The first stop on the 2021 Darts Australia grand prix circuit is the Victorian Classic held in Morwell, Victoria.
The two-day event hosted by Darts Victoria will take place this weekend 23-24 January at Italian Australian Sporting Club – and Darts Victoria president Andrew Coburn says he’s delighted to get the new season underway – following a Covid interrupted 2020.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to bits to be able to put it on. It’s disappointing the WDF have removed the WDF ranking points, but we’re pleased Darts Australia have kept the DA ranking points on it.
“We’re just looking forward to getting the players to the venue and getting some competition started… it’s been quite a while.”
With travel restrictions still looming across Australia, it’s unknown how many interstate players will be in action. But Coburn hopes that as many Victorians as possible get over to Latrobe Valley.
“As far as I know, there may be a couple of interstate players coming across from South Australia, it’s a bit of an unknown at the moment.
“Because we haven’t had any darts, it’s difficult to gauge who’s coming or not. But there’s been a lot of discussion on Facebook about the competition, there seems to be plenty of interest – we just can’t wait to get it happening.
With ranking points on the line, it’s an exciting opportunity for players to get their seasons off to a hot start, with Darts Australia committed to their points (at the time of writing).
“We had conversations last week with Darts Australia who said they will stand by their ranking points. It’s still classed as a grand prix, with DA GP, DA category 1 points, and Darts Victoria points all up for grabs.
“The ranking system works on the top 6 events for each of the players for the year, going towards their position on the table. So hopefully it’s an opportunity to anyone who wants to come down and get some points.
Coburn praised and thanked the support of the Latrobe City Council and Italian Australian Sporting Club, who have helped enormously in ensuring the competition could go ahead.
“The support we’ve got from the Council and the Italian Australian Sporting Club, both last year and this year has been fantastic.
“They’re happy to run the event with the regulations and polices we have to cover to host it, and the Victorian Sport and Rec have also supported us in this space.
“The venue’s great, there’s plenty of accommodation in the region and we encourage everyone to go through the tourist bureau, who have all the information with anything that’s going on.
“Cass Rendell has been our contact down there who has helped set everything up, the help from Cass has been terrific.
“We’re really looking forward to competition restarting in Victoria, we’ve had a rough nine months with lockdowns, but it’s now a great opportunity for everyone to get out and play the game we all love to play.”
For more information on the 2021 Victorian Classic, follow the link below: