I receive a lot of e-mails from people asking questions
about the sport of darts.
I try to be as helpful as I can.
“S’up, Dahtoid? Yo. I be new ta da game but wants ta
learn. Name’s Antonio. From Joisey. Where’s da bes’ place ta check out some
smokin’ action?”
“Nigel here. BLIMEY! I lost me blasted darts. Tell me
old boy, where might I locate a brilliant set? Cheers.”
“Hey buddy. It’s Ed-Bob. One of our shots down the
Roadhouse got busted for DUI and can’t get to matches no more. Where can I find
a hot new team mate? Write back soon.”
“G’day Dartoid. Kevin Berlyn here. I just got a new
board. Tell me matey, where’s th’ best place to hang it? Arrrr.”
Pretty much I always give the same response. I find that
“Hooters” leaves most of my readers satisfied.
But the other day somebody asked a real toughie. “Hey,
you frickin’ wanker. Where do you steal the shit you write? PS: this is the
Lord.”
Well, the answer to that one ain’t Hooters. Not that I
haven’t gone there in search of material…
The answer is the Internet.
Yes, there’s all sorts of wonderful information about the
sport of darts to be found these days by simply typing “www” and a dot and a
small string of letters into a computer.
I do it everyday when I should be working.
So I’m kind of an expert when it comes to surfing the
Information Highway for information about darts. Barely ten years ago, there
were only some fifty sites out there dedicated to our sport. Some guy from
Switzerland named George Vacek scoped them all out and created a super-site
called “George’s List of Darts Sites.” But apparently George died or
something. This forerunner of the plethora of sites that currently exists (34
billion as of yesterday) has vanished from the ether.
Anyway, after years of research and with all due respect
for George who first stepped foot into the jungle of darts on the Internet (and
who once directed me to a couple of bars in Zurich), I now feel qualified to
recommend the Top Ten Darts Sites in the WORLD today.
I visit each of them regularly and rip off everything I
can.
DISCLAIMER. The list that follows is in no particular
order. Each and every one of these sites offers something extraordinary. For
example, most of them carry my column.
The reason I have declined to formally order the sites is
because I always make my best effort not to piss people off. All of my regular
readers, particularly those of the well-endowed female persuasion, will
seriously question this statement.
Still, to order the list would risk offending someone,
possibly even a female somebody. And that would be just plain stupid.
The first thing you may have noticed about the list is that
there are eleven entries, not just ten as suggested in the title to this
column. This is because I can’t count. If you’ve seen me throw darts you will
appreciate that I am being completely honest about this.
Your second observation might be that the first two entries
are for the only two sites created and run by women. Of course, this is by
design and not meant in any way to denigrate the quality of the sites
themselves. Both are amazing. I list them at the front end of the list only
because I love fronts and ends.
Sherilyn Herkey created
www.passionatedarter.com a couple of years ago for some class she was
taking about auto mechanics. She set out to design a web site about vintage
cars. This is the result. She failed the course (of course, of course) but
continued to follow her passion. She has catapulted her project into one of
the more unique and interesting sites on the Web today. Buried here is an
exhaustive listing of books about darts, dating back to the 1930’s, and tips
on how to find them. There is also a collection of interviews including one
with John Lowe that simply has to be among the best ever conducted.
The Professional Darts Corporation’s (PDC) site,
www.planetdarts.co.uk, is simply out of this world and that’s not just
because it’s, strictly technically speaking, based in another world. This
site is as good as it gets for three reasons and they’re all Gayle Farmer.
This woman can WRITE. I stop by the PDC site every morning to read
whatever fresh news Farmer has to report on happenings at the apex of the
world of darts. Here you can watch Phil Taylor’s 9-darter, read John Part’s
outstanding discourse on practice and preparation and follow the rankings of
the best of the best in our sport. You can even sign up to receive text
alerts to your cell phone, in real time, of the scores of PDC competitions.
About the only thing you won’t find here is my column. That’s because the PDC
think’s I’m a sexist, vulgar scum-bag from America which is, again strictly
technically speaking, true.
Of course, Jay Tomlinson’s (and Mike Harris’)
www.bullseyenews.com is the electronic issue of Hustler Magazine. No.
