My train is delayed, badly (what is it with trains at the moment?!) so I ring the lovely Aled from Newyddion to explain to him that I can’t meet him down the Bay as planned so he can interview me for S4C’s flagship news programme. As I’m waiting for the train to drag itself back to Cardiff, I’m thinking about the retirement of the legend Steve Beaton. Here’s to a wonderful career, Steve and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for you. It’s been ten years and still no clue what we’re doing here….
Luckily Aled from Newyddion doesn’t pull the plug and never speaks to me again and agrees to meet me straight off the train. We head into O’Neills, I confirm that the interview is going to be in English….isn’t it?…. as S4C is a Welsh-speaking channel. Aled confirms that it is, thank God, and we have a great interview covering lots of different things and I’m confident and happy in the answers I give, which never happens. Do you ever find yourself having a conversation with someone and then you think of the perfect response to what they’ve said about forty-five minutes later? Or is it just me? Luckily, I don’t have that feeling with Aled from Newyddion, but it’s a return to form with every interaction I have with everybody I interact with for the rest of the day.
The next day, another show, another train, another……DELAY! What is it at the moment? Trains are becoming more delayed than my wait for a boyfriend. As I’m stood on the platform, Kim Woodburn from Big Brother enters my head which she does on an hourly basis. She utters one of her iconic lines (“Christ it’s freezing”), and then my attention swerves from Kim to utter horror that I might actually miss the start of the exhibition at Cheltenham Racecourse. MC Paul Starr is placed on standby but he stands down as I make it with enough time to spare. Luke Humphries, Stephen Bunting, Daryl Gurney, Joe Cullen, Simon Whitlock, Fallon Sherrock, Mark Webster and Robert Thornton are all in attendance for the crowd who have braved the cold weather to come out on a Wednesday evening. The next night is a show in Cardiff, quite literally next door to my flat so the lovely Mark Smith drives me back home as he has a hotel in Cardiff for the night. I walk through the door about 1am.
It’s an all Welsh affair at the Depot in Cardiff on Thursday night with Gerwyn Price, Jonny Clayton, Mark Webster, Richie Burnett and Rob Owen on the bill. Polly James is also there and my old Wednesday league mate Matt Bester is on the chalks. My jokes and spiel go down well with the local crowd but it has to be said if it was cold last night, then it’s simply Baltic on stage at the Depot. I always get ill with flu at this time of year and being on that cold stage really doesn’t help the chances of avoiding it this year. I’ve got too much on, nope, no chance I can get ill now. I’d rather say boo to the King then get ill at this moment in time. There’s going to be trouble at the very hint of a sniff, honestly. If I cough once, then the world really is going to come to an end, at my hand.
Saturday and it’s the Untouchables down in Portsmouth. This is a great night, with over 1000 people in the stunning Guildhall in Portsmouth. Again the show is a success, my jokes go down well, and everyone who comes up to play against the pros are great sports who take the banter as it’s intended. There was one star of the show…..twelve year-old Jayden Walker. He played the first game of the night against Luke Humphries. I explained to Luke that this wasn’t Luke Littler and that you can go easy on him……yeah nice one Huw, Jayden’s only rattled in a 102 average and beaten Luke 2-1! They’re just getting younger and younger, there’s no doubt in my mind he will be a star. I just hope the media don’t try and build him up in any way. The boy is twelve…leave him alone to be twelve. What a healthy place darts is in and I wonder if one day the ProTour will be filled with youngsters all blessed with a talent that we didn’t think dart players could have at that age. Not necessarily twelve-year olds on the ProTour! Just imagine though if the ProTour was filled with players between 18-25. I wonder if that’s a possibility in the future.
Travel home on Sunday, watch my beloved Manchester United smash Everton to pieces four-nil, a game which in truth Everton gave United all four goals…god there’s a long way back for my team but I like the look of the new manager and what he’s trying to do. It’s another quick turnaround though because it’s off to Alexandra Palace early Monday morning to film the PDC’s Christmas Advert. I’m filming with Russ Bray and John McDonald, stalwarts of the advert. This is my first time ever filming one. I wonder what lines we’ll have? I wonder what they’ll have us doing…….
Gosh that was fun. It was a very cold walk up to thirty-six thousand feet where Alexandra Palace is. We all meet in the Phoenix Bar near the West Court of Ally Pally and it’s always great to catch up with Russ. He’d just landed back from doing the second Helsinki show where there were thousands in the crowd, so a very different experience to the Helsinki show two weeks before. It was a really great script the PDC lads came up with for the advert and hopefully it goes down well with the fans. A thoroughly enjoyable experience and definitely enough outtakes for a blooper reel! Walking back down the hill from thirty-six thousand feet I’m thinking about everything else I’ve got coming up this week….and I can feel I’m coming down with the flu…..world, stand well back.
