There are very few opportunities in sport in the Caribbean where it is possible to leap from relative obscurity to compete against the best in the world, take a share of a prize fund of one million pounds sterling and show off your talent to a live audience of 3 000 and a global TV audience of millions.
Yet this is the prize on offer to the darts players of the region when they compete in The Carib Beer Caribbean & South American Masters at Solidarity House on November 6.
The most prestigious annual event in the darts calendar, it is the “blue riband” event of The Ninth Brydens Barbados Darts Festival and is open to only those darts players who hold a Caribbean or South American passport.
Barbadian darts players Winston Cadogan and Anthony Forde have been successful three times and Forde is never likely to forget his match against current world champion Raymond van Barneveld in 2007.
However, on the last two occasions, it has been Guyanese players Sudesh Fitzgerald and Norman Madhoo who have won the right to represent the region at the Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship in London in December.
The Trinidadian challenge is likely to be led by Vivekenand Dyal, another former winner, whilst Hank Ebanks from the Cayman Islands is also capable of going all the way.
They will all have time to sharpen their skills prior to the big event when they take part in darts events on Thursday and Friday evenings against a very strong contingent of darts players from Britain, the United States and Canada.
Over 100 visiting darts players are expected to arrive in Barbados from Monday to take part in the festival, sample the delights of Barbados and meet new friends in darts.
“We are grateful for the continued support of the Barbados Tourism Authority, TDC and title sponsor Brydens – without whom the Darts Festival would never have come into being in the first place, let alone establish Barbados as the mecca for darts in the region,” said festival director Michael Heal.
(PR/BA)