NO! That’s a filthy lie and another example of why the PDC won’t carry my
column. Here’s something that is true: unlike Hustler publisher, Larry
Flynt, Tomlinson is not running for governor of California. And here’s
another fact: unlike Flynt’s garbage, Tomlinson’s site and magazine are worth
reading -- indeed a must-read -- for anybody who cares about the sport of
darts, steel or soft, national or international, professional or
recreational. I check this site often for its up-to-date calendar of
tournaments and results coverage. And I love columnist Dick Allix, who’s
featured here. His most recent column began: “I want to talk about women.”
Yep, Tomlinson’s site carries my kind of stuff. I highly recommend that you
bookmark this page.
Australia’s Kevin Berlyn has to be considered The King
when it comes to creativity in darts web site development. His site,
www.dartplayersaustralia.com, as creative as it is in its own right, has
served as a launch pad for his talents. Today Berlyn’s skills are highly
sought after throughout the darting community. For example, it is Berlyn who
created John Lowe’s site. But Berlyn’s own site is more than just a creative
package; it’s crammed with information about the Australian and international
darts scene. I stop in regularly because I enjoy the tickle of indigenous
words -- like “Woolloomooloo” and “Cootamundra” -- as they stir around in my
head. These are the names of actual towns in Australia. The people in these
towns throw darts and have platypuses for pets.
If there’s a more comprehensive site out there today
than Alabama’s Tim Cronian’s
www.crowsdarts.com I can’t imagine where it is to be found. There are
also very few that have been around longer -- Cronian’s site has been up and
running for nearly a decade. Here you’ll find the most complete list of links
to leagues to be found anywhere on the Internet. You’ll also find a
compendium of almost 4,000 darts pubs to check out all over the world. If
you’re looking for information on anything from equipment to ladders for
organizing a Luck of the Draw this is the site to visit. This is also the
only venue I know of where one can enjoy Lance Kent’s “Da Doofus” column about
the sport. AND, it’s one of only a handful of sites where a visitor doesn’t
have to cast about aimlessly for new content. Cronian has set up a little
“update” icon that takes you immediately to the most recent additions.
What Mike Broderick has accomplished with
www.phillydarts.com is special – particularly to those darters who surf
the Net from the center of the universe (translation: Philadelphia).
Broderick’s 2001 creation has rapidly become The Place to Go if you live in
Philly, love darts, and want to know what’s happening around you. And this is
saying a lot. Philly’s an unusual place. Getting anyone in this city,
particularly those involved in darts, to consider that anyone else might, just
maybe, have a little information that could be useful to them is not the least
bit easy to accomplish. But Broderick has. He hosts league information for
five leagues in the city and updates league-related data weekly. He’s
established a chat site which has mushroomed from mere local participation
into a venue now frequented by darters from all over the world. His message
forum is crammed with action. In but two years time more than 100,000 people
have visited the site. I asked Broderick to what he credited his success.
His answer was as simple as it was obvious. “The thing about my site is
the people of Philadelphia. They are constantly giving me great content to
publish. Without them the site would be blank.” The answer is that
Broderick understands his audience.
I check John Lowe’s site,
www.john-lowe.net, pretty much every day -- even though (while it’s
updated very often) it’s not exactly updated every day. Few sites
are. The thing is, even knowing this, I check in religiously because I hope
that it is. What I most appreciate about Lowe’s site is his News (and views)
section. I ask you: where else with nothing but a click can one read
commentary about current goings-on by someone who has been there and done it
ALL in any sport and then click another button and correspond
with that person? You can do all this and more at Lowe’s site. If you’ve got
the time you can peruse a partial listing of his tournament victories -- more
than a thousand. You can watch Lowe’s televised 9-darter in 1984, the first
ever -- thrown two big, fat decades before Phil Taylor pegged his. This site
is as unique as they come, packed to the gills with tips, quotes and tidbits
that convey something very rare coming as they do straight from Da Man who,
hopefully, will buy me a couple of jars for writing such nice things about
him.
Nowhere is there a darts-related web site more unique
than the one created by the Dr. of Darts, Patrick Chaplin. Where there are
similarities between other sites, Chaplin’s
www.patrickchaplin.com venue is in a league of its own. Now here’s a
bloke (translation: a dude from England) who is actually, formally (really!)
writing his doctoral dissertation about the social history of darts in
Britain. What this means, in real terms, I honestly don’t know. I think it
might be a long paper about beer. Whatever it is or will be when it’s
completed, Chaplin’s process of getting there (revealing the real history of
darts) has produced some incredible revelations and “exploded some myths” --
and a boatload of this information is to be found at his site. Damn, it makes
for great reading! Perhaps you’ve heard the old story about how dart boards
used to be made out of pig’s hair? Well, according to Chaplin this is not
so. They were made out of hedgehog hair. Then there’s the old tale about how
the Pilgrims threw darts on the Mayflower. No way Jose, not according to
Chaplin. What the Pilgrims played was conkers. Want to know why the numbers
are arranged as they are on the board, why the oche’s called the oche, how
fast the average dart flies? Check this site out. The man’s a genius.
