More Interest in Ladies Games?

Playing in a Men’s league there are obviously quite a few Lady players as they now have full equality. (Of course men aren’t allowed to play in Ladies leagues though! Unless it’s in mixed doubles)

Having said that a few Ladies playing in the league does make for some interesting games and evenings and perhaps unkindly I notice some of their little foibles when they surface, rather more than with most other players.

One league in particular has a Lady Captain who runs a team that is not one of the best in the league, although she herself, can be a formidable player. On one occasion this popular lady didn’t quite get things right as Captain, when according to the match sheet, she transferred her whole team over to the rival team. (Actually she had claimed the game as the opposition hadn’t turned up and in her excitement she had written her team on the wrong side of the result sheet under their name.) To be honest this is a regular occurrence on the result sheets by some male team captains with the names in the second half for the doubles games, but I tend not to comment on that!

In the same league, players are actually allowed to transfer from one pub top another in mid season for a small fee and one or two do so, every season. At a match one night, we had a few spectators in the form of visiting players from another team who were not playing that night, because of a cancelled game, or something.  Some of them said why didn’t they transfer to the Mossley. I advised them that it would cost One Pound and my team Captain corrected me saying that it would cost £2 per player. One visiting lady player then said the wrong thing when she piped up saying that the other team could run a card at 20p a go that would raise £10 and for £10 the team could have her!!!
My Captain quickly told her to re-phrase that!!!

We have had other instances where the Ladies misinterpret, or get the rules wrong. At one time the League held a lot of charity Knock Outs and one competition in particular attracted several competitors who were not real darts players which meant that BDO rules were not strictly observed - including the dress code. I saw one girl who definitely did not play in regulation foot-ware. In fact she did not play in any foot-ware at all as she had bare feet! I’ve never seen a darts player compete in bare feet before in a pub! Rather dangerous with the steel pointed darts that we play with in the UK!

It usually adds a little interest to any match when there are one, or two ladies playing except on one occasion when the TV was turned on while the match was going on. The TV was showing the Grand Slam Of Darts in Wolverhampton and the beautiful Ladies World Number One, (at the time,) Anastasia Dobromyslova, was one of those playing. Naturally all the lads were more interested in watching her against Kevin McDine and not really interested in our match at all. Then they started discussing her games and the fact that she bottled out on the doubles against John Part in the first round, when she could have easily beaten him. Someone said she hasn’t got the balls to play in men’s darts. Another voice piped up pointing out how she came back from 4 – 0 down to make it 4 – 4 against Wayne Mardle and said she, “Has got balls.