wicked.
The PDC deserves our respect. The BDO deserves our pity.
On Boxing Day, as the World Championships were just getting under way at Circus Tavern in
Purfleet and, ironically, at about the same time giant tsunami waves were wiping out a quarter of a million lives in a world far away, the PDC immediately sprung into
action, joining the rest of the humanitarian world to raise funds to help fund first response relief efforts.
By the tournament’s close, the equivalent of nearly $25,000 was raised and on its way to
South Asia. Finalists, Phil Taylor and Mark Dudbridge, donated the shirts off of their backs and their darts for a fundraising auction.
Someone bid $1,500 for the dartboard they played on. Someone else, probably a deranged human being, but a humanitarian nonetheless, paid $150 to go to dinner with Russ Bray. Ladbrokes, as a company, donated $250,000.
At the same time this was happening the BDO’s Robert Holmes issued the following press
release. I quote it below, verbatim, from the BDO web site:
BDO DISASSOCIATES ITSELF WITH VIOLENT BEHAVIOR
The British Darts Organization wishes to disassociate itself with the unseemly and
unsporting behaviour of Phil Taylor and Kevin Painter in the PDC Championship at the Circus Tavern, Purfleet on Saturday evening.
The two players had a violent confrontation in front of the audience and TV cameras, and
apparently it took several bouncers to separate them in what has been described as one of the most unprofessional incidents seen in televised sport.
Unfortunately, it comes at a time when the BDO is applying for darts to be recognized as a
bona-fide sport by UK Sport, and it does nothing to enhance the image of our game,’ says a BDO spokesman.
Thankfully, the current BDO World Professional Darts Championships being played at
Lakeside Country Club, Frimley Green, is reflecting all of the positive aspects of our sport – which is why we must make it absolutely clear that we disassociate ourselves
from the unacceptable behaviour of the players at the Circus Tavern, Purfleet.
The last thing I’m going to do is get into just exactly what happened between Taylor and
Painter. It doesn’t matter. I’ve spoken with enough people who were there to know that the so-called “violent confrontation” was hardly as suggested.
Here’s what didn’t happen.
No one bit off anybody’s ear, as Mike Tyson once did to Evander Holyfield.
Neither took a tire iron to the other’s knee, as Tanya Harding once arranged to have done to her nemesis, Nancy Kerrigan. Fans didn’t pour onto the stage with baseball bats and beat the hell out of everything in sight as sometimes happens in football.
Darts is a competitive sport. It’s emotional.
Taylor and Painter exchanged some words. Big frickin’ deal. When Eric Bristow and Alan Evans played for the BDO years ago, this sort of thing happened all the time. The BDO never issued a press release for the entire world to read.
The BDO didn’t issue a press release a few months ago when their “world champion” quit in the
middle of a grudge match with the PDC’s Taylor.
I ask you: what’s more ‘unseemly and unsporting behaviour’ than that, regardless of the
cause?
Real athletes never quit. After his fight with Joe Frasier in the Thrilla in Manila, Muhammad Ali described the experience as the “closest thing to death.” But he didn’t quit. Football players play entire games with broken wrists and ankles. Kerrigan still competed in the Olympics with her smashed up knee.
The BDO had no need to ‘disassociate’ itself with anything that took place at the PDC World
Championships. Holmes’ press release was unnecessary and political. It was a cheap shot, issued to cast dispersion. Nothing more. Nothing less.
The BDO’s jealous action, taken at the same time that the PDC was in the midst of an
admirable effort to aid helpless people on the other side of the world, only highlights the intensity of the BDO’s envy of all that the PDC has accomplished.
It underscores the essential differences between the leadership of the two organizations.
The PDC is the future. The BDO is the past. It is the BDO’s action that is “unseemly and unsporting.” It is the BDO’s action that “does nothing to enhance the image of our game.”
They should be ashamed.
This all reminds me of another of Gandhi’s admonishments.
You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An
evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul.
Please don’t misunderstand me.
I am not calling the BDO evil. I truly mean no disrespect to Andy Fordham. He’s working hard to get into respectable physical condition. He does more than his fair share for charity. He’s a nice guy.
But there is a message in Gandhi’s words.
To those players in the BDO who are contemplating a switch to the PDC, I hope the message is
clear.
It’s time to get out of the mud and move forward.
From the Field,
—Dartoid
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