The upcoming ADA Tour rolls into Melton, Victoria this weekend for the fourth stop of the season and another quartet of ranking events.
Once the dust has settled and the arrows have stopped flying, the top five players on the Order of Merit will secure their places at the Wollongong Masters for what James Bailey so eloquently described as “a crack at the World Series.”
Famously, this Aussie state was named after – don’t be too shocked by this – Queen Victoria, who, at exactly five feet tall, was the smallest person ever to appear on the grand stage of a palace until Justin Hood broke that record recently when he performed at London’s Alexandra named one.
A weird Victoria fact before I kick-off on with the darts preview. Did you know it’s illegal there to wear pink hot pants in public after midday on a Sunday? You’re fine with red or blue ones – and if you’re feeling especially brave and unnecessarily confident, you could even chance your arm with salmon-coloured to tease the law.
Alternatively, if you want to take a morning stroll in your pink beauties to pick up the newspaper. But once that clock strikes 12pm, you’re screwed and likely to be arrested and become a forever embarrassment to your family.
Right, now that pointless piece of information is taken care of, let’s take a look at the leaderboard after the opening dozen events. Then we’ll glance at who’s kicking arse this year. Quite simply, with all due respect to the other lads Down Under, it’s a two-man show.
Raymond Smith, who last year made himself both a lot of money and incredibly unpopular by winning all four events at the inaugural meeting. And by unpopular, I generally mean that the other lads hoped his Satnav broke before the next gathering.
But as brilliant as he’s been this campaign, Brody Klinge is flying even higher so far. And this weekend, he’s going to be chucking on his own patch. As a Melbourne lad, it’s just a 25-mile (40km in Down Under distance) spin to Melton. Usually in Australia, it’s a four-hour drive just to pop over and visit a neighbour, so I was surprised to see the relatively close proximity between his home and the venue. Such a short distance, he could almost walk it. But he won’t.
Well, between that pair, they’ve monopolised things. In fact, only Darren Penhall has managed to break the stranglehold, grabbing the opener in Queensland last time out. He must feel like the bloke who wrestled the sausage roll off two big Sheila’s fighting over it.
So the tally this year on the ADA stands at a six of the best for Kling. A tad behind on five is Mr Guru. And just the one for Cornish-born Penhall. Maybe this weekend they’ll let someone else get a look in. That, I very much doubt.
Naturally, that leaves the leaderboard with the Melbourne Ace on top with AU $7,500, holding just a marginal AU $100 advantage over Smith in second. Then, courtesy of being the only player Brody and Ray would share their sweets with all season, comes Darren Penhall a few grand behind. The Bull, James Bailey, comes next, just shy of AU $3,000. And by ‘just shy’, I actually mean three hundred bucks off. Not sure why I didn’t just type that in the first place, to be honest.
After this weekend, there will be two more get-togethers, giving the venues plenty of notice to stock up on stubbies. Sydney hosts the next stop in early August before the tour wraps up in Adelaide a month later.
There is, of course, a huge prize at the end of the road. The player who tops the charts gets invited to Alexandra Palace in December. And I don’t just mean a tour to look at giant posters of former winners – they actually get to play in the PDC World Championship, which, even if you get potted in the first round, is worth £15,000 and gives your shirt sponsors a chance to splash out on the bubbly.
In terms of that golden ticket, nothing will be decided this weekend. But unless Kling and Smith are either kidnapped or decide darts isn’t for them and instead open a fish stall on Bondi Beach, the smart money is on one of those blokes ending on the mountain summit. Right now, they are just fighting over who sticks their flag up there.
Good luck to everyone this weekend. And a special nod to James Bailey, who was even prepared to lose his spot on the ADA montage image I created in favour of Home and Away’s Alf Stewart, who more than deserves a place.
They just don’t make them like James anymore. And some might say thank the Lord for that.