The American Darters Association (ADA) web site,
www.adadarters.com, established by Glenn Remick, has been chugging along
since 1997. And it just gets better and better. With the aim of keeping the
burgeoning ADA membership current on goings-on within the league, Remick’s has
designed a system whereby his franchisees are able to electronically transmit
information to the ADA office. Remick then updates the site twice
daily. So, unlike the rest of us who have to wait until the end of each week
to see where we and our team stand (assuming our captain wasn’t too drunk to
shove the score-sheet into a mailbox) members of the ADA can monitor their
position at any given moment. What could possibly be more motivating for a
weekly league shooter? Remick’s site is also the only electronic darts venue
you’re going to see emblazoned with the logos of sponsors like Coca-Cola and
Michelob.
Online since 1994, Rick Osgood’s Cyberdarts at
www.cyberdarts.com was created to “promote the sport and further
communication between darters and darts organizations.” One would be
hard-pressed to suggest Osgood has been anything but wildly successful. This
is the original darts site -- if not the first, one of the very first -- and
is certainly the only one of the handful in existence a decade ago that is
still chugging along strong today. Osgood can fairly lay claim to having been
instrumental in getting more than 75 darts organizations on-line -- including
the American Darts Organization (ADO), World Darts Federation (WDF) and even
the ADA’s Remick. Perhaps the two most popular attractions at Cyberdarts are
its online chat room and e-mail discussion forum which serve, every day, as
essential gathering places for darters from all over the world to exchange
views and information. Osgood blazed the trail for virtually every other
darts-related site on the Internet today.
At
www.dartbase.com former Austrian national champion (1991), Karlheinz
Zochling, just like Patrick Chaplin, has laid claim to a niche that nobody
else on the Information Highway comes close to matching. Ever since appearing
in 1996, Zochling’s site has been earning kudos for carrying what is probably
the most detailed description of throwing mechanics publicly available today
-- but that’s not what sets it apart from all the others. Zochling’s
focus is on coaching and the importance of the mental side of the game. His
site features a classic article on slumps (“The First Slump”), a subject I
haven’t seen addressed nearly so well elsewhere. I know for a fact that this
single story has influenced several struggling players to hang in there and
stick with the sport. If only to read this one column, Zochling’s site
is worth a visit.
So there you have it, my Top Ten (plus one) places to rip
off ideas from the Web. I pop into each of these sites at least every other
day.
Of course, I recognize that this very knowledge might
possibly have the effect of causing many of you who are reading this to steer in
the opposite direction -- as far away from these sites as possible. So, to
Herkey, Farmer, Tomlinson, Berlyn and all the rest who have toiled away to
create the excellent sites I have discussed: please accept my apology.
Let me also apologize to the creators of the many other
fine web sites that exist out there. While I do tend to frequent most often the
sites I have mentioned, there are many, many others that I visit regularly.
If you have the time to click just once into this list I
highly recommend a stop at the St. Charles Darts League site. Here you will
find a one-of-a-kind column by a mystery woman named Phoebe. I love
Phoebe!
Finally (yes, finally, unless you are interested in
my list of the Top Ten Porn Sites in the WORLD -- in which event I kindly ask
that you send your phone number along with several 8” x 10” glossy photographs
and a short video) there are just four more sites that you should check out.
Yes, four. Sorry.
First, there’s
www.hooters.com. The fact notwithstanding that the mention of Hooters
helps tie the end of this column back to the beginning, I refer all members of
the male persuasion here for obvious reasons. The joint has great buffalo
wings.
Third, you must visit
www.talklikeapirate.com. I suggest this for no particular reason.
“Avast, matey! If ye a sicko ye might jus get a kick out of it. Arrrr!
Arrrr!”
Finally, finally, FINALLY, if you’re more than
just a sicko -- if you’re a certified wack-job like me who loves the sport of
darts and refuse to take life too seriously…
