I hope everybody had a great New Year. I had a very quiet one (by the usual standards!), due to being on in the Afternoon session on New Year’s Day with Michael van Gerwen and Callan Rydz. What an incredible game that was! I must say I didn’t realise there were over thirty 180s in the game until Charlie Corstorphine told me! I thought there were over twenty, but I didn’t realise it was thirty-one. If we had gone to a deciding set, we’d have definitely broken the record for a quarter-final (thirty-three). At one point I was thrown….Callan wanted 101 and threw 19 and 14 to leave 68 and then threw a small 12. I wasn’t expecting that! So very quickly you have to recalculate 33 + 12 to get 45. That’s the challenge for a referee. How quickly you can recalculate when you are thrown.
The Evening session I have off so Charlie and I go back to the hotel, meet my Mum and Dad who had come up that morning and a few drinks and a Chinese later I was in bed by 9! Absolutely drained and just happy to take advantage of an early night. Today (2nd January) is just an Evening session. I’m on first in the first semi-final, so it’s a very quiet day, just having lunch in Nando’s with Mum, Dad, Charlie & Kelly Gardner before chilling in the hotel and catching a ride to the venue with Russ Bray and John McDonald. My first semi-final at the PDC World Championship, but it all goes well. MVG is just too strong for Chris Dobey and he runs out a 6-1 winner and the first player into the final.
Kirk Bevins will be refereeing the first half of the final tomorrow and I will be refereeing the second half. To be honest tomorrow will be the biggest day of my life. I’ve been with the PDC for eight years now and it will be one of the biggest honours of my life to take charge of the second half and call in the champion. There may be some media to do tomorrow beforehand. I’ve already done an interview with OutSports in America talking about the impact an out gay man refereeing the World Darts Championship Final can have. If I was to say anything to that, it would be that if there are gay boys or gay girls out there who are worried that their sexuality could close doors to worlds they would like to be in but no longer feel that they can, then that is not the case. These worlds, like the sports world, are open to everybody both gay and straight, and even if the journey can be hard sometimes, days like tomorrow make it so worth it. No matter who you are you can achieve in any world you want to, and most importantly, you can belong.
I hope everybody enjoys the final.
