Sportbladet Covers World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace

LONDON. Up a hill in north London, Jesus and the three wise men trudge. Closely followed by five Smurfs.

Is there a modern Christmas game going on?

No. It’s the World Cup of Darts that has come to town.

“Boring, boring tables! Boring, boring tables!”

A Ninja Turtle stands in the stands and waves his arm at the long tables that stand in the middle of the West Hall of Alexandra Palace. Two men in lederhosen put their arms around each other, toast and tune in. A nun downs a full pint and turns the empty mug upside down over her head. Soon the entire stand is standing up and heckling the tables in the middle.

“Boring, boring tables!”

The audience sitting at the tables is no worse. The whole floor rises up. Pitchers filled to the brim with beer wobble on the tables. It roars back:

“We pay your benefits! We pay your benefits!”

The stand war is in full swing. It’s a rainy Monday in mid-December in London. It’s 12.30 and it’s almost time for today’s first round of the PDC World Championships, the World Darts Championship, to start.

Background

Since 2007, the World Darts Championship has been played annually at the historic Alexandra Palace, also known as “Ally Pally”. It is by far the biggest and most prestigious competition in darts, and it has become a tradition for millions of people worldwide to tune into the tournament on television during Christmas and New Year. Every year, tens of thousands of fans also make the pilgrimage up the hill in north London to watch the world stars of darts take their place on stage for three weeks.

And to take part in the biggest folk festival of Christmas.

Sold out in record time

There is no doubt that the tournament is popular. This year, the 3,200 tickets per session sold out in record time. People of all ages crowd the tables as well as the stands. For 65 pounds (about SEK 800) you get a seat at the tables in the middle, and for 55 pounds (about SEK 680) a seat in the stands. The prices then increase slightly the further into the tournament we get, and during the final session the prices are 100 and 90 pounds respectively (about 1,250 kroner and 1,100 kroner respectively).

It is the price difference that lies behind the nidrams between the different parts of the audience. The spectators at the tables in the middle are “boring rich people” and those in the stands are “poor people who live on allowances”.

For those who manage to get their hands on tickets, just go to the nearest masquerade shop and choose an outfit. Dressing up is almost a must. On the stand you will find everything from groups of Smurfs, Minions and Musketeers to Willy Wonkas, Super Marios, Teletubbies and traffic cones.

On our way in for the morning round we bump into Ben the turkey, who has traveled from Bristol that morning to take part in the darts party with his friends.

– It’s absolutely fantastic! It’s the first time I’ve been here and here I am now dressed like a fucking turkey, he says.

Eloise and her friend Rosie are also on their way in, dressed as old aunts. They most look forward to the large mugs of beer served in the area.

– We cannot reveal how many we will drink, I work tomorrow. Damn, now I’m going to get fired, says Rosie.

– Come on, we’ll probably get a lot down, I think, answers Eloise before they both laugh and disappear into the throng of people.

“There is nothing that can be compared”

Match days during the tournament are divided into an afternoon session and an evening session, with four matches per session. The fan zone opens an hour before and there are food outlets, a DJ and activities where you can win everything from beer tickets to big cash prizes. For the sake of the party, it doesn’t matter which pass you choose, it’s constantly ongoing. And the pubs around are open from early morning.

– There is nothing better than this, says darts fan and football expert Alexander Axén, who is in London for a few days with a group of friends.

– That is the conclusion.

Some others enjoying the atmosphere in the stands are Jan-Lucas and Markus who are visiting the tournament for the first time and have traveled from Germany to cheer on their compatriots. Dressed up, of course – in this case as the chef in Ratatouille.

– It’s absolutely incredible, an incredible atmosphere. We love it. There is nothing that even compares to this. Everyone is so committed. It’s much better than on TV, says Jan-Lucas.

A bunch of glittery ladies with Eurovision-inspired outfits a few rows down fit in:

– On TV it has always looked quite boring, but here it is so much fun!

Bigger prize sum than ever

For those who are on stage, there is a lot at stake and it is important to try to keep your nerves in check. 3,200 spectators may not sound like much in theory, but the pressure inside West Hall in Ally Pally is much greater than you might think. Something that can affect even the most experienced players.

Just ask Swedish darts star Jeffrey de Graaf, 35, who suffered a crushing loss to 71-year-old Paul Lim (Lim thus becoming the oldest person ever to win a World Cup match). De Graaf said after the match that it was the crowd that threw him off balance and that it was “worse than he thought”.

Another Swede, Oskar Lukasiak, 34, lost his WC debut during the opening weekend but is impressed by the tournament:

– This is an experience you cannot get in so many places. It is far greater than anything else you can experience in darts.

This year, 128 players are in the WC, and it’s win or lose right from the start. The prize sum is bigger than ever, the winner goes home with a whopping 1,000,000 British pounds, equivalent to almost SEK 12.4 million. The losers don’t go home empty-handed either. There are substantial sums to be raked in, either by advancing in the tournament or by successfully throwing a 9-dart

9-dartA 9-darter is the perfect finish in darts, where a player goes from 501 points to exactly zero points on the smallest possible number of darts, which is nine (three throws of three darts each)

sometime during the competition.

Sportbladet tests

During the evening session, it is finally our turn to take a seat in the sea of ​​audience.

We get our hands on overpriced second-hand tickets with seats at the very top of the stands. Dressed in a last-minute outfit in the form of a makeshift blue-yellow viking hat and a flower wreath that we got in the suitcase, we take a seat next to Scooby Doo, who has also printed the green Paddy Power underpants that are distributed at the various dart stands in the fan zone and that every other person now has on various body parts. A bunch of Smurfs two rows down down their beers in two seconds to huge cheers. The screen shows a nun holding up a sign that reads “I’m getting divorced“. Some kind of obscure German techno booms out of the speakers as a player does his walk on, high fives the crowd, and takes his place on stage. It feels like it’s 1,000 degrees. We’re not even ten minutes into the evening.

Someone starts heckling someone and suddenly we’re standing there making slightly obscene gestures while screaming at the top of our lungs. Boring, boring, tables alternate with Tottenham get battered everywhere they go which is apparently the unofficial chant here at Arsenal ground. The arena is boiling. Pitcher after pitcher full of beer and sometimes some weird mixture of grapefruit and vodka flows. Every time someone on stage does a 180 there are loud roars and waving of signs. Everything culminates towards the end of the evening when the whole arena jams to Robbie Williams’ “Angels”. Then it feels like the roof is about to lift. Shortly afterwards, when we are ushered out of Alexandra Palace together with 3,198 others, we are greeted by a clear view of the entire city skyline.

It’s a rainy Monday in mid-December in London. It’s 11-something and today’s second round of the PDC World Championships, the World Cup of Darts, has just ended.