The
Prince Of Darts.
A
couple of weeks ago Prince Charles was reported to be doing his best to keep the
darts tradition going. Apparently he was giving a speech to about 200 publicans
at Clarence House where he waved a set of darts in the air saying that he was
getting rather good with them, but his younger son was better. Perhaps he was
alluding to the fact that his sons have been known to frequent drinking places
occasionally, although Charles promised to go into some of his guests pubs a
little more often!
Generally speaking it is the slightly older generation that seems to be keeping the traditional pub activities going as can be seen from the small number of new young players signing up to join leagues each season. The few youngsters that do are immediately thrown into the spotlight where ever they go and other players always comment on how young they are, because it is such a rare event to see new blood joining the sports ranks.
Another major problem facing all pub leagues is the fact that so many are closing in villages and towns alike. My own thoughts are that this is due to many converting into restaurants where dining takes precedence over normal pub activities and things like dart boards and pool tables are removed to make room for larger numbers of dining tables. For a while the converted pubs make good money on the meals and others in the locale join in. Then one pub starts cutting the prices of the meals that they are offering and others naturally follow suit. Soon every one of them is selling meals at virtually cost price in order to attract customers and the next thing is they start going bust because they are not making any money. After some of them close other pubs think that they can fill the gap left, convert and start to sell cheap meals and so it goes on leaving only the most efficient still open with many empty and closed pub/restaurants.
The ever tightening drink drive laws have also had some affect on the numbers of drinkers in pubs as has last years smoking ban. Some village pubs have diversified in an attempt to bring in customers and trade of one sort or another. Five years ago Prince Charles set up his “Pub is the Hub” campaign to breathe life back into the rural way of life centred round the village pub. With villages churches struggling to maintain expensive churches and church halls, several parishes round the country have set up sermons held in the village pub. Post offices have closed and re-opened in a few village pubs as have several village shops round the Midlands.
Recent
surveys have revealed that a large percentage of pubs do not even have a dart
board and only a small percentage of regular pub goers have played darts in the
last year. Others surveyed did not have a clue about how scores were made on a
dart board.
Many
professional players are concerned for the future of darts and darts Superstar,
World Champion Phil Taylor is reported to have said, "Unless we get behind
the campaign to Save Our Darts and encourage more landlords to install a dart
board, the game really could be consigned to the history books."