Sussex — “I felt like I’d just won the lottery,” Gordie Douglas told The Manatee while outside his Sussex home having a smoke. “I’ve never really been good at anything, or at least that’s what my ex says, so when I got the call I was some kind of surprised.”
It was 2 weeks ago that the landline in the Douglas family’s basement rang and Gordie answered. On the other end of the line was Steven Linton of the IDC (International Darts Championship), and he had an enticing offer. “He told me that I’d been invited to some amateur darts competition in Birmingham, which I thought was on the North Shore somewheres, but I guess it’s in England, so you can imagine I was right stoked.”
According to a press release from IDC CEO Nigel Harrison, the competition was strictly for people who have never played darts at a professional level, and all those selected had to have been nominated by a third party. “We randomly select 5 people from each country involved in the tournament from the names submitted, and we go from there. Honestly, in the 27-year history of this tournament we’ve never had any confusion, but I suppose we’ve also never invited any Maritimers.”
The flight left Fredericton’s “international” airport bound for England about a week after Douglas received the call. “I had a couple pogey checks saved up, so I bought a couple packs of darts, a case of Alpine and was on my way. They made me pay for my own plane ticket, but I didn’t mind. I thought I had a whole week of smoking darts and breaking hearts ahead of me, but boy, was I wrong.”
The situation seemingly diffused itself right away, as a very drunk Gordie Douglas became the life of the party. “He was very polite and charming, in his own way,” said Swedish amateur dart player Jonas Andersson. “He always had a beer in his hand and a smoke in his mouth, though he insisted I call them ‘darts.’ I don’t know if he ever actually played a single game, but he certainly looked like he was having a good time.”
We caught up with Douglas about a week after he got back from his trip to England. “Yeah, of course I had a good time. Their beer is pretty good and the people are friendly enough, but I don’t much care for throwing darts. I’ll stick to Alpine and washer-toss, thank you very much. And if anyone asks about my pogey, tell them I’m out looking for work.”