Olly Croft
Oliver Albert Croft, (17 November 1929 – 23 November 2019) was a darts administrator and the founder of the British Darts Organisation. He was one of the most influential protagonists in darts for almost four decades having set up and run the British Darts Organisation from its inception in 1973 until he was voted off the board in August 2011. Prior to the formation of the British Darts Organisation, the major organisation for county darts had been the National Darts Association of Great Britain (the NDAGB, commonly referred to as NDA) which had been formed in London on 25 September 1954. Croft began playing darts himself in 1961 for the Harringay Arms in Crouch Hill and was soon playing seven nights per week. Early life Croft was born on 17 November 1929 to the North London tiler Oliver Croft and his wife May Gladys (née Robinson), who later died while giving birth to his younger brother. His father remarried and his son was rebellious towards his stepmother. She beat Cro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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World Darts Federation
The World Darts Federation (WDF) is a sport governing body and (along with the PDC) a tournament organiser for the game of darts. It was formed in 1974 by representatives of the original fourteen founding members. Membership is open to the national organizing body for darts in all nations. The WDF encourages the promotion of the sport of darts among and between those bodies, in an effort to gain international recognition for darts as a major sport. The WDF is a full member of Global Association of International Sports Federations, which is the governing body for international sports federations. The WDF stages a world championship (called the WDF World Cup), as well as continental championships such as the WDF Americas Cup, the WDF Asia-Pacific Cup and the WDF Europe Cup. The country that is first in the overall leader board (overall best result in the two events, singles, pairs, teams) becomes the world champion. Winners of any of the events can also call themselves the officia ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Officers Of The Order Of The British Empire
An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," from Latin ''officium'' "a service, a duty" the late Latin from ''officiarius'', meaning "official." Examples Ceremonial and other contexts *Officer, and/or Grand Officer, are both a grade, class, or rank of within certain chivalric orders and orders of merit, e.g. Legion of Honour (France), Order of the Holy Sepulchre (Holy See), Order of the British Empire ( UK), Order of Leopold (Belgium) *Great Officer of State *Merchant marine officer or licensed mariner *Officer of arms * Officer in The Salvation Army, and other state decorations Corporations * Bank officer *Corporate officer, a corporate title **Chief executive officer (CEO) **Chief financial officer (CFO) **Chief operating officer (COO) *Executive officer Education *Chief academic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Darts People
Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small sharp-pointed missiles known as darts at a round target known as a dartboard. Points can be scored by hitting specific marked areas of the board, though unlike in sports such as archery, these areas are distributed all across the board and do not follow a principle of points increasing towards the centre of the board. Though a number of similar games using various boards and rules exist, the term "darts" usually now refers to a standardised game involving a specific board design and set of rules. Darts is both a professional shooting sport and a traditional pub game. Darts is commonly played in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, and recreationally enjoyed around the world. History Dartboard The original target in the game is likely to have been a section of a tree trunk, its circular shape and concentric rings giving rise to the standard dartboard pattern in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mike Watterson
George Michael Edwin Watterson (26 August 1942 – 8 March 2019) was an English professional snooker player, businessman, entrepreneur and television commentator. He was an England Amateur international for two years before turning professional in January 1981. Early life George Michael Edwin Watterson was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire on 26 August 1942, the son of steelworker George Watterson and Olive (née Pilkington), and was the third of four children. Business activities Watterson's early business career saw him work as a wages clerk and then as a car dealer. He was a salesman with the Sheffield-based Vauxhall dealers, Bentley Brothers, and was one of the first people in the country to sell the Vauxhall Viva when it was introduced in 1963. In 1977, his late wife, Carole, went to see a play at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, and suggested to her husband that it would make the ideal setting for snooker. Knowing that there was a real danger that there would be no W ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Professional Darts Corporation
The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the World Darts Council (WDC). Sports promoter Eddie Hearn is the PDC chairman. The PDC developed and holds several championship competitions, including the annual PDC World Darts Championship, the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, UK Open, Premier League, and Grand Slam. It also runs its own world rankings based on players' performances. History In the 1980s, professional darts in Britain lost much of its sponsorship television coverage. From 1989, the only televised event was the annual Embassy World Championship. Some of the players felt that not enough was being done by the governing body, the British Darts Organisation, to encourage new sponsors into the sport and arrange more television coverage than just one event a year. As a result ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Split In Darts
