The 2024 South African National Darts Championships recently took place in Bloemfontein, and the Central Johannesburg Darts Association left victorious.
The Marks Park Sports Club based association competed against eight other provinces, going against each other on association, district, and provincial levels. Their stellar performance saw them come home with four gold medals, and various other top rankings. The Northcliff Melville Times visited the club to find out more about the sport, and the people behind this successful club.
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Its vice president, Annemarie Maraz, said this organisation, which has been at Marks Park for over a year, began in 2005, was officially approved by Darts South Africa a year later, and currently sits at about 30 members.
The club’s treasurer Bryan Trudgeon, said he first started playing darts socially, and was later invited to go visit the club. From this invitation all he expected was a fun time playing a game, what he didn’t expect was that he would find himself an extended family through the sport.
For Tooi Engelbrecht, president of the association, the sport has allowed for him to get to know people, while also allowing him respite from the daily stresses of work, as it gives him a much needed break. These are just a few of the aspects he has enjoyed through playing the game for the past decade.
When Wynard Carelse, started playing the sport he thought of it as just being a good hobby. But, to his surprise, it would grow to be a big part of his life. He jokingly adding that he now plans most of his life around darts. Carelse, who is also the clubs public relations officer, said the sport is not too expensive to get into, and he loves that, unlike any other sport he has participated in, it is not predictable.
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Darts has always been a passion of Michael Brown’s, who serves as the organisation’s tournament director. After Covid-19 he decided to take his passion more seriously, and now, four years later, he has said goodbye to some of the team sports he plays, and is concentrating more on darts.
Members of the association agreed with Trudgeon when he explained the sport is also one that improves mental arithmetic. “To score at darts you need to add, substract, multiply, and divide. If I look at where my mental arithmetic was three years ago, versus now, I wish I had found darts sooner, because of how it helps your maths security.” Maraz said such a sport would be great for children too, especially those who may not be as interested in high paced sports.
According to these board members, darts is one of the few sports that can be played by anyone, at any age, no matter their disabilities. Engelbrecht did point out, however, a stigma attached to the sport, that it is simply just a pub sport. “This game is far from being that; we have Protea players right here, in our club.” Adding it is a well organised, disciplined sport, which can even see players travelling the world for competitions.
Details: Central Johannesburg Darts, Wynandcarelse123@gmail.com
Related article: Oom Piet crowned dart king following his victory
