Darts: A few games of arrows...

Darts may not exactly be sport at its finest but one thing's for sure - visiting its biggest event is certainly an experience.

Described by one newspaper pundit as an "assault on the senses", the PDC Skol World Darts Championships has, for the past five years, taken over the aptly-named Circus Tavern in Purfleet for a week.

With good sponsorship and the boys from Sky Sports adding their own inimitable style to proceedings, the sport seems to be heading in the right direction again after disappearing from public view in the early 90s.

The razzmatazz is back - and what better place than the Essex heartlands to stage the battle for the sport's most coveted crown.

The combination of copious amounts of lager, an event that still has real characters and some nice touches thanks mainly to Sky, provides a thoroughly entertaining spectacle.

Some arrows fans spend the whole week at the Tavern - and many, for better or (more often than not) worse, had already sat through four afternoon matches when we rolled in for the last of the second round contests.

Those Essex folk who had witnessed the afternoon's duels had already taken one body blow.

Basildon's Mick Manning missed out on a quarter-final place after defeat at the hands of the Swindon greyhound trainer Dennis Smith.

More punishment was just around the corner when Chelmsford's Rod Harrington, seeded number one for the tournament, never got going in his match against highly-rated outsider Shayne "the bulldog" Burgess.

Burgess is perhaps more renowned for his bizarre throwing style that sees him practically pluck his own eye out with each throw. But it proved effective as he defeated Harrington 3-1 to give the tournament a major shock.

Next up was the evening's least attractive proposition as relative unknowns Gary Mawson and John Ferrell went head-to-head.

Ferrell eventually triumphed, but most spectators seemed more interested in visiting the bar, the in-house chippy or, perish the thought, the little boy's room.

At times the darts seems like a virtual sideshow, especially when there are so many other 'pursuits' to follow.

Drinking takes priority over everything, but with so many of the other players taking their places in the audience autograph hunters have a field day.

Trying to get on television is also popular and our tactic, of taking our huge Billericay Town union jack, worked a treat.

Women seem to have no problem getting noticed by the camera crews, probably because there are so few of them, and anyone wearing an amusing hat was assured of their moment of fame too.

Despite these distractions everyone was back in their seats for the next match, the eagerly-awaited battle between former champion Bob Anderson and the popular Scot Jamie Harvey.

Harvey entered to the sounds of the traditional Scottish ditty "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond" while Anderson was accompanied by the slightly less delicately worded World Cup anthem "Vindaloo".

The lads started singing football songs and the whole place erupted into a cacophony of drunken encouragement - game on.

Harvey claimed the first set but as the noise, the smoke, the pressure and the debauchery grew Anderson hit back.

He went 2-1 up before Harvey, growing increasingly agitated at the partisan crowd, drew level.

Into the final set and with the roof threatening to go off the place Anderson went two legs to one up.

Harvey had a double 16 to draw level but dramatically bottled it leaving Anderson to finish, sending the crowd into a drunken seventh heaven.

The PDC, one of darts' two governing bodies, boasts six former world champions in its midst - and one of the most well known, John Lowe, was wheeled out for the last match against champion Phil Taylor.

With the clock ticking on to 11pm and the bar threatening to close, Lowe was greeted with the song "He's got no hair but we don't care".

Lowe played well and gave the crowd, who hailed his every movement with a rapturous roar, some exciting moments.

However, Taylor was absolutely brilliant, averaging over 100 for each three darts.

He won 3-1 to send the crowd staggering through the streets of south Essex ultimately disappointed.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.