New Hartlepool darts academy inundated with demand

St Mary's Academy has seen huge interest attributed to the 'Luke Littler effect'

Transcript

00:00Okay, so I'm here at the Traveller's Rest with Derek Grazier.

00:05Derek, can you just tell me a bit about the academy that you've started?

00:07Yes, St Mary's Dance Academy is open today. It's named after my mum, she passed away just over a year ago.

00:14We started this, we're in affiliation with the JDC.

00:21We're also in affiliation with Wynmore, they've provided all our boards.

00:26The JDC is going to be a fantastic opportunity for the children.

00:31We do a JDC challenge each week.

00:37That gives us what kind of level of play that they're at.

00:43With the training that we give them, the progression each week,

00:48that goes onto the JDC database where they pick up all their figures

00:54and then they get invited to the big stages, and that's every venue.

00:57I think the next closest one to the JDC is Glide,

01:01and then the other way I think it could be Hull or something like that.

01:04But yeah, it's a fantastic turn out today.

01:09I didn't expect as many children turning up.

01:12We maybe thought about 20, 30, but I think there's probably 100 children in there.

01:17This is the Lou Glitter effect that everybody's talking about.

01:21Everybody wants to be the Lou Glitter.

01:24This is the best way to do it, to be honest.

01:28The JDC are a fantastic, fantastic outfit.

01:32You've got the JDC, you've got the ADC which do the boards,

01:37and all the children and adults want to get into the PDC.

01:41That's the main goal in the end, and then big stages.