Sports

Scaffolder lives world darts dream

by Paul Conneally | January 10, 2009 at 05:09 am

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Scaffolder Tommy Dove is living his darts dream by playing in a final alongside the pros.

This is the first time that Tommy has ever entered such a big competition, The John Smiths People's Darts final, and its the first time that the amateur competition has been played alongside the professional one.

Tommy is playing to raise funds for the autism charity The Daisy Chain Project

Darts fans look forward to The Lakeside as one of the premiere world darts events.

Darts is played across the UK in pubs and social clubs and is a truly British working class pub tradition although of course the game is played around the world.

As Working Men's Clubs across Britain began to disappear many feared that darts would start to fade away and for a while it seemed so but now its back and as popular with young people as old with hours and hours of TV coverage given to the big tournaments. It's even becoming popular amongst groups of people that have not in the past been associated with game for instance actor Steven Fry says that he is obsessed with the game finding it compulsive viewing.

Tommy is just happy to be in the final but to win it would make this dream his best dream ever.

A NORTH-EAST scaffolder is preparing to live his dream after reaching a darts final on the world stage.

Tommy Dove, of Norton, near Stockton, has reached the first ever John Smith’s People’s Darts final at the Lakeside Country Club, in Surrey.

This is the first time the amateur competition is been played alongside the World Championships.

Mr Dove, 49, who is a member of Stockton Buffs Club, is looking forward to playing in front of 1,600 people tomorrow.

He said: “I can’t believe I’ve got to the final to be honest. I played some good darts and just tried to keep being as consistent as possible.

“I have never played in any kind of competition like this before, as I can’t afford to travel to places and miss out on scaffolding work.