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Back in February 2006, at the Open Dutch tournament in Veldhoven, Netherlands, a meeting was held between a number of concerned players and officials, and interested parties.
Why the concern?
Well the announcement that the World Dart Trophy would no longer involve a womans competition had much to do with it. A strange decision, one would think, considering that the organisers are Dutch, shown on Dutch TV, SBS6, and the current holder was Karin Krappen also Dutch. Even so the decision was made, no ladies tournament this year. Instead a juniors tournament would take place and take over any TV coverage that the ladies had previously enjoyed.
Many reasons and explanations were given, fingers pointed in all directions, but none of that really matters, what really counts is that the ladies, already struggling to gain a fair share of the public viewers, had lost one of the few TV tournaments that they had worked all year to appear in. Of course many people thought that the ladies would just have to accept this decision, forget about the time and financial investment made to achieve the necessary ranking points, but the meeting in Veldhoven was to shake a few people.
With Trina Gulliver and Francisca Hoenselaar very much at the forefront of things the concept of an all ladies organisation was born, the Ladies Darts Association. Now do not think that the LDA is aiming to be some kind of “breakaway” organisation, making single fingered gestures at others, that is not the plan. Neither is it to be seen as some kind of suffragette movement with one or the other of the two initiators being seen as a modern day “Emmeline Pankhurst”. The plan is to obtain as much support throughout the world, both female and male, in order to redirect the course of ladies darts away from its present downward trend. Strength in numbers, so to speak. Using this strength the LDA aims to achieve recogniton and acceptance by all the major darting bodies in the world and to improve the status of ladies darts in the eyes of the many. This has happened in other sports, LPGA and WTA the most notable, so why not in darts. Can women be as good as men?
How many times have people asked this? Does anyone ever come up with a realistic, and justifiable answer? Now I am not saying I am an expert by any means, but recently, mainly since the innovation of the LDA started, I have done a lot of research into this subject.
My conclusion is simply…. NO……. the best woman in the world will never be as good as the best man.
Now, rather than just come out with this statement and expect to be shot down by some quarters and agreed with by others, I will attempt to justify myself and my findings.
Now most, if not all, of us know that testosterone is primarily a male hormone. Amongst other things it helps with muscle development. It also instils into a male that natural territorial aggression that that half of mankind has. Of course the weight of a dart does not exactly put your muscles through their limits, but muscle control is responsible for the release of the dart, its timing and its direction. So am I just trying to say men play better darts because they are stronger? No, there is more to this. Whilst we know that this hormone is primarily a male hormone, what some of you may not know is that women also produce this hormone, albeit a much smaller amount, and further more, once a month women stop producing this hormone for a few days. Now a question to you the readers, are you female, do your darts suffer during a certain period of the month? No pun intended here. My own, somewhat limited, research has found that the majority of women suffer a form loss during this time, by majority I am not saying 51%. The figure is closer to 98%. Also another interesting fact is that all of the women I have spoken to have said that during pregnancy they play better darts, more consistently a higher standard. I am not advocating that all of you rush off and start getting testosterone injections or getting pregnant, although I could have a lot of fun helping you out with the second option. All I am saying is that as long as a woman has these hormonal inbalances every month their darts will never equal that of men. Current LDA membership.
Officially the LDA became a registered organisation in August 2006. Already there are members from no fewer than 12 countries from 4 continents. The goal is, of course, to be global. For a beginning though the LDA has been hugely successful and through an initiative currently being finalised we will see the number of countries represented grow considerably during the course of the next few months. If you feel you can help in anyway please do not be shy in coming forward. German Translation:
As I prepare this first newsletter for the LDA the news has arrived that Uwe Scheidel and Dietmar Ernst from the German Darts Organisation have offered to produce the LDA website in the German language, thankyou to these two guys and we look forward to the launch in the near future, those of us that can understand german anyway. Lakeside PreviewJanuary will soon be upon us and with it comes, not just bad weather, Christmas and New Year hangovers, tax returns, but the start of what will be a very interesting Lakeside World Pro Championship. Trina Gulliver, never beaten in six years at Lakeside, returns as number 1 seed to attempt her 7th straight success.
Francisca Hoenselaar, second seed, will do her best to stop Trinas domination. Her success these last few months has been an excellent warm up for Lakeside. Her win at the Winmau this year proving that despite the years she has been involved in the sport the desire to win is very much alive.
Karin Krappen, the second dutch seed in 3rd place. Currently the ladies WDT champion, with the absence of ladies at this years WDT and for the foreseeable future, she will remain a world champion for maybe years to come. On her day Karin is a real force to be reckoned with.
4th seed sees the first of the debutants. Also the first time a Russian has played at Lakeside. Anastasia Dobromyslova first made an impact at the 2004 WDT where she played superbly in the first round with a very good win over Trina. A player not to be taken lightly as all her competitors in the tournament know.
Carol Forwood, the last of the automatic qualifiers, hails from Australia where she has practically dominated ladies darts in the past season. Carol not only makes her debut at Lakeside but also becomes the first Australian Lady at the tournament.
Carla Molema is the 3rd Dutch lady in the tournament, a lady? She was only 17 when she won her right to be at the play offs at Bridlington this year. Even though she will be the ripe old age of 18 when the competition comes around Carla becomes the youngest ever to appear in the finals. Having “been there done it all and got the T-shirt” as a youth player her transition into the senior ranks has been nothing short of outstanding. Her first round draw against Trina, for me, is going to be the tie of the round.
In Carina Ekberg, we see a very experienced and relaxed lady from Sweden. After a relatively quiet patch after becoming a mother, Carina is finding her form again that made her one of the top ladies in the world.
Last but not least we have the third of the playoff qualifiers in Apylee Jones. England International, semi-finalist at Lakeside previously, Apylee has huge potential and experience, it wuldn`t surprise me to see her making the semi finals once again. The LDA and Dartus Fidentis wish all the players the very best of luck, and the next newsletter will carry the results and performances of all the ladies there.
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