Polish open

06-04-2011 | tony spud martin

Well it was a start from Liverpool airport to go to the Polish open. The airport that was flown to was Szczecin and this was via Ryanair. Only approximately a 2 hour flight and a return ticket for less than a return train fare to London.

We were met at the airport by a group of drivers that the organisation had kindly laid on for us to get to the Hotel. It was around about an hour’s drive from the airport to the venue and it was roughly £7 for the journey.

Hotel seemed a nice place when we first arrived and check in was swift which is always a bonus. Cost of the double room worked out at about £18 a night. Some did complain a little regarding the hotel not having hot water and a few other things regarding beds being changed, but my room was ok for the entire weekend, nothing posh but a place to wash and sleep which is enough in my book. So far the trip had cost me less than £100 and I was in there till Monday afternoon.

Only caught a little glimpse of the pairs on the Friday night as we did not arrive till around 11pm. Caught one semi final being played by Steve Douglas and Clive Barden against two Polish guys who were apparently from Bristol, Not sure if this is 100% true but it is what people were saying. Steve and Clive raced into a 2-0 lead and then they finally lost the game 3-2 with the polish pairing taking out 120 in the last 2 legs with Steve and Clive sitting on a double. Got to give credit where its due and this was 2 fantastic outshots to take the game under a lot of pressure. Got to see the last 3 legs of the ladies pairs final which was won by Deta Hedman and her Polish partner (4-1) who I was told had travelled all day to play after being at a family funeral so you got to take your hat off to her for making her way all the way there.

Walked around the venue for a little bit to take it all in and it was rather busy and people were in very good spirits. A few people recognised Mr Bunting and said they watched him on Eurosport. He was constantly asked for photos and autographs for around 30mins until he had enough and left the playing area to get some Polish liquid refreshments. This kind of reception reminded me what it used to be like to go and play in Holland when you had either just play the Lakeside or the WDT or IDL.It was a welcome surprise to see this kind of reception from genuine dart fans and the hospitality that the darts people shown towards the English was brilliant, But it’s a pity the same can’t be said for the Security who were let’s say a little heavy handed on a few occasions which we saw and which I had a firsthand experience of.

So up early for the Polish open on the Saturday morning. Briefly visited the breakfast room and decided to give it a miss as it was not very much to my liking. There was a few in there eating but can honestly say I did not see one English person in there as I don’t think we are used to eating Hot Dogs for breakfast or having cheese, meat batches for breakfast. A lovely bit of bacon or sausage would not have gone a miss. I would recommend that for next year they could include a toaster in there as even a piece of toast would have been nice, but we can’t have everything can we.

Went for a practice around 9.15 as we were told it was an 11am start, unfortunately the darts room was not open so we sat around waiting for about 30mins for it to open. Went to pay my entry fee which worked out about £15, I thought this was a little on the high side considering the pay out of prize money only being to the last 8. It was then that we were informed that the playing format for the day was going to be in group systems and the top two from each group going through to the last 128 players. A few of the players were unhappy at this as we felt this should have been made public knowledge when the tournament was advertised, If it was I must have missed it along with several other players. I must say personally I was bothered that it was in this format as it is the same format that is used in the Canadian and American comps where I have played several times, But I do feel that there should be some sort of ruling over this as if BDO points are being awarded then the same format should be played in all comps. The draw went up around 10.45 and play started around 11am and people were a little confused as there were no groups put on the boards with the playing fixtures, most people started with player 1 vs 2, The fixtures were put up after the games had started, I would suggest to make things a little easier for next year, is that the playing fixtures are put up before the play is started so people know when they are on.

The quality of the boards were of a good standard, pretty similar to a unicorn eclipse but a little harder, on the other hand the oche's were not what I would say safe and up to scratch. It was commented on a few times that there was going to be an accident with the oches and they were not secured to the backing boards or the floor, I personally never fell over but had a few slips, but I did see somebody go flying after the oche went from under their feet. A few Polish people that we spoke to said that for next year the oche's would be fixed to make things better. I must say the organisation listened to every comment good or bad that was put there way and they said that they appreciate comments as they wish to make the competition better for next year, and they were ever so helpful to us English people.

The standard of play at the latter end was not much different from the higher entered comps in Western Europe and this was mainly due to a fair amount of people that attended being those that attend all the other comps on the BDO/WDF circuit. It was always going to be hard to get some points from this comp with it having a low category rating, maybe this will change for next year but I’m not sure how they select the categories for the comps, so for this year’s comp it meant only the last 8 were to collect some points. I personally rode my luck a few time during the day to get past, Ratajski and Douglas to get to the last 8 but in darts that’s what is needed sometimes, ok a lot of the time.

The men’s comp was won by an on fire Darryl Fitton who beat Stephen Bunting 6-1 and played some of the best darts throughout the day I have seen him throw for a fair time. The ladies was won by Deta Hedman who played to her usual high standard and increased her lead as BDO number one thanks to her 16 points for her win.

I have to say that next year the organisation have said they will try and pick a weekend when there is nothing on as they hope to get a higher attendance, It will be very hard to do this with the amount of comps now being played all over the world under the WDF banner and then also the BICC county systems taking up a lot of weekends.

I will say to anybody that does travel next year is, take some travel insurance that covers you for accidental damage if this is possible as the hotel like you to pay for everything even if it’s their fault and something is broken by accident. A friend of Darrell's was playing table tennis with him and accidentally touched the electronic darts machine which had been moved away from the wall by staff to behind the tennis table, It fell over and snapped on a  table breaking both, They wanted him to pay for the damage in cash but this kind of money was not to hand at it was an accident as pointed out. they did not have any of it and the police were called. In the end the fella had to put it on his house insurance for the claim as he did not have any travel insurance, a bitter end to the great weekend we had.

Also do need to mention that the beer was really cheap at £1.25 for a pint of 6.8% beer or the weaker stuff at £1.00 for a pint of 5.6% beer. Be careful when drinking this as it does not taste strong as is pretty flat but it does creep up on you as several people found out during the weekend, and it does leave you with a bad head in the morning or afternoon depending on when you rise.