John Smith’s, official beer of the Lakeside BDO World Professional and Winmau World Masters’ Darts Championships, has announced plans for the third John Smith’s People’s Darts Championship, the televised amateur darts competition that sees the finalists play on the world famous Lakeside Country Club stage.
Players from Guernsey and Gibraltar will make their first appearance in the competition aided and abetted by John Smith’s People’s Darts ambassador Bobby George who will fly out to the islands to promote the event on October 8 and 9 respectively. The qualifiers from these competitions will compete in the South East of England regional final at the Lakeside, Frimley Green for a place in the national finals of the tournament.
The support and involvement of mentors from the world of professional darts will, once again, be a popular feature of the tournament and the eight regional finalist who progress to the Lakeside finals competition can look forward to preparing for the big day with coaching and guidance from BDO stars Bobby George, Martin Adams, Tony O’Shea, John Walton, Darryl Fitton, Gary Robson, Ross Montgomery and Trina Gulliver.
Falkirk-based Scot Duncan ‘Big D’ Hastings (44) lifted last year’s John Smith’s People’s Darts title after beating Basingstoke’s Mark Petchey in a closely-fought final. Hastings says: “Playing in the John Smith’s People’s Darts Championship was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I had my family and friends cheering me on at every stage and I had such a fantastic time playing the sport I love at the most famous venue in world darts.”
Winning the tournament earned Duncan an automatic entry into three BDO tournaments this year, including the Open and Winmau World Masters while scooping £1,000 of darts equipment for his local, Pennies Bar. Under the terms of the John Smith’s event, Duncan’s success also earned a £15,000 windfall for his chosen charity, The Strathcarron Hospice, while the runner up bagged £5,000 and the six losing regional finalists each took home £1,000 for their nominated registered charity.
Players will compete for a similar charity prize fund in this year’s event which will get underway in house knock-out competitions at John Smith’s pubs and clubs across the UK over the next 8 weeks (see www.johnsmiths.co.uk/peoplesdarts). Participating outlets then nominate their house champion to play in a regional final in October or November with eight subsequent regional champions – representing Scotland, Wales, Central England, South East England, South West England, Yorkshire, North East England, and North West England – going forward to the finals of the competition in January 2011.
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The quarter finals and semi finals will take place at Lakeside during the BDO World Darts Championship on Tuesday, January 4th. The two finalists will then get a taste of the pressure of professional darts when they go head to head on the biggest stage in world darts on finals day on Sunday, January 9.
