The Making of the Trophy

Our tournament needed an eponymous trophy. Something that epitomised our darting commitment. Solid, weighty and fuelled by beer. This is what CDT lessons were created for. Forget building mini-cars powered by rubber bands, or mis-shapen spice-racks...we could utilise that hour a week in a fully equipped workshop to build our trophy. After some consideration of how the thing should look we decided to just let what natural materials we had dictate the creative process. We had:

- A piece of wood measuring about 10" by 8"
- A single crappy plastic dart, most likely nicked from a pub
- A beer can (empty)

After some deliberation of how best to put these things together, we decided upon mounting the beer can on the "plinth" and then somehow attaching the dart. Simply standing the can would look a little phallic, so connecting it "heightways" was best. Simply gluing would unlikely be robust enough, but trying to screw it on through the thin metal would probably result in it tearing or crunching.

Who came up with the flash of genius is sadly lost in the mists of time; but it was decided to fill the can with plaster of Paris, to give the screws more purchase, and the whole piece a very satisfactory weight. The dart would then be attached to the front with liberal application of the glue gun.

Finishing touch was a small plaque which was engraved to read, unsurprisingly: "The Richard Dunmall Darts Challenge Trophy".

Special mention must go here to a character named Rod Harcourt. He was (and probably still is) a fairly amiable chap who arrived at our school a bit later than most of us. I never got to see him play darts, and don't really know whether he even liked the game, but he did like a bit of CDT. While it's easy now to claim credit for the trophy's construction, I am pretty certain that Rod unselfishly did most of the donkey work for the simple reason that he liked to. He even built a runner's up trophy which was a hand crafted dart made on the lathe, mounted by an angled piece of metal on a small plinth. While the original trophy survives - even if currently stashed in house of one of the player's parents - this second place bauble is universally accepted as lost. It's value now must be immeasurable...or not.


We were now ready to play the tournament.

The Birth of The RDDCT

When it was decided that the thought of another dull PE session at that time of year between rugby/football and cricket seasons was asking too much; and that time could be spent more productively than by wandering listlessly through Mote Park or the Maidstone Chequers Centre; the prospect of a Darts Tournament to fill the space was embraced.

There were eight original competitors for the fledgling tourno, each with a catchy, or frankly ludicrous nickname:

Gareth "The Irrelevant Ripper" Pugh. Tournament organiser and host. So called because of a penchant for regurgitating trivial facts and statistics. Seeded #2 on the basis of home advantage.
Matthew "The Crafty Cripple" King. #1 seed due to a victory in Butlins darts event while on a football tour. "Crippled" due to a recent knee injury sustained in the cricket nets.
Scott "The Tartan" Williamson. He's got a nice tartan scarf and was pushed for time. #3 seed on the basis that he might be good.
Ashley "The Assassin" Dampier. Nice alliteration. Seeded #4 because he at least owns a dartboard.
Ted "The Coat" Snelders. Named after his fetching line in outdoor clothing.
Alan "The Crafty Canadian" McDougall. Dual nationality the key to this one.
Michael (Mickey) "Mr Darts" Fisher. A bold claim indeed.
Steve "Deadly Dud" Forbes. Not as clever as it may now look...based on his old man's moniker.

So they were the eight who made themselves available for an afternoon of darts. There would be an entry fee from which prize-money would be allocated, so once everyone was paid up, it was game on.

When collecting the money one break time, a rather generous chap by the name of Richard Dunmall happened to be standing near-by and voluntarily slipped a quid into the pot. How could this benefactor be rewarded? A wild-card in the event maybe? No he was taking the National Curriculum a bit more seriously...then what? He insisted on no reparations at all, but in spite of this there was one gesture that could be made.

The tournament would need a name, so it was decided that we would be playing for The Richard Dunmall Darts Challenge Trophy.

Now, we just needed a trophy......

The Challenge......

....a revised attempt to bring my mates regular competitive darts.

The Solution........

.....a new tour of 6 tournaments spaced across the year with long-term planning of dates to enable those family guys amongst us to negotiate the appropirate terms for their release.

It's been tried before. The distant dream of an actual tour of several tournaments held a across the year, with ranking points available for each. Back in 2004 we got as far a third event in six months before lethargy and other contributing factors set in. But to understand why the concept of organised darts runs so deep within my group of friends, we need to go back. Way back to time so long ago that not even I can remember the precise date. What is known is that one day back early 1992 a group of darts-loving school kids decided that an imminent Wednesday afternoon PE lesson would be better spent doing some proper sport.