The split in darts refers to the acrimonious dispute between top professional darts players and the game's governing body, the British Darts Organisation (BDO), in 1993, leading to the formation of the World Darts Council (WDC). Between 1994 and 2020, each organisation held its own version of the World Professional Darts Championship. The split was prompted by the game's big decline in television coverage in 1989 and the early 1990s, and by what the players saw as the BDO's inability to reverse that decline. The dispute culminated in the 16 top ranked players - including every previous world champion who was still active - breaking away from the BDO to form the WDC. The BDO responded by banning the 16 defectors from all BDO-sanctioned darts events, which included prohibition of remaining BDO affiliated players from even engaging in exhibition matches against any of the defectors. At the BDO's behest, this was endorsed at a World Darts Federation meeting and became a worldwide sa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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World Of Sport (UK TV Series)
''World of Sport'' is a British television sport programme which ran on ITV between 2 January 1965 and 28 September 1985 in competition with the BBC's ''Grandstand''. Like ''Grandstand'', the programme ran for several hours every Saturday afternoon. Early years Eamonn Andrews was the first host and the programme itself was "compiled for Independent Television" by ABC Weekend TV from its Teddington Studios, with the other ITV stations contributing footage of events in their regions. Before ''World of Sport'', sports events had been shown across the ITV network on Saturdays as separate programmes. From the summer of 1968 (after ABC lost its franchise) it was produced by London Weekend Television, under the ITV Sport banner, hosted by Dickie Davies who would remain the face of the show until it ended in 1985. Thames Television took over LWT's responsibilities for Bank Holiday editions which went out as ''Bank Holiday Sport'' and later ''Bank Holiday Sports Special'', but still pres ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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World Professional Darts Championship
The World Professional Darts Championship is one of the most important tournaments in the darts calendar. Originally held as an annual event between 1978 and 1993, players then broke off into two separate organisations after a controversial split in the game. Each organisation, the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) then arranged their own World Championships, the former in January the latter in December. As a result, there was no longer was an unified world champion in the sport for nearly three decades. The BDO version dated back to 1978, when it was held at the Heart of the Midlands nightclub, Nottingham. The following year it moved to the Jollees Cabaret Club, Stoke, where it stayed until 1985. From then until 2019 it was held at the Lakeside Leisure Complex at Frimley Green, Surrey. In 2020 the tournament was held at The O2 Arena in London. The BDO went into liquidation in 2020 and the World Darts Federation announced later that th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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World Masters (darts)
The World Masters is one of the longest-running and most prestigious of the BDO/WDF tournaments, which began in 1974. The tournament is sponsored by darts board manufacturer, Winmau. The World Masters was unusual in darts in that its sets are the best of 3 legs (first to 2) rather than the standard best of 5 legs (first to 3). It was previously the final leg of the BDO's Grand Slam title of televised majors, along with the BDO World Darts Championship, International Darts League and World Darts Trophy, until the latter two tournaments were axed in 2008. The champion is referred to as the World Master. After the collapse of the British Darts Organisation in September 2020, the World Darts Federation announced plans to launch the WDF World Masters. In December 2020, it was announced that the 2021 tournament will be held at De Bonte Wever in Assen, Netherlands. This was then pushed back to 2022 due to ongoing coronavirus restrictions. The new WDF version of the event changed the f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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WDF Europe Cup
The WDF Europe Cup is a darts tournament held biennially since 1978. The tournament consists of a team championship, a pairs championship and a singles championship. All events have a men's competition, and a women's competition (since 1982). Tournament structure The country achieving the highest total of points from all three events shall be crowned the WDF Europe Cup Champions. In the event of a tie for first place those countries shall be declared the Joint WDF Europe Cup Champions. The WDF announced in early 2014 that a women's team (fours) event would be added to the schedule for the first time at the 2014 Europe Cup as well as future WDF Europe and World Cup tournaments. NDB Darts. 20-03-2014. Retrieved 18-03-2015. The most recent Europe Cup was held in 2018, in [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |