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I love that clip! What a moment.
Unbelievable!! You might never see a leg of darts quite like that again. As much a Michael VG has impressed this tournament,I was made up for Michael Smith. A truly great final!
Brilliant!
If only darts was an actual sport, eh?
**** the idea that a sports needs special shoes, If a couple of blokes who're clearly only a coupe of pints short of a serious liver condition can play it, it ain't a sport.
truly great moment in sport (darts content) - Sports & Darts should not be mentioned in the same sentence.
Hurrah, the darts snobs are in! How boringly predictable, and predictably boring.
This is like when my brother sent me a link to a really amazing cricket match finish. It was supposed to be so exciting, I watched it and it was some blokes playing cricket. I'm as likely to get excited about darts, so I'll give it a miss. You had to be there, I reckon.
Hurrah, the darts snobs are in! How boringly predictable, and predictably boring.
😄
I can both admire that performance and appreciate it isn't a sport! FWIW I don't consider my bimbling about on a bike (or a kayak, or skis) as a sport either - but for different reasons.
How boringly predictable, and predictably boring.
To be fair they try to make it more exciting with brightly colored shirts and wacky haircuts.
Definitely the best two players in the final and pleased to see the Bully Boy get over the line.
The first few sets were incredible but can't really agree with some of the pundits hyping it as the best final ever. MvG dropped his level quite a lot as the game went on - his average was plummeting despite him starting to hit more doubles.
If they'd kept up the level of the early sets (or if there'd been a big MvG comeback and close finish) it could have been the best game ever but as it was it did fizzle out a little.
It's very skilful but a long way from the greatest thing I've seen in sport 🙂
Well, they have clearly spent a lot of time down the pub playing darts.
What I don't understand is; The dart is the same weight each throw, you are stood a fixed distance away from the dart board, the dart board is the same height and exactly the same size and there are no atmospheric / environmental conditions putting in variability. If the conditions are EXACTLY the same for every single throw; then it's only down to muscle memory.
It just seems incredibly dull.
If it was all down to muscle memory surely we'd all be able to bang out 180's with a bit of practice...and I know I can't.
That was great...and judging by the crowd, not "incredibly dull" at all.
Perhaps we should make them do it on a treadmill. And make golfers sprint between shots. Snooker players should have to fight each other off with the cues to earn the right to make the next shot.
Sport is more than the ability to jog up and down a field for an hour. And the atmosphere at Lakeside is great. Love that clip.
Sport is more than the ability to jog up and down a field for an hour.
Every definition I have ever seen of the word 'sport' has involved the concepts of competition and physical exertion. My bike pootling fails on the former, theirs on the latter. I'm cool with not being a sportsman, I'm not convinced I understand why they (or you) would not be either. Games can be competitive, exciting and hugely skilful. That's enough surely.
I saw that on the news this morning, I remember watching the first ever televised 9 dart finish. That was a very big deal at the time.
I don’t follow darts now but that was great
Every definition I have ever seen of the word ‘sport’ has involved the concepts of competition and physical exertion.
this
Mountainbiking is not a sport unless you are racing. Darts is not a sport, snooker is not a sport they are pastimes or games and nowt wrong with that.
Every definition I have ever seen of the word ‘sport’ has involved the concepts of competition and physical exertion.
Sport England officially recognised darts as a sport in 2005.
Sport England officially recognised darts as a sport in 2005.
...absolutely. It's a central event in the Modern Pub Pentathlon.
Does it matter?
If you classified darts as a sandwich, would that change it any?
Let people enjoy things.
Darts isn't a sport. Its a pub game and a crap, dull one at that. Two ale filled over weight pie eaters participating means it can never ever be classed as a sport. Its about as much a sport as connect 4 is.
Would you say that to Gerwyn Price's face?
Anyway, also thought it was an awesome moment, as said the level did drop a bit later, but that is partly due to the pressure. Which brings me to
If the conditions are EXACTLY the same for every single throw; then it’s only down to muscle memory.
same more or less for golf, snooker, even serving in tennis. OK you have to read the putt or know the angle but then it's just execute the skill 'perfectly' and the outcome will be - putt holed, ball potted, ace.....
