Chatting Bull with Dan Dawson - Issue #014
Do you know what I hate? Popularity contests. They are the absolute antithesis of sport. Sport is a meritocracy, where your achievements are what matter. If you are good enough, you win, you’re the best, and that is the end of the discussion. But who is your favourite sportsperson? - that is a question determined by all sorts of other factors.
Eric Bristow was one of the most talented, important, and yet divisive characters darts has ever seen. He was undoubtedly one of the best ever to throw a dart, but he was unlikely to have won any public vote for the nation’s favourite darts player - he annoyed too many people. And that’s good! You need a mix of characters in sport to keep things interesting.
That brings us to the Sports Personality Of The Year Award. Every year this comes around as if it is a big deal, to the bafflement of myself (and I suspect countless others). They used to have a panel of experts, who would sit and decide who is “best” this year. Now they go for a public vote, which I guess is more democratic, but is also just as worthless.
In all the years it has been run (since 1954), there has been precisely one representation of our sport. Phil Taylor’s second place (to jockey Tony McCoy, if you’re interested) is the sole instance of darts appearing on their radar in 70 years of the competition. That includes the old days of darts in the 1980s, with millions watching on television, and darts players like Bristow, Bobby George and Jocky Wilson being at the forefront of the public’s consciousness. To be fair, Taylor really enjoyed being recognised in it that year, and you cannot begrudge him the recognition he got, but it all just seems a rather tame acknowledgement of a man who achieved more than pretty-much any sportsperson in history in their chosen discipline.
Now there is Luke Littler, currently second-favourite for SPOTY behind Olympic gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson. The teenager has backed up his run on debut to the World Championship final with three major titles already, the Premier League, World Series Finals and most recently the Grand Slam - his first major ranking tournament win. He is amazing, he is brilliant, and he has captured the public’s attention more than any darts player has managed to do in decades previously.
If he does win, there is an argument that it could wider benefit the sport, and it may be an award that Luke would treasure, but it will pale into insignificance compared to the mountain of proper darts titles it looks like he will win. “The Nuke” is a sporting machine, who seems purpose-built to win big darts tournaments. Those events are much more interesting and important than mere popularity contests, but he’s so good at what he does, he might just go and win one of those as well.
All that said above, as soon as the poll opens, we’re all voting Littler, aren’t we?
Issue #014 Quiz Answers
1) Michael van Gerwen & Phil Taylor
2) Chris Dobey
3) Raymond van Barneveld & Rob Cross. This is the list of players Luke Littler beat on his way to the 2024 World Champs Final.
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