Drug Testing For Darters.

Just before the last couple of games at the end of the 2006 summer season for the Weston & Trent Valley darts league, the highest finish was only 124 for the men’s league which had been hit in an excellent 9 dart game. Then one weekend I got an E-mail from Wayne Layton of the Talbot, who was obviously very pleased with himself for hitting an 8 dart game with a 125 finish. He said that the drug test results were in and he had passed with the result sheet duly signed and witnessed by the opposition.

The next week my partner left me 130 in our doubles game. He had had 230 to go for and hit two 20’s before hitting a treble. Foolishly I commented to my opponent, I am glad Geof Taylor (No relation to the great man) got the 60 with his last dart and did not leave me the 170 because I did not fancy that. Believe it or not I hit treble 20, treble 10 and followed it with tops. Once or twice I have had high finishes before, but I commented at the time “I know Wayne Layton will want to look at the match sheet for confirmation and demand to see the drug test results.”

We often joke about having drugs tests in darts when people play well and in the past it always seemed ridiculous to even think about it with the amount of alcohol consumed during the average match, but drug testing has just been implemented this year and has already resulted in the banning of one player, Robbie Green who was banned after becoming the first darts player to fail a drugs test.

Robbie “Kong” Green, who comes from the Wirral, gave a sample for testing in June at the UK Open in Bolton where he reached the quarter-finals which resulted in him he testing positive for marijuana. Robbie was only the eighth player to be tested by anti-doping agency UK Sport. The 32-year-old was suspended by the Darts Regulation Authority and banned for 8 weeks. (Click for link to Robbie Greens own web-site or Short Biography on this site.)

If drug testing has been considered necessary to control the sport of darts, then perhaps it is a sign that darts is starting to be taken more seriously by the sporting world and is at last taking its rightful place as a serious sport and not just pub entertainment. A few years ago there was talk of darts being included as an Olympic event. Who knows, maybe it was not such a fanciful idea after all!