But you can't because when the pressure hits it's then who can execute under pressure.
Every tour golfer can hit 300 yard drives, can putt brilliantly, etc. Some are bigger bottlers than others.
Darts isn’t a sport.
That's fine, you can have a different opinion from the official sports body for England if you wish. Is professionally disagreeing with known facts a sport or just a pastime?
I find it weirder that someone would intentionally open a thread about something they thought was "dull" and "crap" and take time out of their day to post on it.
But then, throwing shade is the vast majority that particular poster's output on the forum so I can't say as I'm totally shocked.
OP includes 'darts content' in post title and yet still people wade in to let everyone know that they don't like darts...
Two ale filled over weight pie eaters participating means it can never ever be classed as a sport
Actually, it means that darts is the sportiest of sports. Acquiring a darts physique takes years of training, hard work and dedication.
same more or less for golf, snooker, even serving in tennis. OK you have to read the putt or know the angle but then it’s just execute the skill ‘perfectly’ and the outcome will be – putt holed, ball potted, ace…..
Surely you can see the hugely increased number of variables all of those other "activities"?
Golf - lets just imagine it was a putting competition and forget about the entirely other set of skills of getting the ball to the green - a vast range of distances on a surface that is not flat and varies in rolling resistance with the possibility of wind making a difference.
Snooker - an infinite number of ball positions and where you are focusing on one shot linking to the next future shot(s) and an opponent trying to put the cue ball in places to make that difficult to start.
Tennis - let's forget about everything apart from the serve (arguably too important but that's another topic) - a real live person at the other end with differing strengths and weaknesses that you need to adapt what you do for.
Until you get to the check out phases of the leg, it's hard to think of another game with as much repeatability from 'play' to play or match to match or tournament to tournament. Or to put it another way, if there was a multi million quid prize up for grabs for the first robotics engineer to win a world championship in a hand/eye coordination game or sport against a field of the world's best humans; I think darts would be right up there as the event to choose to enter your robot in. I'm trying to think of a better one.
Caveat to be clear - actually quite like darts, but just have some sort of sense of reality about where it stands in the pantheon of stupid shit humans do to stop themselves getting too bored.
You could likely say the same of any indoor target sport (ie, where wind isn't a factor). Darts is probably harder than most for your robot in fact, you don't suddenly find yourself having to throw a double 12 in archery.
Snooker is basically competitive trigonometry. Athletics, that's mostly just running faster than everyone else. Weightlifting, pick up something heavy, any idiot can do that with sufficient practice. Etc etc. We can reduce any sport (or alleged "sport") down to absurd triviality, but if we're going to argue that something isn't a sport then the answer is "why aren't you doing it then?"
archery
True
And some of the shooting variants.
My challenge would involve them using the human equipment - so your robot would have to handle the bow or the rifle rather than have just fired it out of a cavity, which might make it a bit harder.
But they aren't sports either 🙂
Is competitive debating a sport? 😁
Really now, we're just arguing semantics; define "sport." Something competitive that others like to watch? Everything here qualifies for that.
Sport can't be done well in jeans - fact. I argue at my best in jeans QED it's not a sport!
Darts, Snooker and Poker are all officially sports. People might not agree with this, but arguing about it on here isn't going to change anything 😀
Every definition I have ever seen of the word ‘sport’ has involved the concepts of competition and physical exertion.
Surely sport came from the need to practice for hunting and for fighting.
Some sports are about exertion but others are about precision.
I'm not a darts fan but if being a fat knacker means you aren't a sportsman every local rugby team is down quite a few sportsmen. And sumo wrestlers
FIFY 😉
Darts, Snooker and Poker are all officially sports. People might not agree with this, but arguing about it on here isn’t going to change anything were all assimilated into UKsport and Sport England for political and financial reasons to increase sport participation statistics across the UK and having an alternative opinion (or reading a dictionary) and not buying it is quite frankly oddball behaviour!
