Darts Hit the Big Time but Keep Their Beer-Soaked Roots

As readers of this blog know, I tried to read the N.Y. Times often. I rarely read the Orlando Sentinel anymore, and my life seems to be evolving to the point where living and reading the blog world comes first with the available time that I have.

However, the Times really is sensational when they cover off the wall stuff. On January 11, Lizette Alvarez wrote this great piece 

Darts Hit the Big Time but Keep Their Beer-Soaked Roots

In it are a handful of great quotes, and for a moment that you doubt that we Americans are the only crazy members of the English speaking tribe, you will love these:

 "Darts is a cross between a Springsteen concert and professional wrestling now," said Sid Waddell, a longtime commentator, embellishing just a smidge. "It's a sport that needs dramatic lighting, and heavy rock music punctuated by the intensity of the crowd."

and

 Groupies, too, are budding, most notably a set calling themselves "Tarts for Darts."

and

 "In my view, the exclusion of darts (from the Olympics) is down to class-based prejudice," wrote Martin Kelner in The Guardian last year. "Because the drug of choice among darts people tends to be lager, and true Olympians like to go for something with a few more syllables in it, other sportsmen get all sniffy about darts."

and

 "You can take darts out of the pub, but you can never take the pub out of darts,"

But the final one is the one that got me thinking about what really is important in life. In quoting and describing  Andy (the Viking) Fordham, who seems to be the number 2 guy in Darts in the UK,

Alvarez wrote:

“It is Mr. Fordham, though, who is taking fitness the most seriously, because whenever he stepped on his home scale, as he put it, "it read 'error.' " At 420 pounds, Mr. Fordham - a pub owner whose theme song is "I'm Too Sexy for My Shirt" - is the first to tell you he enjoys the "relaxed" life.

To relax before a match, he used to drink 25 bottles of Holsten Pils. When he broke his wrist last year, his physical therapy consisted of lifting a beer bottle to his lips (the therapy worked beautifully, he said).

When he nearly collapsed from heat exhaustion at the pay-per-view showdown with Mr. Taylor in November, he went outside, took off his shirt, iced himself down and reportedly sipped a beer to recuperate. Too sick to continue playing, he was forced to concede.

"Drinking goes part and parcel with darts," said Mr. Fordham, 42, whose affable wife, Jenny, owns The Rose, a pub in Dartford. They live upstairs. "But I'm cutting back to as much I can." His initial goal is to reduce his daily intake of beer to 12 bottles.”

Clearly this is a guy, who has his mixed his true calling with his skills.

Comments

[Mark]

I like the quotes ... saved a few, thanks!