Back in the late 50's and into the
60's there was a strong interest in Marathon Darts Events
and so, with collusion of others, I organised an attempt
on a then world record which was held an RAF team in
Nicosia. Having received official sanction from the CO we
set a date and further details.
I'm not sure what the present rules for
such events are but back in those days a MILLION and ONE by
eight players was straight in and finish on a double with
every player throwing in turn and in the same sequence for
the duration of the event and a single board with each
player retrieving his own darts. Sounds easy!!
The following excerpt from the Notice
section of Part 1 orders of early 1959 throws a little more
light :
DARTS
A Darts Team will be
attempting to break the World record time for 1,000,001 up
at present held by the Cpls Club, RAF NICOSIA, IN 47hrs
17mins.
It is entended to
commence this attempt on this World Record at 0900 hrs Fri 4
Mar in the Unit Gymnasium.
We are requesting
volunteers, who are prepared, to work in shifts through-out
Friday/Saturday nights as : Scorers, Computors, Statistics
and General
Assistants for the Darts
Team. Names to Cpl Ford.
The competition is
continous throughout.
The above is typed exactly as it appeared
on Orders including punctuation and spelling. I doubt my
remaining scrap of paper will copy very well !
Along comes Fri 4th of Mar and we
assemble in the Gymnasium. Eight throwers, with darts, and
numerous helpers with Brunswegas (its a long time. Is that
the spelling?) and other sundry mechanical calculators,
notepads, chalk, blackboards, coffee urns and promises of
access to a bar as needed. And, most importantly, two
chronometers. Someone acquired some "Wakey" tablets but no
one actual got to take them!
The plan was for for every form of
scoring to be independent and this we achieved together with
each form of scoring working both ways. In one form adding
the scores to reach the required total and in the other form
subtracting as normal in darts, starting at 1,000,001. 2
spare calculators were continuously used to cross check at
frequent points.
Promptly at 0900 hrs we started throwing
and, if memory serves me correctly, WOII 'Chimpy' Freestone
took the first throw and we were up and going.
The scorers and recorders and checkers
did sterling work reporting regular that all totals were
checking and the throwers were excelling themselves and it
was soon found that barring misfortune we were going to be
several hours ahead of target and thankfully a second nights
sleep wouldn't be lost.
Late afternoon Saturday the end is well
in sight and soon we are down in the last 1,000 and soon
chasing a double. Having tried on double twenty a couple of
times we quickly dropped it to double one and 32hrs 32mins
and if memory serves 18 seconds Baz Cairns nailed it with
his and our first attempt. A WORLD RECORD!!! Sadly NO
!! A pub team in Cornwall started after us and finished
sooner coming in some 3 hrs quicker.
Apart from 'Chimpy' and Baz' already
mentioned I can only remember 3 more of the throwers (anyone
throw any light) who were Wilf 'Bill' Beavan (Chief Clerk
of the Regt), Eric 'Henry' Parsloe and myself ('Flab') The
scorers, calculators and other helpers fare even worse in my
memory which is really not right since they the most
important part in our efforts. The three I can remember are
Mick Hamilton, Al ??? and Bill Powell.
It is almost 46 years ago now since we
made our bid to claim fame and as a personal postscript on
this memory I would like to thank once more
everyone who made the attempt possible. THANKS!!!!
