World Darts

Ladbrokes took a huge hit when Kevin Painter dethroned World Champion Raymond Van Barneveld…..around £50,000 and one man will certainly be celebrating….not long before the match started, the anonymous punter waged £2,000 on Painter at 11/4 – not a bad way to celebrate the New Year!

And talking of money, Adrian Lewis had a bit of a shock while he was back home during the break for Christmas….the young star had his wallet stolen while on a night out in Stoke and lost a significant amount of cash, as well as all his credit cards. Adrian though, always keeps his sense of humour and when asked by police for a description of the thief, he replied: “All I can tell you is that he looked like Borat!”

You may remember, Adrian picked up his nickname of ‘Jackpot’ in Las Vegas three years ago, when he won nearly £50,000 on a fruit machine but couldn’t collect the cash because gambling laws in Nevada state you have to be 21 to play…..poor Adrian was only 20 but he can still smile about it even now!

A good gesture by the PDC at the World Championship, because the sport’s governing body is laying on free food for the players and their guests for the duration of the event here at the Alexandra Palace. The food is available all day and it will end up costing the PDC around £10,000 but hey, they can afford it!

There has been a few VIP guests at the Ally Pally. Arguably one of the most important has been George Greenberg. George who, you may ask. Well, George just happens to be one of the most important men in TV in the world. He is the executive vice-president of Fox Sports in the USA and is a great ally of PDC Chairman Barry Hearn.

Fox shows a lot of darts in the US and there could be more to come. Back in May, Fox screened ‘live’ the first ever World Darts Challenge from Connecticut, when Barney and Taylor teamed up with top Americans Ray Carver and John Kuczynski. It is all part of the big picture, as the PDC aims to turn darts into a truly global sport.

Youngster Kirk Shepherd is certainly living the darting dream. Having qualified for the World Championship, he has become one of the big stories of the event – reaching the quarter-finals on his debut. The £15,000 guaranteed prize money will catapult him into the top 50 in the world and the money will also finance him to play the whole PDC Pro Tour circuit during 2008.

He will also be able to go and compete in the Las Vegas Desert Classic and combine the trip with a holiday. Before the World Championship started, Kirk had resigned himself to the fact that Vegas was off the agenda, because he couldn’t afford it. Well, that’s all changed now!

But he did suffer a touch of embarrassment after beating Barrie Bates to reach the quarter-finals. Kirk went to the Sky Sports studios to be interviewed by Dave Clark, only to discover when he got there, that he had split his pants after an over exuberant celebration to his win.

He spent the whole interview trying to hide his embarrassment and his green and white spotted underpants from the Sky viewers!

On the next behind-the-scenes piece from the Alexandra Palace, we will take a look at the darts WAGS…..the women behind the stars of darts!