Hundreds of fanatical throwers have put the dart into Dartford, after descending upon the town in their droves to meet a former world champion and take aim for one of the sport’s biggest events.
Speedy Hire threw down the challenge to amateurs to bring their arrows to its Hawley Road depot, with eight players qualifying to play at the UK Open at the Reebok Stadium in June, in front of a huge television audience.
Their first obstacle was to score enough points with 15 darts to qualify for a one off leg of 501 against another successful amateur.
They then held their nerves in the all-or-nothing games to seal winning doubles and progress into the FA Cup of Darts, where they will share the same stage as some of the world’s finest players. Speedy, the UK’s leading provider of equipment rental and support services, is staging further qualifiers in Stoke on April 14th and Glasgow (15th), which will unearth a further 16 budding stars.
Speedy enlisted the help of 2004 World Champion Andy Fordham to offer expert advice and he was extremely impressed with the quality on show.
He said: “The quality just gets better and better. I knew the quality in Kent would be good and none of us were disappointed.
“The players were extremely serious about their darts and that reflected on the board.”
Speedy’s group marketing director Steve McIntyre said: “Our Dartford event has been a huge success and it has been
great to be here, in one of four UK qualifying events.
“The Speedy Hire UK Open is the FA Cup of darts and it was easy to see why with all these people here today.”
For more information about Speedy and its sponsorship of the UK Open, visit www.speedyhiredarts.com