Home Tour was fun – and better than no darts at all says Scott Waites

While almost all sport has been shut down, worldwide, because of Covid-19, the arrows are still flying on the Professional Darts Corporation Home Tour, now being played over 32 consecutive nights and broadcast to sport-starved fans through the PDC’s website.

All PDC tour card holders were invited to compete through live video calls, with four players in action every night.

Most jumped at the chance of some competitive action, in games played over the best of nine legs, though star duo Gary Anderson and Daryl Gurney both declined because of poor wifi connections.

Yorkshireman Scott Waites was among the first to take part, finishing second in his group behind Dave Chisnall.

“It was good fun,” reflected the two-time former BDO world champion, who lives in Huddersfield.

“Dave played a bit better than me and that’s why he topped the group, but I was quite happy with how I played.

“You can’t take it too seriously, but it’s the only competitive games we’ve been having.”

The Home Tour was launched following two experimental Darts at Home competitions, featuring nine of the sport’s top players.

Retired ex-world champions Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld have also gone head-to-head from their living rooms and practicing at home – against opponents based elsewhere – is not unusual.

“There’s a few darting apps where you can join the same game, so you can play each other,” Waites, 43, said.

Though young children and pets have proved an occasional hazard for some of his rivals, Waites lives alone and interruptions aren’t an issue.

“If anybody walks past me, I’m either being robbed or my house is haunted,” he joked.

Waites may be keeping his spirits up, but coronavirus has struck at a bad time, just weeks after he left his job to become a full-time professional player.

Other than the Home Tour, the PDC’s entire fixture list has been put on hold, which means players aren’t getting paid.

Two-time BDO world champion Waites admitted: “It has been tough, the coronavirus has just hit us at the wrong time.”

He said: “I am a professional dart player now and it is a bit of a struggle at the minute, but you just have to take the rough with the smooth sometimes.

“The start I made in the PDC, I wasn’t doing too bad, I was starting to find my feet a bit and get a few decent results, then all of a sudden, out of the blue, it stopped.”

Events have been suspended until June and Waites supports that decision, feeling behind closed doors events are not practical.

“A lot of it is the unknown, we don’t know when we are going to get back to playing competitive darts,” he said.

“It is difficult doing that because you’ve got 120 darts players in a room, plus markers and guests and officials as well.

“With venue staff as well, you are probably talking going on 250 people in a room.

“Until that social interaction restarts, it won’t be possible. The darts at home is probably as good as it is going to get until we can get all together in a room again.

“It is even difficult if you are in the same room playing on different boards, because you need someone to input the score, unless you are going to do that yourself, which is going to break your concentration.

“You can’t get into a rhythm of routine.”