TheOche.com

…writes Giles Smith in an article from Timesonline.co.uk. He goes on to say:

Odd in the extreme. To adapt P. J. O?Rourke, darts without Sid Waddell is like Disney World without Disney. And without the world. Yet here were ITV and the BBC, locked into the first all-terrestrial tungsten-based broadcasting face-off of our time, and the one true voice of the sport was nowhere to be heard ? at home, presumably, twiddling his thumbs and gargling a thesaurus.

No place for Waddell in the commentary box at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall, then, the site of ITV?s freshly manufactured Grand Slam of Darts. And certainly no place for him at Bridlington Leisure World, where everyone who was not at the Grand Slam was contesting the Winmau World Masters while the BBC looked on, smiling through gritted teeth.

Ray Stubbs did his best, pointing out very quickly that the Winmau was technically the oldest leading darts tournament in the world. But, as Sid would doubtless have pointed out, it could date all the way back to the time of the amateur era under Henry IV, and, if the best 32 players in the world are hammering it out on the channel next door, who is going to work up a sweat? Relatively speaking, the Grand Slam is a public fireworks display ? the Winmau a box of Standard and a charred baked potato in the garden.

Sid is pretty much the only thing ITV has not borrowed from Sky Sports for their week of taking the PDC mainstream. The music, the walk-ons, the slow-mo recaps ? it is all unquestioningly Xerox?d. The tournament format, though, is new, featuring a group phase, to the potential confusion of a number of the players who were under the impression that the round robin was a pub in Ashton-under-Lyne.

?It?s important to win at least two of your three group matches,? Raymond van Barneveld said. ?And if you win two, you can still go out, so you have to win three.? Still with it? Try John Rawling, the ITV commentator, on the importance of ?legs difference?.

?It?s like goals difference in football ? the closer it is, the better it is in your favour.? Er . . . really?

For more of Giles Smith’s Armchair view in this column, please visit TimesOnline.co.uk.