Keystone
The European Darts Tour is coming to Switzerland for the first time this weekend. In Basel’s St. Jakobshalle, a number of world champions will be taking to the darts.
Every year around Christmas time, the Alexandra Palace in London, better known as the “Ally Pally”, is transformed into a veritable festival hall. While the world’s best darts players determine their champion from mid-December to early January, the mostly costumed audience dances, sings and cheers in the stands. Sport and party are combined.
This weekend, the St. Jakobshalle in Basel will be transformed into Switzerland’s largest pub with 200 tables. The reason: the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is making a stop there from Friday to Sunday. This year, Switzerland is part of the 13-competition European Tour for the first time. Over 20,000 spectators are expected to attend the six sessions.
And Swiss darts fans will be able to enjoy numerous top stars. The biggest attractions will undoubtedly include world champion Luke Humphries and his World Championship final opponent Luke Littler, who at the age of 17 is considered a darts prodigy. The names of Michael Smith, Peter Wright, Gerwyn Price, Rob Cross and Michael van Gerwen are also already on the list of world champions. They will all do Basel the honor.
As the host nation, Switzerland has four starting places. However, the gap to the world’s best is considerable. Stefan Bellmont from Zug is the best Swiss player in the world rankings in 115th place.
SDA