I’m not a darts fan but if being a fat knacker means you aren’t a sportsman every local rugby team is down quite a few sportsmen. And sumo wrestlers
Don't get all fattist about it! Big boy rugbyists and sumoists are definitely sports people. I'm not however, and I'm comparatively skinny!
I'm not knocking the skill set, and if you actually read my post I say that you still have to read the putt or calculate the angles and side to put on the ball in snooker. And I specifically said serving in tennis because once a rally starts then it's more nuanced.
The argument is that once these calculations are done, these repetitive actions can be learned to such a degree that it just comes down to muscle memory and being able to repeat the action perfectly. Which is true.
And yet....... add in a smidge of pressure, or indeed other variables (golf for example, being able to adapt the game to hit low shots in the wind and so on) and suddenly only a very few can handle it. They become champions, the rest become also rans.
A pro golfer should never miss a 2 foot putt, and on the practice green they don't. Make if for an eagle to go clear in the Masters....... and weird shit happens.
Surely sport came from the need to practice for hunting and for fighting.
Ermm - don't think so indeed at times in history various sports have been banned because they stopped the serfs being prepared to fight
football and golf IIRC
Wasn't the origins of football kicking someone's recently detached head about? Or is that apocryphal?
That's dodgeball you're thinking of. Originated from throwing decapitated heads around Chinese Opium Dens.
This instructional film will help:
This thread sums up online discourse beautifully.
There's a post saying wow that darts was good last night and then people have to make it a darts isn't sport thing. A case of let's talk about me lol
What's more boring, the darts or people banging on about how boring darts is.
That reminds me, I don't give a sh1t about prince harry....I must find a thread to comment and tell everyone I'm not interested.
What’s more boring, the darts or people banging on about how boring darts is.
Ooh, ooh, I know this one!
Sport can’t be done well in jeans – fact.
Tell that to Johannes Von Klebelsberg, aka the Denim Destroyer! *
*he's actually quit racing now mind. 😊
There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.
Hemingway
A pro golfer should never miss a 2 foot putt, and on the practice green they don’t. Make if for an eagle to go clear in the Masters……. and weird shit happens.
Like that great Snooker World Cup (or whatever it was called) Final featuring Steve Davies and Dennis Taylor. IIRC it came down to the deciding frame and either would win by sinking the final black but they kept missing.
Not interest in darts, but came to say about the pressure we put each other under around the office pool table. Can imagine at the level of this darts game, the pressure is probably very intense! However there doesn't seem to be any shit talk during this game so they have that in their favour.
oh there's shitehousery a-plenty.
Slowing down in throwing your darts, collecting them, walking back, to affect the pace of play. Grinding the knurled grips of your darts togetther, or clicking them to distract your opponent as he throws. And the sin of sins.... exclusion zones. Look at MvG just poking his toes over the line like a kid that's been told not to touch something, and still MVdB bites.
A sport or game ruined by people being too good at it in my opinion.
As Jon implies, repetitively thudding in treble twenties is insanely dull and a test of muscle memory and mental fortitude, neither of which make particularly compelling viewing if you arent emotionally invested already.
Increase the distance and make every game a 201 would make it far more interesting.
Other skill based sports ruined (or going that way) by pro's being too good:
Mens singles tennis (trading aces)
Major league baseball (specifically the pitchers being far too good for the batters for anyone to actually score)
Conversely, T20 cricket (grounds are too small, bats to good, players too strong. 6 hitting contest with 12 people stood around watching it)
Rugby (15 players who all run like wingers and tackle like flankers has shrunk the field, plus any penalty in the attacking half is now generally a place kick opportunity. Not to mention the pointlessness of scrums as the players were too good at doing them properly)
DH mtb (on some courses and conditions, multiple riders all being within a second of each other, all taking the same researched and practised line)
A sport or game ruined by people being too good at it in my opinion.
Isn't that most sports?
You're right though. It's be interesting to mix up darts. Round 1, conventional. Round 2, you're 6" closer / further away. Round 3, the board is spinning.
That gives me an idea.... what about football on a rotating turntable? I'd watch that...
Gives me an excuse to post this