A UK Open Odyssey: Darting Thomas Attempts Riley’s Route

After years sharpening his arrows, it was time for our writer Thomas Bartley to finally make his PDC debut. On 21st January, he entered the UK Open qualifier in Coventry along with a few of his uni teammates. With only £10 and a little bit of pride at stake, what was to lose? Here’s Thomas’s diary from the day:

10am: It’s a Sunday. Sunday is always darts day, but this one is a little bit different. I am about to enter what has to be one of the most exhausting and stamina-testing days in darts. It’s the first weekend of UK Open qualifiers and I am about to go to Riley’s in Coventry, conveniently only a short distance from home, to ply my trade. First it is time for a quick Spoons breakfast and a pint for good measure with our Warwick A team captain Dom. Deep breaths…

11am: We have made the short walk over to Riley’s, where we have met the rest of our teammates attempting today’s qualifier. Well, not quite all of them. Perhaps unaccustomed to the uniform requirements, one of our team has had to make a quick journey home for a change of footwear. Lucky for him he arrives in plenty of time, as we continue our pre-match practice.

12pm: Time for more practice and a quick survey of the opposition. Several times major finalist Terry Jenkins is here, as is former tour card holder Simon Stevenson and World Championship participant Johnny Haines. But it is a Challenge Tour weekend which will perhaps diminish the field, not that I am expecting to come through it. I chat to a few of the practicing players, including Darrel Williams, who is making a return after competing last year. We both remark on the strangeness of some of the throwing actions on display, including one which more resembles an underarm bowl at Lord’s than a lined-up shot at the oche. Whatever works, I suppose.

12:55pm: Although I have been to the Riley’s in Coventry before, I was told to expect two things of my day: a cold room and a long wait to play. The first was barely noticeable and the second notion was about to go out of the window. Having not been granted a bye to the last 128, as had all but one of my teammates (including two of whom have drawn each other – more on that later), I was in fact going to be in the first tranche of games.

I have drawn Trevor Higginson, someone who a quick Google search will ascertain is a regular frequenter of the amateur tour. After losing the bull-off, it is a mostly abysmal display from myself. The first two legs go by in a flash, though my fortunes are perhaps looking up when I manage a 140. Not quite. Trevor, keen to assert his authority and quieten my loud group of supporting teammates, knocks in a maximum. ‘That’s how you do it’, he says, as if I had any doubts about who the superior player was anyway. Soon enough, I am put out of my misery. After four legs, I have fallen. The rest of the draw can breathe a sigh of relief.

1.10pm: As any self-respecting player knows, your day is not done on defeat. Chalking duties call, which run by pretty smoothly. I did momentarily lose concentration a couple of times, when a fellow player was eyeing up my pint perched on the nearby pool table. After avoiding any crises, it was time to watch Dom also fall to a defeat. He did manage a leg though, losing 4-1 to Jack Alexander.

2pm: ‘Don’t be tired of waiting’, said Rudyard Kipling in his excellent poem ‘If’. Rudyard, however wise, has never of course been to a darts floor event, which I am sure even he would have conceded take bloody ages. After another of our teammates Fred was also defeated, followed by Max, it was time to do quite a lot of waiting. Thankfully, there are some more secluded practice boards upstairs in Cov which help to pass the time. Many of the stronger players remain in the field, though another player from uni circuit Janek Hill has been knocked out. The very able Hannah Meek, previously featured on these pages, is meanwhile making a strong charge.

3.30pm: Warwick players have made a fair few appearances at this UK Open qualifier through the years, rubbing shoulders with big boys such as Jelle Klaasen and Alan Norris. But no one is yet to register a victory. That is all about to change. Two of our players, Elliot and Ollie, have handily drawn each other in a grudge match for the ages. Last time they played, Ollie won out to take the Christmas online league trophy. But in what doesn’t end up being Sunday’s most glamorous clash, it is Ollie who wins out again, this time 4-2.

4.30pm: The weather decidedly more gloomy and the field more sparse, this UK Open qualifier is now shaping up to be an intriguing one. Unfortunately for our history maker Ollie, he will have to wait some time yet. In a long interlude sizeable enough for me to go home and change my now uncomfortable shoes (and most of our number to decide they’ve had enough for the day), it is time for Ollie to sharpen up his arrows. Leaving never crossed mine, not for this moment of heritage. And a diary which finishes at 3pm would be a bit poor.

6pm: It is time for Ollie to see if his run will go any further. He faces the aforementioned Haines, a quiet but calmly assertive presence. He is looking pretty unstoppable and coolly dispatches Ollie (he does eventually qualify, a little before 10pm). We are all now in a bit of a rush to make our team practice for the evening and after Ollie completes chalking duties, it is time to run for the train. I won’t be seeing you this year, Minehead, but it was nice while the faint dream lasted.

—–ENDS—–

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