Grand Slam of Darts

One of the great pluses of the tournament is the international flavour and the displays of some of the guys making their TV debuts, or rarely seen on the big darting stages around the world.

Aussie Pat Orreal (pronounced OÕReal) is a real character! A former officer in the Australian army, a moustache to match great Aussie cricketer Merv Hughes and a shirt that Wayne Mardle would be proud of!

He hails from Queensland Ð home of surfing Down Under Ð and ÔChoppaÕ has certainly been making waves in Wolverhampton! Orreal was expecting to be flying home to Brisbane on Tuesday but those travel plans are now on hold, after he made the knock-out stages of the GSOD, thanks to the comeback of the tournament so far.

Orreal only found out last weekend that he would be playing in the event! Now he has guaranteed himself at least £6,000 in prize money (around 15,000 Aussie dollars) and he will be facing former World Champion Jelle Klaasen for a place in the quarter-finals.

It was Glenn Power, who was supposed to be the Australian representative at the Grand Slam but he withdrew because of visa problemsÉ.so enter Mr Pat Orreal and what an impact heÕs made!

His son is also in the Australian military and Orreal had to sacrifice his ladÕs passing out parade to come to the UK. It has been well worth the sacrifice. In his final group match, he stunned this yearÕs Lakeside runner-up Phill Nixon, by coming from 4-0 down to win 5-4 and earn his spot in the last 16.

In the match, he wore the brightest yellow shirt ever seen on a darts stageÉ.it was given to him by a mate in Brisbane and Orreal wore it as a dare! It is now the lucky shirt and will be washed and ironed in readiness for his match with Klaasen!

South African Charles Losper is another interesting character and after failing to make it through the group stages, he is now desperately trying to get a flight back to Cape Town.

Losper won his place at the Grand Slam and next monthÕs PDC World Championship, after winning the South African Masters in Johannesburg in September. As part of his prize, flights and hotels were included in his darting experience to the UK.

Well on Monday, Losper checked his flight booking, only to discover that whoever made the arrangements, has booked him to fly home on December 19! IÕll let you know if he made it back to Cape Town in one piece!

Losper by the way, is in South AfricaÕs elite police unit. He is a firearms expert and is regularly called out to deal with hijackings and armed robberies. He has been shot at several times and has a scar on his leg as a souvenir of a lucky escape from a criminalÕs gun.

Closer to home, the appearances of the six BDO stars in the Grand Slam has been very well received. Suffolk boy Shaun Greatbatch has been making many new friends and although he failed to make it out of the group stages, his £4,000 prize money will cushion the blow.

But darts isnÕt all glitz ÔnÕ glamour because Greatbatch, whose partner Barbara is a top ladies darts player, will soon be getting up at the crack of dawn to go back to the day job Ð working on a building site.

Finally for now Ð IÕve been chatting to Warren Lush, who is the representative of tournament sponsors PartyBets.com and he tells me that punters are Ôlumping largeÕ on World Champion Raymond Van Barneveld to win the first ever Grand Slam of Darts.

If that happens on Sunday, it will apparently cost PartyBets.com a small fortune!

Coming up on the next blog Ð find out why the darts fans are going mad for Barney and why top Darts referee George Noble has been the butt of a few jokes this week in Wolverhampton!