Thirty years ago if you played darts in the Brigg & District Games League the most difficult venue to visit was the Queen's Arms, in Wrawby Street (later to become the Fish Inn and then The Vines Restaurant).
The bar was so small that the only place to hang the dartboard was alongside the sliding wooden entry door. So every time a new customer arrived at the pub, or someone went to use the toilets or return from them, the game in progress had to come to a halt.
In complete contrast, the stage/oche for the World Championships now being played at the "Ally Pally" in London is wide enough for a set of dancing girls to strut their stuff before matches.
We enjoyed many happy games playing darts for The Queen's but we were at a severe disadvantage. We suffered the above disruption to play every other week of the league season, while all opposing teams played at the Wrawby Street hostelry just once a term.
When my son use to live in Highgate, we use to visit Ally Pally - Alexandra Palace - the old BBC tv studio/transmission station.
ReplyDeleteOn one occasion the hall was being set-up for the international darts competition.. I had a sneaky go and got admonished by the security guy....
Ally Pally is on a hill and one gets an excellent panoramic view of London's famous landscape....Close by is Highgate, which surprisingly is like a village and in which are two significant graveyards - one is famous for Carl Marx's grave, while the other, and one which demands a fee to enter, is a strange, if not macabre cemetery of huge Victorian funerary architecture - it's even described as 'One of England's Finest Treasures' ...and has guided tours |!!!!
Having seen some of the exhibits in the cemetery, it is easy to see where the idea of Brigg's Angel originated - it's a dead ringer for graveside statue....