The progress of youth darts has not always been plain sailing. Alchohol and licensing arrangements seem to have been a major stumbling block:

Respected London boss Roger Nickson seems to have been a driving force behind getting an official youth league established. Roger now runs the popular Darts from The Past Facebook group. Perhaps Darts World will seek his views on the progress of those he strongly supported.

The accompanying piece regarding the alteration of formats to give players more time on the oche is another age-old debate. Here it looks well-intentioned in order that young players could gain more experience.

The coverage given here to the A.G.M of the BDO speaks to the importance of the organisation at that time. Sadly, some of the views displayed seem to foreshadow later difficulties.

It should not be overlooked that until very recently the BDO was the driving force behind youth darts, many counties had volunteers who gave time and money to ensure that young players had a way to learn and progress into the other areas of the game. Senior pros from those areas also often helped out. Wiltshires youth was a fine example of this with Steph Venn, Mark Thompson, Dennis Smith, and others, encouraging and developing a fine batch of players. Occasionally they may have even been visited by Bob Anderson.

The Darts World Years continueshereand over in theTwitterverse.

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1983 - Issue 131: Youth League Progress Blocked At AGM. - Andy Till