Why is it?

[chunky]

41 minutes ago, Mr Ore said:

Can't remember the actual year or (possibly as it will age me) don't want to) but it was at the Duke of Buckingham in Kingston. Not an official match or anything, just put an initial up, chalk and play,  A really lovely guy, as you know.

Sorry to stay off topic but at a barbecue for residents where I lived at the time, after far too many beers and bottles of wine a neighbour "told" me I was playing in the final league match (last ever for a few years until the team reformed) for his pub team that evening. I could hardly stand up let alone see the board. I was drawn against a guy called Richie in the singles. Yes, it was Mr Gardner who just happened to be World Pairs Champion at the time. I've never been so happy to be beaten in 12 darts to save my own blushes. Another really lovely guy, appreciating that I obviously hadn't come prepared, and offering encouragement.       

Oh, I didn't realise you were a local! Yeah, we played at the Duke for many years; one of the few pubs where we played that's still standing... 

Edited May 10, 2020 by chunky

[Mr Ore]

17 hours ago, salty said:

Going back to Speedway and the 1983 Final, it's true that British Speedway was in a trough as the country struggled. I seem to recall a lot of comment in the Speedway Star that the 1983 season had been affected by the lack of a World Champion plying their trade and a repeat in 1984 would be another big blow for the domestic product.

I don't expect you to be an avid reader  of my posts  elsewhere  but I regularly object to many of the irrational, ill-informed, intellectually suspect and often down right fictional comments aka lies, about the BSPA etc,  on the forum. At the same time I have total respect for constructive posters, even if I disagree with their points of view.  However it did seem an easy cop out at the time to blame all the ills of the sport here on not having a British World Champion (or one riding in the BL) . To me it was an excuse to just do nothing .

We were in a  bar in Wroclaw after Gary's victory and joined by the Valsarna team for a few drinks. Their manager told me how wonderful things would be for the whole sport with a British World Champion  as the promoters would now really get the sport back to the top. I implied it was possibly  a bad result, other than I was so pleased for Gary, as there had never been a plan and different excuses would now have to be found to continue to not do anything.