Who knew darts was this tough?

The BBQ Pit
1

I’m a bit of a sports nut, and I consider myself reasonably well versed on the ins and outs of various athletic endeavors, but I had no idea that dart throwing could be such a strenuous activity. As we see here, it can be downright life threatening. Andy (The Viking) Fordham, weighing in at around 30 stone (420 lbs.) after a rehab regimen (from a broken wrist) of 8 pints of ale a day, was unable to continue after 7 games of a planned 13 game pay-per-view match to consolidate the World darts Championship. From the article–

“Andy’s got the heart of a lion and he wanted to carry on. But we had to think of the bigger picture and I wasn’t prepared to let him go through any more,” Mr. Hearn said.

Mr. Taylor, 44, the prematch favourite, collected the top prize of approximately $132,000, while Mr. Fordham did not lose his title and collected $88,000.

“I’m absolutely devastated, for myself, for Andy and for all the people who have paid good money,” Mr. Taylor told Sky Box Office. "The heat took its toll on him out there. Andy’s size has got a lot to do with it. He’s a big lad and it’s very, very hot down there, 100 [Fahrenheit] degrees plus. I was worried Andy was not going to pull through. I turned round and he didn’t look very well. I’m thinking, ‘Oh crikey, I’m going to kill him here.’ "

Sports cliches fail me.

2

What the sarcastic cunt who wrote that article failed to mention is that the match would have been thirteen sets, not thirteen legs - there is no such thing as a “game” in pro darts, showing the depth of this asshole’s research. Thirteen legs can be played easily in less than half an hour. The seven sets they played probably took more like two hours, all of it spent standing under sweltering lights in a smoky room, and since final sets are of unlimited length the match could possibly have gone on for another two hours.

Tell you what - we’ll stick you out in temperatures above body heat and see how you fare trying to stand almost immobile for two hours. However bad you feel, multiply it by ten because Andy Fordham is a) very fat and b) from Britain, where you just don’t get temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius.

Nobody who saw Andy win his title at the start of this year would ever believe he’d give up for any reason other than it was genuinely dangerous to his health to play on.

3

Albeit a wheezy, asthmatic lion that has a note from matron excusing it from games. :rolleyes:

4

As much as Andy Fordham, and Phil Taylor too, need to lose weight, it’s unfair to criticise without knowing truly what he was going through. Sure, darts isn’t as physically active as your average sport, but why don’t you try going through 4-5 hours of your average working day in noisy, smoky, 100+ Fahrenheit conditions and see if you aren’t physically exhausted afterwards? I have, am in nowhere near as bad shape as Andy, and still felt nauseous for 2 days afterwards from it.

5

Jesus, Evil Death, take a pill or something, will ya?

Sure, the conditions under which these players compete are difficult and beyond the ability of the average person. But isn’t that what we expect when someone is competing for the crown of World Champion, in any event? The very thing that makes us admire world champs is that they can do things that we cannot.

Presumably this guy knew going in that the match would be decided by 13 sets. If he’s not up to it, maybe he shouldn’t be playing.

Tell me that you, as an armchair sports fan, have never criticised the performance of a professional athlete.

6

I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that this was a pay-per-view event…

The opponent, Mr Taylor, seemed to be up for it.

Am I reading this right? It’s hot and smoky, he’s sweating buckets AND he’s boozing???

7

Sorry, just fighting the ignorant.

Yeah, but different sports require different talents. It’s marathon runners we admire for their ability to perform for hours at a time under conditions of great physical stress, not dartsmen. Them we admire for their ability to regularly get three darts inside a circle of 1 inch radius at a range of eight foot six.

[/QUOTE]
Presumably this guy knew going in that the match would be decided by 13 sets. If he’s not up to it, maybe he shouldn’t be playing.
[/QUOTE]

He’s perfectly up to it; the World Championship final is 11 sets and comes after a week of play.

I suspect he wasn’t aware of the conditions. The venue was at least 25% over capacity and there were people smoking. Compare this to the Lakeside Arena, where he won the title. There, no smoking is allowed, the crowd are kept to set numbers and are at a distance from the stage. My guess is that it’s ten, maybe even fifteen degrees Centigrade cooler in the Lakeside than it was in the venue for the unification match.

Can’t and won’t. On the other hand, unlike most I’ve been there, done that and worn the vest with numbers on front and back. I’ve earned my right to criticise.

spooje: given the general level of journalistic skill shown in the article - to wit, none - I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Fordham was actually drinking water. In the event that he was drinking ale, though, there’s no problem with that. Ale doesn’t dehydrate you the way spirits do.

Also, while Phil Taylor may have been up for it, Andy Fordham weighs twice as much as Taylor.

As for pay-per-view, I’m honestly surprised there isn’t more pay-per-view darts. Top flight darts is the single most exciting sport to watch. It’s fast-moving and tense, matches are decided by millimetre drifts and bounce-outs, and it’s incredibly swingy - even when a guy is two sets and two legs down in a best of five match, he can still come back to win.

8

To put it another way, darts twists and turns like a rattlesnake with a hernia. - S. Waddell.

9

Well I don’t know about standing immobile (are they not allowed to move?) but I have tended bar for 8 hours at a time in very smoky, hot conditions bar and never come close to dying from the exertion. I have also framed houses in 95 degree heat with no shade for six hours at a time and never come close to dying. Of course, I was not drinking while I was working, I did not train by drinking 8 pints of ale a day, and I am not 200 lbs overweight. A smart athlete knows the conditions of the event beforehand and trains accordingly. I know next to nothing about darts, but I still say that if a person has to abandon a match because he is near death from the effort, he is fair game for ridicule, and he needs to

  1. Rethink his training regimen.

          or

  2. Choose a different sport.

          or

  3. Hi Opal!

10

Obviously they are, but your ignorance is showing. Darts players have to be absolutely still on the shot if they want the dart to go where they aimed it. It’s not easy, and it takes more effort than you’d think.

Then say next to nothing about darts.

11

I’m creeping in here, just as I did the first time I put my name on the chalk board. My son played in an expatriate pub in Santa Monica. He was good. But there were others… oh my. The really great players were all from away.
My son’s picture was in Conde Naste Travel and Leisure magazine, throwing. He was beautiful. Evil Death he hated that picture, for the same reasons you have. They (the reporter and photographer) had no clue.
My son died a few years ago. I still play… in my basement. with his darts.
Peace to you Evil Death, and keep the faith.
M.

12

Can they move between shots are are they literally immobile for two hours as you stated?

Well either darts is physically demanding or it is not. If it is why was “The Viking” not aware of it? If he was aware of it, why did he not get into some kind of shape before this world class pay-per-view event? If darts is a physically demanding event, why does he not have a trainer to advise him? Perhaps someone who could tell him that an 8 beer a day habit is not the best way to train for something physically demanding; that drinking more beer during a match where the temperature is soaring and breathable air is at premium is downright stupid, and that shedding a couple of hundred pounds off a 420 pound frame would be a real good strategy in light of the extreme demands that darts places upon the human body. That this lunkhead accepted 2nd place money from a match **that he abandonded ** is disgraceful. He owes everyone who payed to see him an apology, if not their money back.