The Televised Darts Edition
On expert spotters, nine-darters, and "queer trades."
Russell Davies (RD) is a writer and strategist. He’s worked on communications and digital strategies for organizations like Nike, Microsoft and Apple, and is the author of multiple books, including Everything I Know About Life I Learned From Powerpoint.
Russell here. At some point between the quarterfinals and the final of the 1978 darts World Championship, BBC Sport Director Nick Hunter transformed the television coverage of darts by introducing a split screen.
For the first time you could simultaneously see the dart hitting the board, and the emotion on a player’s face. The sport would never look back.
Nowadays, the intensity of darts coverage is unmatched. Cuts come every second, for minutes at a time, as the director shows you all of the action and increasingly high stakes. Directors have to train on a dummy set for at least a year before they are trusted to do the real thing live. A specially built rig, based on a dartboard, allows camera operators to zoom and focus at enormous speed. (There’s a shortcut for the treble 20, it sits under the index finger.)
Premier League football (soccer, to some) is played on a gigantic pitch, with 22 players, and demands about 30 cameras to capture it all. World championship darts has just one small board, and only two players, but will still use 24 cameras. It is microscopic and lightning fast.
Why is this interesting?
G. K. Chesterton once wrote a book called The Club of Queer Trades. Queer trades were professions that only a single person in the world occupied; a job that nobody else had. Darts spotter almost qualifies. There are around only half a dozen people who can predict where the darts will go next and direct the cameras quickly and accurately enough.
It’s even harder when the latest generation of players, like ‘Rapid’ Ricky Evans, Luke Littler or Michael van Gerwen, have notably speedy rhythmic styles. Evans regularly throws 180s in under 3 seconds:
On top of that, better technique and equipment is leading to higher averages and more 9 dart finishes. Slimmer wires around the treble bed also seem to be helping. (For those in a country with viewing permissions, Sky has a great side by side showing the pace of Littler when compared with the GOAT of a previous generation, Phil Taylor.)
The darts spotters helping us watch today’s generation have to know the game, know the maths, and know the players and their habits. And they have to watch their eyes. Unfortunately for them, the game is only speeding up. (RD)