Monday, January 15, 2007

Psychology of Sport

I'm not a great lover of darts. I find the insistence of the half-time fag-smoking, beer belly incumberanced competitors that it is a sport not a game a bit rich.

But I found myself watching on BBC2 the final of the World Darts from the Lakeside last night and the favourite Martin Adams take a predictable six sets to nil lead in the first-to-seven match against outsider Phil Nixon. One for victory.

At this point there was a break. After this Phil, who his brother said had been advised 'just chuck the darts at the board' making you wonder what he had been doing up to this point, came out and won six sets in a row too. 6-6.

What reserves do you find in your inner psyche to win six and equalise from 6-0 down? And what more do you find to be dragged back to 6-6 and then do what Adams did and go on to win?

Big bellys, but cool heads. Entertaining.

3 comments:

Chris said...

I was also intrigued by the final, having also watched bits of the final of the other world darts championship (PDC) between Phil Taylor and Raymond Van Barneveld (spelling?) too. The PDC final also had drama in abundance and sent to a sudden death final leg. Not sure there has ever been two so dramatic darts finals in the same year!

Incidentally, I can't help but think the PDC has more quality as the final saw much better darts throwing than the other one. It really isn't all about the money as to why people have been defecting (although I'm sure it's also a major factor!).

Mike Peatman said...

Missed the game (not a big fan either) but saw it on the news. Only game I was ever good at

David Keen said...

I'm no great shakes at darts, but have managed to introduce my 2 children (2 and 4) to the great British sport of gut-barging, which I'm sure many of the darts champs would excel at. Hopefully we'll see that on BBC2 before too long.