World Series of Darts May 19-21 2006 cont

Upon arrival I am whisked into an interview room backstage. This goes much better then my post interview in Chicago. I feel much more relaxed and better prepared to answer the questions in the proper format. The topics range from practice to opponents to what kind of flights I use. We have a lot of fun with the whole conversation and the interview lasts about 45minutes.

Next up is the photo shoot. Johnny K, Ray Carver, Tom Curtin and myself all do some group shoots then break into groups of 2 then finally solo photos. If this sounds glamorous in any way to you its only because you have never seen the process. This literally takes over 2hours to complete mostly standing in one spot while they adjust the lighting. Maybe it was the lack of sleep and food but I have never been so happy to be done with something in my life. As soon as we are done it’s off to dinner and straight to bed for some much needed rest.

The Meeting
Friday at 3pm is the mandatory players meeting. I was excited to meet some of the international players but unfortunately they either were not required to attend or had a separate meeting. All of qualifiers were present with the exception of Joe Chaney that missed his connecting flight in Chicago that day.

We were instructed on the rules and regulations ranging from format to advertising to attire. The meeting was held in the Cabaret Theater while the crew was busy still setting up the stage for play. There was quite a bit of noise at times and with the English accents it was hard to understand/hear everything. I was disappointed to find out only 4 players would have separate walk-ons and all others would walk on with their opponent. In addition, all the music selections were in vain as we would all walk on to Crazy Train by Ozzy Ozbourne. But I guess that’s showbiz...