How CoLDA Started - Part 2
Written by Roger a.k.a The Pearly King
In Memory of Colin Butler and Sean Cain
The first part of the history of CoLDA told of the events leading up to the formation of the organization, and the first six months of its existence. The second deals with the next year and a half. A time which saw the Association begin its evolution into what we now see today….
Following the conclusion of our inaugural “World Championship”, it was hoped that myself, Steve Holmes and Rob Madigan would be able to sit back and reflect on what we had achieved in such a short space of time, to enjoy the Christmas break and then start our first full year in 2012 with continued enthusiasm.
That notion was soon dispelled. Around the time of the first belt tournament, Paul Butler had a disagreement with Madigan, to the effect that he pulled the IDL out of the Porters Lodge and headed for pastures new, relocating at Rileys in Victoria. Many players in the IDL decided that they didn’t really want to move (in some cases travelling to the venue was more time consuming) and subsequently withdrew from the League. We were then asked by a lot of those that withdrew to set up a new League, one that was still based out of the Porters Lodge.
The entrance to the Porters Lodge, Arthur Street, near Monument.
I’ll be totally honest and say that it wasn’t really what any of us wanted to do at the time, we were more than happy running Opens twice a month. But the players trusted us enough, thanks to the way in which the Opens were administrated, so we decided to take on the additional challenge. We were asked if we could start up early in January, which left us only a few weeks to get the Rules in place. A document was drafted and sent out to all players for information. However, the invitation for feedback was sometimes taken a little bit too far, and this meant a lot of amending took place.
As all three of us needed to consent to any amendments and changed wording which I made before the updated version(s) were sent out, the process was delayed as there was the small matter of Christmas to try and enjoy. To some, that seemed to be no excuse, and I must admit I wasn’t too thrilled to be sending out an email to the other two gents with an attachment to be ratified at 2.45 am on the morning of the 27th December, instead of getting some well-earned kip after the family gathering on Boxing Day!
Eventually a meeting took place in the Porters in early January with a few of the interested players present. One individual was still trying to get us to make changes, and was told by another to ease off as otherwise the League wouldn’t begin at all. There was a difference of opinion with regard to funding. We needed a caveat in there to potentially transfer funds if necessary towards the WC pot as a last resort. It was reasonably argued that this scenario shouldn’t occur as the League was separate from the Opens. However, we stated that as we would be running the League, it would have to be under the CoLDA banner and not as something totally separate, if that was the case we simply not involve ourselves with it.
Eventually common sense prevailed and we were able to proceed with Season One. Our first innovation was to introduce a Handicap Cup. The reason for this was that many of us had played in the IDL, and their Cup competition was played off levels. The downside was that the “inferior” players (and I don’t mean that in a disparaging way, as I was one of them), when drawn against the top players would simply forfeit the game – I did compete against a very good player and lost 6-0 in about 10 minutes – and I felt it devalued the competition if a player advanced through a couple of rounds without even throwing a dart in anger.
It proved to be an inspired move on our part. Now, the lesser players all competed because they felt they had some sort of chance, however slim. The better players embraced the challenge. Darren Peetoom said “This is forcing me to hit 18 dart 801 legs and it’s just the type of practice I want”. If ever we had doubts about the format working, they evaporated in the first competition. Lorraine Hayward, a stalwart of the local City leagues, was drawn against Lewis Venes, at that time a County player for London. The handicap system was doing its job – Lorraine kept in the game playing some superb darts and it soon attracted the attention of the county players there on that night at the Porters Lodge where the game was being played. With their support, she rose to the occasion and took Venes to a deciding eleventh leg. The tension was palpable and Venes just about got over the line. He didn’t play too shabbily either, as was evident later that weekend when he obliterated his opponent on the County stage.
It was the Cup that offered something different and which we needed to differentiate from the IDL. Paul Butler didn’t agree with our format and kept his at levels (which of course he had every right to do as the IDL was his league and he did, and still does, work very hard in running and promoting it). Eventually though, he did change his Cup to a handicap one as well. With the IDL and CoLDA at that point now covering different geographical areas it could only be good for the London darts scene in general and long may that remain, as it has done for many years.
Before the start of the Opens, we had a discussion about how we could make it easier to get the bulk of the funding in for the second World Championship, and hopefully in more than sufficient time so as not to worry about it. We decided to run a Membership Scheme, costing £10 for the year. It gave you reduced admission for the Opens. But I thought it needed to give something back to our loyal base. So each new member received an official letter with our logo on it. It stated what we intended to do, and we wanted to be completely transparent. I managed to get a supplier on board who made sew-on patches, the idea being that players could then put them on their own shirts if they wished. Finally, a laminated membership card was included, which needed to be shown at Opens to secure the discounted entry fee.
