My last blog ended on a bit of a cliff-hanger. After mistaking Andrew Davies’ partner Amy for somebody else and forgetting to change my patches over, I was wondering how I would handle my match between Callan Rydz and Dimitri van den Bergh! As it happens, it goes just fine with Callan putting in yet another fine performance before winning yesterday as well to book his place in the quarter-finals. Callan seems to be in a really good place at the moment and his darts are following suit which is great to see. On the subject of sponsorship patches, according to the PDPA’s website (Professional Dart Players Association), players can wear up to five of their own patches on their shirt. For the officials, we tend to have one sponsor for the event on the front of our shirt and one on our sleeve. We are also allowed our personal sponsors too, so Winmau is always on my shirt just below the main sponsor of the event.
In the evening session of the 29th I have the all-Welsh affair between Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton, but before that I have to second ref the match between Ricky Evans and Robert Owen. Second refereeing involves sitting in front of two monitors. One monitor has “Program” output, so basically what you all see on television. The other monitor shows the camera that is placed above the dartboard. Television cuts to it sometimes. Normally we are tucked away somewhere at the side of the stage but at Alexandra Palace we are sat in a hut backstage, as in properly backstage. The venue is so vast. We are looking out for any discrepancies during the game, and it could be anything, but the most common ones would be counting errors, making sure the players are not encroaching on the exclusion zone and watching for any swearing on the telly! It has to be said very rarely do we have to intervene during a match, but we always need a second ref in case something does happen. When we intervene, we have a walkie-talkie so I would use that to communicate with the marker stood next to the referee. He has his earpiece in and will convey what I have said to the “first” referee. Whatever it is that’s happened you also log down in the iPad and make a note of when it happened for the Tournament Director to review if necessary. You always second ref the match before you go and “first ref”, so when you come off the stage, you have a game off. Your work is done!
So for my match, the two players are Welsh, I’m Welsh, one of the markers Andrew Davies is Welsh……and the other marker Charlie Gardner is English! Charlie you’ve ruined it!! We were tempted to ask Robert Owen who had won the match before if he wouldn’t mind staying on to mark the next one just so we could complete the set! We didn’t though, we didn’t think that would go down too well!
The 30th December and I’m on first in both sessions. That means I have a game off during Game Two and second reffing Game Three. I have a great game between Chris Dobey and Kevin Doets which Chris edges four sets to three, before Stephen Bunting gets to the Last Eight courtesy of a four-nil win over Luke Woodhouse. After coming off the stage I watch my team Manchester United in relegation form against Newcastle United before realising that Tottenham Hotspur centre-half Micky Van De Ven is in the audience, so for my own personal reasons I go and have a picture with him!!
I hope everybody has a fantastic New Year. I’m back in action on the 1st in the Afternoon session so I’m not having a heavy one by any stretch of the imagination! I will write another blog after that and before the Final but until then, see you in 2025!
