The Ladbrokes World Darts Championship brings together the greatest players of the traditional bar sport. The competitors play in pairs, each having 10 rounds of three darts thrown at the board. For the 2012 championship, played out at Alexandra Palace in London on the evening of January 2, the audience was gathered not in rows, but around tables served, pub-style, with pints of beer. Among the audience were Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall, who came to see the two English finalists, Adrian Lewis and Andy Hamilton, compete. “The Telegraph” reported that, at one point, fun-loving Zara Phillips wore a Kate Middleton mask and posed for a photograph.
If they were disappointed at news that Mike Tindall won't be on the 2012 Six Nations squad, the two were not showing it. Both Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall were photographed laughing, waving banners in support of the coveted top score, 180. (In darts, the board is divided into wedges around a bulls-eye; the bulls-eye is worth 50 points, and the wedges each have a points value. The wedges also have two shorter strips along their lengths. A hit in the lower, broader strip doubles the store for that wedge; however, a hit in the higher, smallest wedge triples it. If a player gets three darts into the triple strip for the 20-point wedge, the score is 180, which creates the same kind of excitement in darts as, say, a well-scored goal in football or a perfect catch in baseball. (Story continues below.)
This is not the first time a British Royal has shown up at the traditionally working-class event, which is organized by the Professional Darts Corporation. Last year, Prince Harry showed up to watch the semi-finals and gave one of the finalists, Adrian Lewis, a big hug. It was his first time making the finals. He took the championship last year and, last night, became World Darts Champion wish a 7-3 win against Hamilton.
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Sources: The Telegraph; Getty Images; The Alexandra Palace
Get British Royal Family news by subscribing to this column or using the RSS feed. Linda Gentile is the British Royal Family Examiner and you can also follow on Twitter and Facebook. And, for yet more British life and culture, check out Linda's British Life column.
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