Paul Maybin was initially unhappy about being allocated “006” – as he wanted to be 007. I said something along the lines of “yeah, but anyone can be Bond, 006 is more special”. It must have worked as he still smiles when called 006….
I did nearly get into trouble at my work – as the stationery was “sourced” from there… I noticed that a couple of boxes of high-quality Conqueror paper and envelopes had remained unused for some time, so as their Post Room Manager I decided to free up some much-needed storage space by using it! That was ok, I just had to be careful as I (ahem) used our franking machine to send around 130 letters out. That did cause some of the recipients to be a bit wary, what with the franking label having the name of the barristers where I worked on it. I’m sure some of them thought they were being taken to Court, only to find their membership card on opening it…. I believe that one or two of the letters are still around.
The scheme was launched just prior to the first Open of 2012, so that players could sign up while I was producing the membership package either on the night of the first couple of Opens or in advance.
Our first event in January saw one of our most poignant pre-event messages. One of our regulars in those pioneering days was Ian Dawson, a well-known County player who at that time was representing Middlesex. He and his family had been going through a tough time, and were trying to get a compensation payout after one of their family had tragically lost their life in a workplace accident. On the night of the Open, Ian said that their tribunal case was successful. I asked if I could make mention of it prior to the event but would only do so if he gave his consent. He agreed, and I nervously attempted to announce it in an eloquent and compassionate manner.
The reaction Ian received was everything I hoped. It must have been, as after the competition, the winner, Paul Amos (himself returning to darts after a serious illness) came up to me. He promptly handed back ten pounds from his winnings and said “I have to join”. I was taken aback, it was the first time I met him. He then continued “I would never expect to hear what you said at the beginning, at any darts event, that was a touch of class”. That wasn’t the intention, which was to show our support for Ian, but it was lovely to be recognised in that manner.
It was also around this time that the first ever piece of CoLDA merchandise was produced, a playing shirt in white with red sleeves. That didn’t quite get off the ground, but it wasn’t a bad thing. Paul Marsh had contacts with Target, so we had some of their shirts instead in all black with the CoLDA logo on the front and back. They looked better and were more comfortable to play in. There wasn’t a massive take up, but far more of them were bought compared to the initial prototype.
Things were going smoothly. The Opens were running successfully with an average of 45-50 players turning up to each event and the League was also doing well. Prior to the first Open, we decided to name the boards after World Champions, with a plaque above each. So instead of Board 1, 2 etc, we had the Lowe, Bristow, Wilson and Rees boards, with one spare. That was for OUR World Champion, which would change year on year. So, we had the “Howson” board as well.
That was questioned one evening, as Bobby George was in the Porters for a corporate night. He asked why his name wasn’t up there. I replied: “they’re World Champions, you’re not”. Bobby then said he was too and he should be up there. The King of Bling wasn’t best pleased when I pointed out that he was a News of the World Champion – to be fair at the time when he won it on two occasions, it was arguably more prestigious than the fledgling Embassy Worlds. I did make mention of that as he left, which elicited a wry smile, probably because I mentioned the George IV pub in Ilford which was the one he was attached to when winning it for the first time.
The Opens also saw something quite extraordinary. Steve had been talking to someone who was competing for the first time, and on hearing the player’s story asked him to tell me as well. It turned out that said gent had hoped to attend a previous Open, but couldn’t as he was going home on the day it was being held after a business trip to London. Consequently, he deliberately arranged his next trip around the date of an Open so that he could play in it, to the envy of his dart playing friends “back home” that he was playing at the Porters Lodge. On asking him where “home” was, I was expecting him to name a place somewhere in England outside of the usual local counties. I was stunned when he answered with….. MAURITIUS. CoLDA, it seemed, now was known throughout the world!
Before we knew it, it was October. The field was set for the second belt tournament. Everything seemed to be rosy. Then the entire future of CoLDA was placed in jeopardy.
About three or four weeks before the Finals, Madigan was dismissed as the manager of the Porters Lodge. He quickly found a new job, working at The Peacock on Minories, near Tower Hill tube. As a result, he wanted the Finals nights to take place there, rather than the Porters, and given that he had just started work at that pub, we would have to re-arrange the dates. Steve and I were against this. Firstly, because the Porters was our established home, and just as importantly, if we changed the dates we ran a serious risk of many of the qualified players withdrawing.
