Exclusive
Darts1 interview
with George Silberzahn

And which match or tournament you remember best or liked best?

Winning the International Darts Match tournament - U. S .A. Vs Great Britain. The team from Great Britain consisted of forty County and Country winners. These included the likes of Alan Evans, Willy Etherington, Paul Gosling, Doug Priestner, Cliff Ingliss, and Chic Love. Then there was the ADO vs. BDO match held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach California where I out scored Eric Bristow with just under 50% of scores being 100 or more.

Where there a lot of people playing where you did live?

Our American dart league year end banquets had somewhere around 500 people attend. There were many teams and quite a few leagues but it was all local to towns and cities mostly.

Did women play as well, though it probably was a bar game?

Early on there weren't women in the leagues but now that is changing quite a bit. As well as youth leagues and divisions of leagues popping up.

Do you think darts will manage to become an acknowledged sport or will it always stay "only" a pub game?

Sponsors haven't yet found out how to make money from Darts in America. What little progress has been made has come from the efforts of the PDCA and PDA. There isn't a national organization in the US which has the where with all and demonstrated interest in making darts a "pro" event. The tournaments are all organized and run by local dart leagues with volunteers. It's odd, when the Brits first came here, and we went there, the News Of The World Championship didn't have cash as part of the prize and we thought that was odd what with our preoccupation with money. Now we are the ones on the short end of the cash stick. The culture here is different; much more puritan and religion driven than my perspective of the UK and EU. There is a bias against taverns, pubs and bars that is stronger than elsewhere and that plays a big part in the general public's acceptance of darts since it is mainly practised in those places. A Carrie Nation hang over from out prohibition days I guess. (Carrie Nation was an axe wielding fanatic against demon rum)

Was there any contact with the British dart scene?

The first person to make that contact was Bob McLeod of the United States Darts Association and that was in the late sixties, early seventies. Tom Fleetwood, of California picked things up from there. The Brits started showing up when they found out they could win money over here and we went over there trying for the prestige.

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