Watch: I take in the colour, chants, singing and action of the Grand Slam of Darts
It was once viewed as a lowbrow, working class activity, taking place in smoky rooms with both the players and the spectators weighing back beers.
Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Over the years, the sport of darts has undergone a massive transformation in terms of image, with players coming from all over the world to match up against the best in front of huge crowds and packed-out arenas.
A Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) event brings with it colour, noise, fantastic action and raucous crowds, with the beer consumption probably being the only thing that matches the game in the past.
Since 2007, Wolverhampton has been the place to go each November for the Grand Slam of Darts, played at the Civic Hall until 2017 and, apart from the Covid-affected 2020 tournament, has made its home at WV Active Aldersley.
The tournament is a unique one, with the 30 male players and two female players having to qualify through winning tournaments, making major finals or qualifying through last-chance events to have a chance to win the Eric Bristow Trophy and £150,000 in prize money, then starting out with three group games before the top two then made it to the knockout stages.
The actual darts thrown on stage is just one part of what makes this tournament so special as each session becomes a party full of costumes worn by families and friends and people who come to enjoy the action, but also to sing songs, dance along to the PDC anthem of “Chase the Sun” by Planet Funk and enjoy food and drink.
I have been lucky to be able to sample this event at both the Civic and at Aldersley and it’s genuinely one of my favourite times of the year as I and a few of my friends pick a day and dress up to enjoy a session of darts.
This year, we decided to go for the first session, which took place on Saturday at 1pm, so I had entered the public ballot to get tickets and, because of demand, we were not able to get a table seat, but had four seats together on the tiered seating at the back of the arena.
We were lucky to get what we got as the session sold out very quickly, but we were there and we decided to dress up as glam rockers, for what reason, I’m not entirely sure, and I ended up looking like a confused golfer with tartan trousers and a cowboy hat.
However, the day came and I and my friends Matt, Neil and Rob got a taxi down to Aldersley and joined the queue, which was full of colour, with costumes ranging from Avengers to cans of beer to Superman to members of the Las Vegas Raiders NFL team.