A vote was then held, which automatically put me in an impossible, no-win position. Either side with someone who had been a very good friend of mine for 15 years (25 years in the case of his partner) and potentially sacrifice CoLDA to maintain that friendship, or stick with something that was my life for a year and a half, and ally with Steve. I have no doubt that Madigan thought I would side with him. But I chose to keep CoLDA alive with Steve. The friendship was forever destroyed.
Madigan then threw the proverbial curveball to try and sabotage the event having been outvoted. Out of nowhere, he claimed that CoLDA owed him £1400, which he was taking back, to leave us a prize fund of £600 instead of the advertised 2k pot.
Both Steve and I knew this was a false statement, but we were unable to prove otherwise. We were now faced with a huge dilemma. Should we cancel the entire event, run it with a reduced fund and potentially alienate our entire player base, or try to source the missing amount from elsewhere? Of course there was only one option to take. To raise the funds by getting a loan from somewhere. I was vehemently against Steve trying, he had a wife and two young boys and I didn’t want him to potentially put their future at risk. Me being unmarried was easier, as any ramifications would only affect me if it all went wrong. My problem was that my credit rating was so poor that I had next to no chance of getting a bank loan. I had to try though and did so but was failing each time. Steve and I were speaking constantly. The closer we got to the finals, the situation was looking bleaker by the day and the calls between us were getting even more frequent, emotional and tearful. CoLDA was now effectively on a life support machine, with the Priest standing at bedside ready to administer the last rites. We genuinely thought that we were finished, that all our hard work had ultimately been for nothing.
Then, a miracle happened. I found out that my brother had just won a large insurance payout after a car accident. It literally was our final chance to salvage what we had created. I asked, more in hope in expectation, and if anything I pleaded and had to justify the request in a desperate plea to convince him to lend me the money I/we so badly needed. To my surprise, he agreed to lend me the money, but on one condition. I had to repay him in full by no later than mid-January (my payday), with a thousand pounds to be paid back before Christmas. It meant that I couldn’t enjoy the festive period as I usually did, but I didn’t care. Steve and I could now carry on running CoLDA, that was far more important.
Once I composed myself, I called Steve. The tears of frustration turned into ones of joy and relief. I have no shame in admitting that we cried, both on that night and the days before, we couldn’t bear the thought of letting everyone down. With the burden lifted, we were determined to put on the biggest and best show we could. I suggested that for one night only, we put aside our shared belief about CoLDA being all about the players and that the second night was for us, after what we had both been through we deserved no less. To that effect, we went for the full black tie dinner suit combo and really looked the part, although quite a few wondered why we chose to look that way! I made the last 16 parade down the stairs into the pub, announcing them one by one with the CCS (instrumental) version of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” blaring out over the sound system to try and crank up the importance of the night and make it feel really special. A couple of the players thought it a bit OTT as I asked them to gather on the stairs, but we asked them to roll with it and they would soon find out why.
Again, over the two evenings, some fine darts ensued. The final saw Richie Howson attempting to retain his title, with Paul Amos in opposition. The players walked up the stage set, again kindly donated by LIODA, this time to the theme tune from the “Superstars”. Amos raced into a seven-nil lead, and try as he might, Howson eventually had to settle for the runners-up spot.
After the prizes were handed out I made a speech thanking everyone. It would have been easy to leave Madigan out after what he had done to try and wreck everything, but I didn’t, to show that Steve and I were the better people. Paul Marsh then took the microphone to express his gratitude on behalf of all the players to Steve and myself. He did mention about the event apparently being in jeopardy but didn’t know the full extent of it all. Steve then rightly took the floor to accept the kind thanks and then revealed the details of the loan. The room fell silent for a brief moment before a thunderous round of applause. At that point Steve and I looked at each other and knew that all the stress and trauma we had gone through was worth it and we had made the right decision to carry on.
My night concluded with the imposing frame of Johnny Stefano moving purposefully towards me, which frightened the proverbial out of me. He then said “well done on tonight mate, oh and you’re calling for me next week”. I looked confused and asked what he meant as I had no idea what he was on about… to which I got the reply of “You’re going to be refereeing for London County”. For once in my life, I was speechless!
During the summer, before the drama of the Autumn unfolded, CoLDA had entered into a couple of arrangements which showed that Steve’s hard work in promoting CoLDA was bearing significant fruit. One was with a company called Activity Mix. They had run a successful event for a few years in Aberdeen called the “Corporate Decathlon” with various companies in the oil industry competing in ten different events. Buoyed by that, they decided to run another one based in London, with one of the events being darts (others included orienteering, sailing in Docklands etc). Steve and I were then invited as “service providers” to their presentation evening. A raffle came round, but we were told not to buy tickets, which seemed strange as we were getting free food and drink. The reason was that all money raised would then be split equally between the “service providers” – which transpired into 320 quid which was totally unexpected. It only ran for one more year, but feedback from the competitors meant that we were the first event next time around as they enjoyed our night more than all of the others. I still recall when BT played Shell, the intensity of the rivalry was as fierce as any I’ve seen, and this was meant to be friendly…
We were also asked by Modus to run a qualifier event, with eight players going through to play 4 top PDC stars at the Charlton Masters held at the Valley. Their insistence that it be for the corporate type didn’t go down too well with our regular players, and even though we said the decision was out of our hands, the dissent was all too clear. In the second year we were able to use our players which saw a far bigger turnout.
