Down and out - SOS
Written by Warren
Well my life (darting) has been a roller coaster ride as you would have read. From suffering a finger transplant to have 60% useage of my hand to suffering from Epilepsy until 1998.
I started playing in 1984 to keep myself active and mentally stimulated to combat the Epilepsy but it didnt work although I created a passion for darts! My hand seemed to be the wall that stopped me from playing alot and so I had to chase a dart that I could use but also not bring any pain to my hand... I managed to do that for awhile but as the pain came again I had to try new darts (as players tend to do).
Anyway, years down the track and alot of support from family, my lovely wife as well as Unicorn & A180 darts I am coming to the fact that maybe its time for me to pack my darts away and perhaps turn my past experience in darts towards helping others or perhaps be a Ambassador for a Darts company!
Unicorn did a brilliant job (Thanks Alex your the man) in making me 3 versions of my darts and were extremely patient in Edward and Richard whom I hold great respect for but unfortunately when you get to a stage where the mind is still 100% but my hand gets weaker then its time to move on! I am i guess, Australia's rep for A180 darts who get all Unicorns great lines of gear as well as many other Companies. I put it to Karl Holden the owner if he could go one step further than Unicorns great effort and make me a copy of my Priestleys (original Harrows ones) but with a few modifications. What I got was a brilliant dart, however with family issues yet more to the fact, my darting hand is starting to say "I am feeling old, change darts or stop I ache too much ". this is something I have had to put up with all my life.
I feel this time though (unless some special dart created may help as I have SO many idea's to change my new set as I do not want to ask for another set to be made due to the cost) that maybe the travelling isnt worth it? I LOVE my darts, its the only time I get my andrenalin going and the heart and fire in the belly are always there at tournaments. It depresses me to find that I am taking longer now to play even with the passion I have as I know how I can play, I just now am starting to hate this hinderance I have. It now annoys me to actually take in what people say about my game (which is due to my hand) where as I used to never bother about it! I have told a few players to swap thier right hand with mine and then see what they say, sometimes an apology more often than not pure ignorance.. some days I wonder if it is all worth while?
So now in the Blog I am asking anyone worldwide who thinks they or thier company can come up with a solution to help me either 1. keep playing or 2. find/suggest via talks a solution to help me not loose my passion for the game even if I cant play (and I HATE the word cant!) maybe as an ambassador it would be great as I love the game, the people that play and are behind the scenes who make the game go so well, right down to those who use thier weekend off to watch a tournament and chalk when asked to.. its those people who I want to be involved with if I cannot play again due to my hand. Like my father used to say "the older you get the more your body lets you know its had enough'" maybe this is that time?
Until my next Blog... Wazza out!
Darts & A180 in Phuket Thailand
Written by Warren Thursday, 13 May 2010 09:14
Went to Phuket, Thailand on the 30th April.
Brilliant place to visit and restup (and for the wife to shop at).. I had a few things to do darts wise there so took my darts as well.
Went to legends Sports bar to drop of 5 sets of darts for A180 (with the intention of getting darts going stronger in Thailand than it is now).
What a difference Phuket or I should say Patong is where I travelled in Phuket, they have 2 competitions there. One serious one for the locals of a Tuesday night and a social one of a Thursday night.
Legends owner told me he had to stop the comp in his bar due to fights of a Tuesday night.
The thing is over there the heat is always around 34Celcius and if there is no breeze in the air the humidity makes it hotter and hard to breath so fans have to be placed around the dart
area for player comfort, unfortunately every Tuesday night fights broke out over which fans the players wanted pointing to them! (mind you the fans didnt blow the darts off course!) I
played a game but due to the humidity I had to rub dirt on my hands to stop the darts slipping! I managed to knock in 3 18 dart legs which was pretty good considering the
enviroment I had to contend with.
Next stop was Maya bay... no windows in the pub all open, they just pull down roller shutters when they close! Anyway got onto thier board which was on a wall and above a pool table!
The pool table was against the wall the board was on so I was told I had to throw from the end of the table to the board, walk around and retieve my darts! A fun time there I must say.. comp
is played there though so handed out A180 cards to them.
Last on my list before I went to relax was a place called SO1 Easy in Bangla Road...unfortunately it had been shut down but was told by a person at our hotel that people still play there and these people were going to see someone there and passed on some A180 cards for me.
So it was a productive time for me with A180 promotions and seeing darts of a different culture and hopefully we will go back again to see how the darts are going there and in
Thailand itself
Until the next Blog... Wazza out!
