Andy hopes his first Sky Sports TV appearance will be a sign of things to come
This weekend sees the start of a very busy darting period for all of us playing in the Professional Darts Corporation.
We travel to Swindon this weekend, firstly for a Players Championship tournament on Saturday, and then the first UK Open Qualifying tournament of the year on the Sunday.
This weekend's competitions are the first of five consecutive weekends away for me, followed by Derby, Germany, Wigan, and at last, a local venue in Crawley. Some good performances will hopefully set me up for the rest of the year.
I made my debut in the PDC Premier League, live on Sky Sports last week… well sort of! I was sitting watching the TV last Thursday evening when I received a text from a mate – Dan Smith, who was at the event "watch the first walk on" it said.
As Terry Jenkins was walking down towards the stage, suddenly, one of the 180 Cards that the crowd write witty comments on was thrust in front of the camera, the words "Andy Relf's Barmy Army" emblazoned across it. Everyone has their 15 minutes of fame; there are my first two seconds!
Mr Taylor took a good win against Simon Whitlock, despite having suffered a similar virus to me earlier in the week, which had put his appearance in doubt for a while.
On the local front, our Kings Head team played at home in the Cracker league on Friday against The Horses. The team played well, securing a good win overall.
My wife Kris, father in law Peter, friend Eric, and I all visited Stamford Bridge on Saturday, where the fans from Cardiff City had turned out in their thousands for an FA Cup day out against Chelsea.
A very random moment was when I was walking through West Brompton Cemetery, completely surrounded by Cardiff fans, when up ahead I noticed a man waddling along like a Penguin.
I laughed to myself, thinking "he walks just like Barrie Bates" currently ranked 36 in the PDC Order of Merit. As I caught him up, it was Barrie, so we exchanged some football banter, and then I overtook him. Ankle injuries cause him to walk very slowly, and I couldn't maintain that pace, so headed off to the match.
I don't think Cardiff were too pleased with the 4 – 1 score line, the need for lots of Police horses cantering up the Kings Road proving this.
One thing I would say, the horses were fitter than the officers on foot, they looked like they'd run a marathon, and still had quarter of a mile to go before reaching the trouble area!
On Wednesday, and it was over to the Royal Albert in Hastings, for our singles league. I was to play Adrian Gray tonight – a top of the table clash! We traded high scores with two 180's apiece over the five legs.
I missed shots at doubles in two legs to take the win, and lost by 3 legs to 2. In my second match of the evening, I was up against Mark Card, and again I struggled to hit crucial doubles.
That said, this time the win went in my favour by 3 legs to 2. I'm sitting in a comfortable second position behind Adi, but need to do some catching up, as his ton plus finishes are giving him bonus points each week.
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Weather for Lewes
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -2 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -0 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North east
