Recently I received an email from Mr. Neil Monnery hawking his new web site all about talk darts...Sure, there are plenty of these types of sites to go around so I wondered, "What makes this site so special?" I'm always looking for new and interesting dart websites...so I was glad to receive this E-mail from Mr. Neil Monnery. It seems to be too early to tell whether this website is worth its weight in gold and worth visits from other passionate darters such as yourself. Time will tell...

Neil's Blurb: Talk Darts is a web site that is offering a fresh look at the sport. Read all about the background of the sport as well as up to date opinions on the blog. Add your views in the forum and soon you'll be able to create your own mini page for your league where you can upload results, fixtures and photos as well as publish your own videos.

Hi Sherilyn, (E-mail from Mr. Neil Monnery...)

First of all I thank you for the upcoming link and I'll try and answer your questions. The company I work for decided that they wanted to get involved in sports and thus were mulling over ideas. I came in for another job with the company but due to my sporting background I was asked about this project they had on the back burner, I came up with some ideas that I thought would work and I was offered the job of overseeing our sports network. Darts is a personal passion of mine, I used to play regularly down the local with my uni-mates - most guys go get drunk in a trendy bar whereas we went to what was seen as an 'old man's pub' and played darts.

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I didn't write all of the content, we have a large pool of free lancers who work for us but I oversaw and edited everything. I know what you mean about announcers playing an important role in things, I got into baseball thanks to the guy who presents baseball over here - he was so bubbly and interesting - which helps when games start in the early hours! Now seven years on I love the sport and it has a lot to do with a TV presenter selling me it one early October morning (it didn't hurt that the first three games I saw were Games 3, 4 and 5 of the 2001 World Series).

I think this site is different because we want it to be different. We are going to try and move it on in two ways. First of all we are going to setup a database where any league can sign up and post their results quickly and easily. All a secretary or anyone with permission will need to do is upload the results to the site and then the table will update itself automatically. Also we'll be trial-ing a new video section in the near future, which will allow people to either upload videos of their own games or talk about what is going on with the sport. If they want to rant about why James Wade isn't fit to pull Phil Taylor's pint then we want to hear about it. The aim of the whole network is to allow people to talk about their passions, sadly I am hamstrung for time and resources at the moment but we are moving towards it.

I hope that helps and if there are any further enquiries then I'll be glad to help.

Kind Regards,
Neil Monnery
Editor TalkOn.It Network
www.talkdarts.co.uk

Here are some of the highlights of this new web site at: www.talkdarts.co.uk.

* History
* BDO Darts
* PDC Darts
* Equipment
* Rules
* Training & Techniques
* Language
* Sid Waddell
* Stars & Legends
* Getting Started
* Resources
* Why Sign Up?

After perusing this web site I had a couple of thoughts - well maybe more than a couple of thoughts - cause my wheels are always turning.

• The History of the BDO and the PDC is brief, to the point and quite succinct. I'm sure there are many details that are left out but the basics are here and easy to understand for those who want some understanding of the politics of world darts and the BDO and the PDC. This is worth reading, if only for another viewpoint...
• As for the Stars and Legends - so many have been left out. This section needs some more work. I take that back, this section needs a lot of work...
• Neil made a comment that he was aware of darts being big in the UK and Holland...this might piss some people off because darts are big all over this great big world including the US, Australia, Canada and everywhere in between. Sure, we don't yet have the history of England and darts, but we are getting there and all countries should be included, at least in my humble opinion.
• The History section is spotty, brief and leaves much to be desired. I would like to see some input from Patrick Chaplin, AKA Dr. Darts.
• The Rules are good...
• As for Training and Techniques - Entire books have been written on this subject. This is brief, brief, and brief. Hidden are a couple of good tips...
• As for Language or the Glossary of Terms - this is everywhere and no different on this site. If this site wants to succeed, they had best beef it up.
• The Getting Started Section leaves much to be desired...I suppose they had to write something but a bit more meat would be helpful.
• The Resource Section...what a waste.
• Why Sign Up? Ahhhhh. Here is the point of the entire web site...My gut reaction is that "Talk Anything" is a business and someone decided to make some money creating a Talk Dart Web site. Are the blogs, forums, and videos worth it? It's too early to tell. I don't fault anyone for making an honest buck, but c'mon, give us something useful that we want to read and digest and try out. Maybe the site is too new...I don't know, maybe I'll be back to visit in a couple of months.
• With a staff of dart writers - how do they make their money? What is the catch? Is this just another company jumping on the dart bandwagon and is there a buck to be made with this all? Blogs, forums, incomplete information...the jury is still out but I haven't counted them out yet. I'll be back in a few months to see how they are doing.
• And without a doubt, the best part of this web site are the comments by Sid Waddell, dart sport commentator extrodinaire...This is the best part of this web site and worth a visit!

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Click on the banner to check out this site...

And, do me a favor, drop me a note and let me know what you think about this newest web site.

As always, shoot well and see you at the line.