The final rights of passage into both respective World Darts Championships are being sorted out with the PDC finalising their qualifiers on Monday Afternoon, however players playing in that tournament will be at the Lakeside on Wednesday to try their luck with the BDO. However, it seems to be a controversial issue within the sport and one that is escalating on social media.
Where should loyalties lie:
The Tomlin order following the bitter court battle in 1997 meant that Dart players from both the PDC and BDO can play in each codes tournaments with the exception of the World Championships. This meant that players from the BDO played in PDC majors without having to commit to the Professional Darts Corporation and visa-versa was done.
The 1998 World Matchplay saw BDO’s Ronnie Baxter face PDC’s Rod Harrington in the final and with a number of BDO players making the final stages of the tournament. However this changed in 2002 when the PDC stopped BDO players playing in its ‘majors’, which saw six players change code, known as the ‘Skol Six’, the Tomlin order remained in place for BDO tournaments until 2007 when two PDC players were refused entry into the BDO Dutch Open championships.
Why am I telling you this? well I think you need the background as in these Lakeside qualifiers, there selected players who will try to qualify for Lakeside who failed to qualify for the PDC World Championships two days prior. This is controversial as the PDC have a Tour Card system where players enter a Qualifying School to win cards to play on the PDC circuit for 2 years, whilst in the BDO unless you are fully PDC, can just turn up to an event on a Sunday.
I think personally that we are whether PDC or BDO, we are all one thing and that’s the most important thing of them all, DARTS, the order which we had from ’97 to ’02 worked perfectly and created a little PDC/BDO rivalry, such as those you see in measures at the Grand Slam and means that the argument of the best of the best is truly sorted along with the fact that such issues over should players in this tournament then play in that is completely quashed. Those years between 97 and 02 saw the standard between both codes nigh on the same and considering the talent on show in the BDO could see Darts rise into a new era.
Surely it must be like Football where you can go on loan from one club to another. They’re not allowed to play against their parent club, but can play against all the rest. Just like what we did for those years and what can still be manageable in the future such as a player needs to state their eligance at all times and with the exception with the opposite codes World Championship and PDC Premier League can play in whatever tournaments that they wanted on either side.
This will be a debate that will simmer on into the future and don’t forget Wednesday is World Qualifiers and the World Masters stage finals are LIVE on Premier Sports this weekend.
Henry Deacon Media 