On the night itself, one of the qualifiers wasn’t able to attend, so up on stage went Steve, proudly representing CoLDA. Although he lost to James Wade, he emerged victorious in the friendly verbal jousting. I think the seeds for his career as a stand-up comic may have been sown then!
Shortly after the Belt tournament, Paul Brown was introduced as the newest member of the ColDA committee. Paul had been working in the Porters just before the departure of Madigan and had taken over as the new manager. I was initially baulking at him being on board purely because of what Steve and I had gone through. But Steve batted for Paul as I had done for him eighteen months previously, and on hearing what Steve said, it was a no-brainer to bring Paul on board. He too had that boundless enthusiasm that was CoLDA in a nutshell and if anything we were now a proper three man team rather than just Steve and I doing all the work, which could only be a good thing.
2013 began with yet more positive developments that added to our ever growing reputation. Early in the New Year, there was a darts computer game launched at the Porters Lodge. It was endorsed by Adrian Lewis, who had just won the PDC Worlds for a second time. Sadly I couldn’t get the time off work to go as it was an afternoon event, but I was chuffed to bits when Steve told me that after having his picture took behind the bar wearing our belt, Lewis said “that belt’s a better trophy than the one I’ve just got from the PDC”.
We also entered into our first sponsorship deal, with a new online betting company called Bodugi. The brains behind it was a professional punter called Dave Nevison (who still appears regularly on RacingTV). Steve had worked really hard on this, and agreed a £400 down payment up front, with more to follow depending on how many of our players started an account with them. The arrangement didn’t last long, as Bodugi kept changing the goalposts and unfairly expected us to do a lot of their marketing, which had little effect as our players were more interested in winning darts matches than getting reverse forecast doubles up on traps 1 and 6. We did get an early kickback though which brought about some publicity in a place we would never have thought of.
Bodugi had just agreed a one year deal to sponsor a player that was starting to make waves in the PDC, having won his first major event, the World Grand Prix the previous October. As part of the deal, said player would appear at a launch night at the Porters. That player was none other than Michael van Gerwen. However, he wasn’t the only sports star in attendance. Thanks to Nevison’s vast horse racing contacts, a number of NH jump jockeys past and present were there as the event was also to raise money for the Injured Jockeys Fund. To put the icing on the cake, the event was filmed and featured on the following weekend’s edition of Channel Four Racing. Two of their presenters were also there (for those of you who know your racing), Nick Luck and Tanya Stevenson – often referred to as “female on the exchanges” when alongside John McCririck in the betting ring. One of the jockeys had to leave early. When I asked why, he said “I really want to stay but have got to go, I’m riding Denman in his Gold Cup prep race tomorrow”.
More positive publicity came in February. In that month’s edition of Darts World magazine, there was a full-page feature on our “World Championship”. Having read that magazine in the late 80s to hear of the latest exploits of Bristow, Jocky, Anderson et al, to then see the pages of the Bible of Darts publications feature us with an article and a picture of Paul Amos wearing our belt, was the stuff of fairytales. For that, eternal thanks must go to Justin Irwin, who has been a passionate supporter of CoLDA virtually from the off and who remains so to this day. Even in 2013, had someone said to me that I would end up writing regular columns for Darts World, I would have questioned your sanity….
Paul was now beginning to throw himself into CoLDA and it was he who instigated the beginning of our involvement in the Charity sector, when we began to support the Heart of Darts Charity, a partnership which lasted for a decade until the Charity ceased operations following the sad death of its founder and driving force, Ian Waller. I couldn’t come close to telling you how much money in total that CoLDA has raised over the years, through various events for the HoD, and more recently for Abigail’s Footsteps, but anyone and everyone who has been associated with our organisation, be that as a player, administrator (or both) should be immensely proud of the fact that we have supported and improved the lives of so many people thanks to our generous donations.
In the third (and probably final) part of the CoLDA story, I shall cover the departure of myself and Steve, the beginning of our fabulous relationship with the good people of Guernsey and the continued evolution of CoLDA into the organization of today.
