Okay that’s quite enough of that. I’m ill, I’m tired, it’s a Tuesday. Tired on Tuesday has a ring to it. Ill In Winter does not. I’m on another train home from Paddington to Cardiff and all I can think of is needing to be up the next morning at 03.15 to be on the 04:36 to Stockport for the Paddy Power nine dart/147/hole in one challenge. I’m spotting. We’ll be finished by 2pm and my day will be done so that’s the positive, but still it’s probably best to fall asleep now on this train because any extra hours to alleviate this headache. Not saying my sinuses are bad but I’ve just blown my nose and turned into the walking equivalent of Niagara Falls.
So yes, sleep is good. Just drifting off…..I can see bunny rabbits, and rainbows, and green grass and sunshine. I’m manifesting healthiness, I’m drifting off to sleep, my noise cancelling Airpods are really help…..”CALL FROM GRAHAM FAIRHURST. ANSWER IT!” “Hello? Yes of course I can go down to London straight from Stockport tomorrow to work the O2 Christmas Party in the O2 tomorrow night no problem. Thanks Graham, bye!” It’s the O2 Christmas Party, I worked it last year and it was great, but now I’m going back to London from Stockport. I need to book more hotels, more travel back from London when I’m literally travelling back from London now. This would all be fine, if I wasn’t so ILL! I get off the train, book my travel and accommodation and then drag myself to Cardiff Met Uni where I’ve promised the Student Media team an interview in their brilliant sports set they’ve constructed. Once that’s done, it’s a quick conversation with PDC CEO Matt Porter to confirm the details for tomorrow, grab some food (there’s no way I’m cooking tonight, no energy!) and sleep.
It’s midday on Wednesday, sat in the canteen of The Vector Project in Stockport. I’ve been up for seven hours already and clinging on to consciousness. We’ve been through rehearsals, but we haven’t started the live broadcast yet. I’ve said hello to lots of lovely people from Matchroom I haven’t seen for ages, said hello to the wonderful Emma Paton and had a look around. It’s a really impressive setup, my mate Daz Rollings on the graphics and the brilliant director John Molyneux switching the buttons. Referee Kirk Bevins is all set so we’re ready to go, even if I am there in spirit, rather than mentally.
The two hour show goes seamlessly, the links to London for the golf are great, Emma and Mark Webster do a great job in anchoring the whole thing, and John and Daz are brilliant in keeping the darts side of things running smoothly. Neither MVG or Luke Humphries get close to a nine-darter, but as Michael explains to Emma, you don’t start a leg consciously thinking of hitting a nine. Now in this challenge you do, and if you miss with the first dart it can get demoralising. I’m actually quite pleased they didn’t hit one, because it shows how difficult, rare and special they are if you do hit one, especially on a big TV stage.
Once it’s all done I race with Adam from the PDC back to London Euston. He’s got his laptop up, he’s so busy preparing for the World Championships so I leave him alone and go to sleep. Much needed sleep. Once at Euston I get on the Tube, the DLR and then walk in freezing weather which is really not helping my health to the Travelodge at London City Airport. Not to sound dramatic but I’m so tired I can’t see. No sooner have I dropped my stuff, I need to be at the O2 so I head there back into the freezing cold weather and meet the Programming Administrator Alfie whom I met last year. “How are you?” he asks me politely…….”I’m good thank you” I reply, equally politely! The PDC lads come along as they’ve entered a darts team this year. Thank God they’re here as they really pull me through the night. I’m feeling more and more all over the place, just like Manchester United’s defending from Arsenal’s corner kicks. They lose 2-0 in Amorim’s first defeat. Mind you, if you’d said they’d only lose 2-0 before a ball was kicked I’d be pretty happy with that! I MC the darts on stage, O2 are very happy, I have pictures and a chat with some O2 staff darts fans, and I’m back in my hotel room at 11pm having been up since 3am with the equivalent of two elephants resting on the top of my head.
Thursday I’m no better but at least it’s a day at home. I have an interview with the Weekly Dartscast podcast to announce my website, blog and podcast and then a meeting about my website. I’m sounding so nasal it’s a bit like Kenneth Williams on steroids, but hey, would much rather be like that now than at the World Championships! Friday I’m feeling a little bit better, the sinuses are starting to calm down and so is my mood. It’s up to Manchester for a show in front of two thousand people with my mate Michael Bridge MC’ing. A jolly good show is followed by a few glasses of prosecco and then it’s to bed before heading across to Boston in Lincolnshire for another top show with Modus. The head of Modus, Jason Thame, calls it one of the best shows they’ve done all year and lots of people tell me what a great time they had.
Monday and I’m filming with BBC Wales at the JDC academy up in Hirwaun. I’ve never been to a JDC night before and I have to say what an incredible job they have done. It’s not a surprise, as they’ve had so much success with JDC academies popping up everywhere right across the world, but to see up close how much enjoyment the kids are getting out of playing darts, with all the various training games and novelty games they have with these novelty darts that they love to play with, it’s an incredible job what the JDC have done to make sure that playing darts is what it should be for kids…enjoyable. If you have a kid who’s interested in playing darts, or if you want to find them an outlet for them to socialise and to make friends, I can’t recommend the JDC enough. Bailey and Dan from the Bullhitters are there as well, and the BBC film us playing darts, talking to the kids and I have an interview to camera.
I’m told it will be going out on a small programme called BBC Wales News at Six either Friday or Monday, and as the Bullhitters are very kindly driving me home, I take a deep breath and realise the madness of the last three weeks is at an end. All four blogs I have written so far have encapsulated the last three weeks alone. It’s been an experience I wouldn’t have missed for the world, just to be involved in “different” things like the Paddy Power event in Stockport, the PDC Christmas Ad, the Houses of Parliament etc. Things that are away from the norm of the darts calendar are always refreshing to do and it’s been a joy to help promote the World Championships, bring entertainment to the crowds during all the shows we’ve done, and now of course attention turns to the big one. I’ll be blogging from Alexandra Palace to show you what life is like at the World Championships from a refereeing perspective but before then, four days to do all the Christmas shopping, wrapping and delivering….and start feeling better!! I hope you all enjoy the World Darts Championship. Only one day to go now by the time you are reading this!
